The European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ) is the principal intergovernmental structure of the Council of Europe with responsibility for the proper functioning of the judiciary; CDCJ members, as representatives of the Ministry of Justice, are particularly well-placed within the Organisation to ensure, at national level, the necessary communication between government and judiciary.

The Group of Specialists on the role of Public Prosecutors outside the Criminal Field (CJ-S-PR) was set up in 2011, under the authority of CDCJ, to prepare a draft recommendation on, in particular, the status, powers and practice of public prosecutors outside the criminal law field, considered in the light of the importance of the protection of human rights, fundamental freedoms, the democratic principle of separation of powers and equality of arms.

The Committee of experts on efficiency of justice (CJ-EJ), set up under the authority of CDCJ, carried out work to increase the efficiency of justice in member states. It used to be active from 1997 (1st meeting, 16-18 June 1997) until the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) was established in 2002 by virtue of Resolution Res(2002)12 adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 18 September 2002.

Following the conclusions of a preparatory meeting organised in The Hague on 13 December 2012 and that of a comparative study on this topic that the European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ) commissioned in 2013, the Committee entrusted a drafting group of its members (CDCJ-GT-RCP) to prepare a legal instrument on parental dispute resolution in the context of the relocation of children, on the basis of the comparative study above-mentioned.

The Committee of Experts on Nationality (CJ-NA), set up under the authority of CDCJ, used to be the Council of Europe intergovernmental committee specialising in matters relating to nationality and responsible for the intergovernmental co-operation in the field of nationality.

The Council of Europe has over the years produced a wealth of legal instruments and texts relating to victims. Two Groups of Specialists worked, in the latest years, in the field of victims. One of them was the Group of Specialists on remedies for crime victims (CJ-S-VICT), which was set up, under the authority of CDCJ, as a direct result of Resolution on “Victims of Crime” adopted by the Ministers of Justice of the Council of Europe at their 27th Conference (Yerevan, Armenia, 12-13 October 2006).