On November 16, 2021, the Inaugural online conference of the European Cyberjustice Network, functioning before the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice of the Council of Europe (CEPEJ) to strengthen cooperation in the digital transformation of the legal systems of the Council of Europe member states took place.
The Network was set up to exchange information on best practices and challenges facing Council of Europe member states. These are issues that fall under the mandate of the CEPEJ Working Group on Cyber Justice and Artificial Intelligence, namely the development of specific tools for the application of the latest information technologies in the judiciary.
The Network consists of contact points from the competent authorities of the member states of the Council of Europe, whose specialization covers various areas of knowledge (or research) in the digitalization sphere, including IT experts, judges, court staff, lawyers, enforcement officers, scholars, etc.
The participants of the Network will be able to initiate the new tools in the field of digitalization of justice, which will be developed by the mentioned Working Group, participate in CEPEJ research on relevant topics, disseminate information about such tools in their countries for testing or their full implementation at the national level.
The first meeting of the Network participants was introductory. They virtually met with the CEPEJ leadership and members of the relevant Working Group, got acquainted with the working methods of the Network and the Guidelines on videoconferencing in judicial proceedings, adopted at the CEPEJ plenary session in June this year.
The conference was attended by about 100 experts nominated by the Council of Europe member states, European and global professional associations, research and academic institutions in the field of digital transformation.
On behalf of Ukraine, the event was attended by Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine Oleksandr Bystrushkin, Head of the Informatization and Judicial Statistics Department of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine Oleksandr Chykin, and CEPEJ member Sergii Koziakov.
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The European Commission on the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) was established on 18 September 2002 in accordance with Resolution (2002) 12 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The CEPEJ is made up of 47 member states of the Council of Europe. The purpose of CEPEJ’s work is to increase the efficiency of justice bodies in the context of implementing CoE standards and recommendations. It is the initiator of numerous studies in this area, in particular, of a comparative nature. It prepares draft recommendations aimed at identifying opportunities and promoting the use of a variety of tools to combine the two key principles of justice: equity and efficiency.