Evaluation of judicial systems
Since 2004, the CEPEJ has undertaken a regular process of evaluating the judicial systems of the Council of Europe’s member states. Its Working Group on the Evaluation of Judicial Systems (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) is responsible for managing this process.
In accordance with the rigorous and well-established methodology developed by the CEPEJ for the evaluation of judicial systems, data is collected through the CEPEJ’s network of national correspondents and then verified by the CEPEJ Secretariat prior to publication. The national responses also contain descriptions of the judicial systems and explanations that greatly aid in understanding the data provided. Easily accessible to all citizens, public decision-makers, legal practitioners, academics and researchers via CEPEJ-STAT , a comprehensive database of the judicial systems of Council of Europe member states , they therefore serve as a useful supplement to the report, which, for the sake of conciseness and consistency, cannot include all this information.
A major reform of the CEPEJ’s evaluation cycles is currently underway. It aims to provide European public decision-makers with the most recent, reliable and relevant statistical data on judicial systems. From 2026 onwards, the cycles will become annual and will be based on data from the year preceding the publication of the assessment report.
Further assessment exercises, based on the same methodology, are being carried out for the countries of the European Union, Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership.
Working Group on the evaluation of judicial systems (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL)
2026 Cycle (2025 Data)
Last report published on 16/10/24
The annual evaluation report of the working group on evaluation of judicial systems (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) aims to provide policy makers and justice professionals with a practical and detailed tool for a better understanding of the functioning of justice in Europe and beyond, in order to improve its efficiency and quality.
The report consists of three different and complementary parts:
- The first part ‘General Analyses’ presents European trends on important themes for judicial systems: budgets, professionals, access to justice, efficiency and quality, information and communication technologies.
- The second part, ‘Country profiles’, presents the key data and indicators for each country, enabling a country to be placed in the European context by comparing its key data with the European medians. The country sheets also contain a summary analysis of the most remarkable features of each judicial system.
- The third part ‘CEPEJ-STAT’ is the dynamic database containing all the qualitative and quantitative data collected by the CEPEJ since 2010.
Link to the 2024 Evaluation Cycle (2022 Data) - Special file
Link to the Individual country profiles 2024
Link to the 2024 Evaluation scheme
Link to the 2024 Evaluation explanatory note
- Contribution of the Notaries of Europe (CNUE), of the European Expert and Expertise Institute (EEEI), of the International Union of Judicial offiers (UIHJ)
This unique database allows you to find data related to judicial systems of Council of Europe Member states / entities and observers collected by the CEPEJ. These data, as well as the attached comments, are collected by the CEPEJ Secretariat already for many years via the network of National correspondents from Council of Europe member states as well as some observer countries.
The data presented are for the years 2010 to 2022, collected every two years.
CEPEJ Study for the EU justice scoreboard
Since 2012, the European Commission for the efficiency of justice (CEPEJ) carries out, upon the request of the European Commission, an annual study which constitutes one of the core sources of the "EU Justice Scoreboard" published by the European Commission.
This CEPEJ study is aimed at collecting, controlling and analysing data pertaining to the performance of judicial systems within EU member States, based on the methodology developed by the CEPEJ in the frame of the evaluation of judicial systems exercise. Accordingly, the CEPEJ national correspondents of the European Union member States are invited to provide data through a questionnaire extracted from the CEPEJ questionnaire for the evaluation of judicial systems (annual cycle). The CEPEJ working group on the evaluation (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) supervises this activity.
Find CEPEJ Study for the EU Justice Scoreboard here
Towards a better evaluation of the results of judicial reforms in the Western Balkans – “Dashboard Western Balkans“
The overall objective is to reach a better measurement of the results of the judicial reforms conducted by the beneficiaries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosovo*) to allow them to base their future policies and budget allocations on the CEPEJ findings to address outstanding steps needed to complete their reforms and improve the quality, efficiency and/or accountability of their justice system in line with European standards. To this end, the Action will support the annual collection and processing of data on the functioning of the judicial systems of the beneficiaries and provide and implement tailor-made technical expertise and capacity building activities designed from the results of the data collection.
Justice dashboard Eastern Partnership
The Phase II of the Action is implemented in the framework of the Partnership for Good Governance III (2023-2027), a co-operation initiative of the European Union and Council of Europe. The Partnership for Good Governance provides tailor-made support to beneficiary countries to meet their reform agendas and comply with the European standards in the fields of human rights, rule of law and democracy. Phase II will continue to support the EaP countries in achieving an effective, systematic and data-based evaluation of the results of judicial reform efforts through an annual data collection and analysis on the functioning of the judicial systems in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine. Phase I was implemented from January 2021 to July 2025 under a Joint CoE-EU Programme.
Networks of national correspondants
The CEPEJ annual exercise of evaluation of the judicial systems is based on the collection of data from States/entities, ensured by a national correspondent appointed by the State.
The national correspondent is the sole interlocutor of the CEPEJ Secretariat within the framework of the evaluation exercises carried out by the CEPEJ Evaluation Working Group (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) (composition and terms of reference of the GT-EVAL). Accordingly, only one national correspondent is appointed by each State/entity.
The network of all CEPEJ national correspondents is also a source of contacts between the different States/entities participating in the CEPEJ evaluation exercise.
Peer Review on Judical Statistics
The objective of the peer evaluation is to reinforce the credibility of the data collected in the framework of the evaluation exercise aimed at European judicial systems. It also also the opportunity for States in which the visits are conducted, to facilitate exchanges of experiences between the national judicial statistics systems, to share good practices and to identify common indicators.
Evaluation is carried out in 3 volunteer States in the timeframe of a period corresponding to an evaluation exercise.
Video of the President of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL:
Collaborative workspaces:
