ECHR knowledge-sharing with national courts: Legal and technical aspects, International workshop

15 October 2021, Strasbourg

Distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,

Dear colleagues,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the International Workshop. I am glad that to see at least some of you in person in Strasbourg.

The past 18 months have been a challenge for everyone. National judicial systems, and individual judges, are no exception. Being on the frontline to uphold the rule of law, they had at the same time to adapt to the emerging challenges related to the pandemic, in an atmosphere of uncertainty. Moreover, through their decisions they had to also uphold the European Convention on Human Rights.

It has been said and written on many occasions that national judges are the primary enforcers of the Convention. This is, indeed, the essence of the principle of subsidiarity of the European Court of Human Rights. Since this August it has become an integral part of the text of the Convention. At the same time, a question may be asked: are national judges as well equipped as the European Court judges to apply the Convention nationally? Do they have tools and systematised knowledge readily available when they have to weigh in on an argument in a case, which may have an issue related to human rights?

Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of innovations, including a wider use of digital tools. Rapid digitalisation of everyday life and professional spheres, including in the area of serving justice, intensified the modernisation of the judiciaries in many CoE Member States. In this light, the Council of Europe and the European Court are developing quickly their IT strategies to respond to the emerging challenges and needs. Today, in this Workshop we have representatives of more than 10 countries. Your experience in modernising your national justice systems is as valuable for the Council of Europe, as experience of the Organisation may be useful to all of you. The need is clear – to keep up the high standard of work and to remain “friendly” to the end users of justice systems – parties to judicial proceedings.

Modernisation, naturally, has different rhythms in different countries. New solutions, when they appear, are not always designed to reflect or embrace the rapid developments in the case law of the European Court. We do realise that not all cases dealt with by national judges, concern Convention issues. Still, we see that more and more judges across Europe are becoming comfortable with referring to the Convention in their rulings.  How to make these references more accurate and consistent and reflect the Court’s logic at the national level, without increasing a judge’s workload, is one direction of the CoE’s work.

The solution may be to build a high-performance technical environment, in which legal thought and IT technologies advance hand in hand. The use of tailor-made case management IT Tools in the judiciary could be promoted for better results. A special place in these tools should be reserved for the Convention Knowledge. This would be the true embodiment of the subsidiarity principle. The role of the CoE is to support its Member States on this road to modernised, Convention-compliant justice systems. This can be done by employing the methodologies that have proven to be effective for the European Court of Human Rights, and by looking at successful practices across the continent.

For us at the Council of Europe the path is clear. Further modernisation of national judiciaries that would enable them to better apply the Convention is one of the Council of Europe’s priorities. This has been stressed by the Secretary General in her recent interventions at the PACE session and the Ministerial Conference which took place in Hungary last week. Protocol 15 has entered into force in August, and now what used to be a strategic objective for the Convention system, has become an operational objective.

We do understand that any modernisation effort will have to overcome numerous political, legal and technical challenges. Having the right capacity to implement any modernisation programme is often the difference between success and failure.

Therefore, the European Court and the Council of Europe Secretariat are joining efforts to strengthen the subsidiarity and to open the Court’s expertise and knowledge to national judiciaries.

Today’s event marks a new step in the dialogue we hold with national judiciaries. The objective today is not only to present what has been done, but to peer into the future of the co-operation, with some very concrete ideas which will be shared by my colleagues later today. 

You will have an opportunity to hear about the CoE’s and the Court’s digital transformation. More importantly, we look forward to hearing your feedback and about your experience during the discussions which are planned for the afternoon.

Ensuring the overall sustainability and long-term effectiveness of the Convention system is what we always have in mind. Therefore, the modernisation of judicial tools in all our Member states is a shared objective and a win-win goal for all of us.

Thank you.