Judicial time management
The SATURN Working group is instructed to collect information necessary for the knowledge of judicial timeframes in the member States and detailed enough to enable member states to implement policies aiming to prevent violations of the right for a fair trial within a reasonable time protected by Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Working group is aimed to become progressively a genuine European observatory of judicial timeframes, by analysing the situation of existing timeframes in the member States (timeframes per types of cases, waiting times in the proceedings, etc.), providing them knowledge and analytical tools of judicial timeframes of proceedings. It is also in charge of the promotion and assessment of the Guidelines for judicial time management.
The tasks of the Working group are in particular to collect, process and analyse the relevant information on judicial timeframes in a representative sample of courts in the member States by relying on the network of pilot courts. Thus it must define and improve measuring systems and common indicators on judicial timeframes in all member states and develop appropriate modalities and tools for collecting information through statistical analysis.
By Resolution Nº 1 on a modern, transparent and efficient justice, the Ministers of Justice of the Council of Europe's member States, during their meeting in Istanbul at the occasion of their 30th Conference (24-26 November 2010), "invited the Committee of Ministers to build on the work of the SATURN Working group within CEPEJ, further developing its capacity to acquire better knowledge of the time required for judicial proceedings in the member States, with a view to developing tools to enable the member States to better meet their obligations under Article 6 of the ECHR regarding the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time".
SATURN Working group on judicial time management
- Backlog reduction tool (06/2023)
- Time Management Checklist (06/2023)
- Explanatory Note for the Time Management Checklist (06/2023)
- Concept note on the backlog reduction tool (12/2022)
- SATURN Guidelines for judicial time management (12/2021)
- Handbook on court dashboards (06/2021)
- Implementation guide: Towards European timeframes for judicial proceedings (12/2016)
- Handbook for implementing CEPEJ-SATURN tools (05/2017)
Case weighting in judicial systems - CEPEJ Studies No. 28 (also available in Latvian and in Ukrainian) (07/2020)
- Time requirements arising from Articles 5 and 6 of the Eruopean Convention on Human Rights - Implementation manual for criminal cases (05/2020)
- The time parameter within article 5 ECHR - Towards reasonable timeframes for judicial proceedings -Research on the European Court of Human Rights case-law pertaining to the requirement for reasonable time of proceedings in the ambit of article 5 ECHR (04/2020)
- Reports on the implementation of the CEPEJ guidelines for judicial time management in 7 pilot courts / institutions (Czech Republic, Georgia, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom) (03/ 2011)
- 2009 questionnaire on the evaluation of the CEPEJ guidelines for judicial time management (06/2009)
- Data analysis of the pilot courts replies to the questionnaire prepared by the Steering Group of the SATURN Centre (12/2008)
- Moving towards an Observatory of Judicial Timeframes in Europe (10/2008)
- Questionnaire on common case categories, judicial timeframes and delays (11/2007)
- Explanatory note to the questionnaire on common case categories, judicial timeframes and delays (11/2007)
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