The Prize “Crystal Scales of Justice” has been awarded, Tuesday 25 October 2005, to a Finnish initiative on quality project in the courts in the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of Rovaniemi.

The Prize has been awarded by Ms Maud de Boer Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and Mr Francisco Fonseca Morillo, Director at the European Commission for freedom, security and justice at the Conférence « Justice for ALL» which was held in Edinburgh, Scotland from 24 to 26 October.

The Council of Europe and the European Commission organised, for the first time, in the framework of the 3^rd issue of the European Day of Civil Justice a competition to discover and highlight innovative and efficient practices used in European courts for court organisation or for the conduct of civil proceedings (for instance initiatives devised by a court president, a registry, a Bar) and deserving to be drawn to the attention of policy-makers and the judicial community so as to improve the operation of the public system of civil justice..

22 entries were accepted from courts or other bodies of judicial professionals in the member states of the European Union or the Council of Europe according to the modalities of the attached rules for the prize. These 22 entries , whose summaries have been collected in a publication, constituing as many exemples of good practices in courts organisation or for the implementation of civil judicial procedures.

The Jury met in Brussels on 4 October 2005 and decided to honour 7 projects, among which 3 have been shortlisted to compete for the Crystal Scales of Justice and invited to submit their projects in Edinburgh.

Finally it was the project submitted by Courts in the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of Rovaniemi in Finland which won the award.

The ''Crystal Scales of Justice'' award: the 7 honoured projects in 2005 (in bold are the 3 projects shortlisted)

The representatives of the three projects shortlisted were invited to participate in the Conference “Justice for ALL” in Edinburgh, during which the prize was awarded to the Courts in the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of Rovaniemi (Finland), for the project Quality Project in the Courts in the Jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of Rovaniemi.

• The Reform of Law Enforcement (“FEX-project”) - Ministry of Justice (Austria)
• Amélioration du Déroulement des Expertises en matière Civile, en particulier en droit de la construction - Tribunal de Première Instance de Liège (Belgium)
• Médiation Judiciaire - Hof van beroep te Antwerpen (Belgium)
• Quality Project in the Courts in the Jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of Rovaniemi - Courts in the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of Rovaniemi (Finland)
• Legal Aid Scheme of Finland - Department of Judicial Administration, Ministry of Justice (Finland)
• La pratique de la médiation dans le contentieux familial au Tribunal de Grande Instance de Tarascon (13) : un changement de culture judiciaire - Tribunal de Grande Instance de Tarascon (France)
• Court Annexed Mediation and Accelerated Civil Litigation Program at Ljubljana District Court - Supreme Court (Slovenia)

Prix européen de pratiques innovantes concourant à la qualité de la justice civile

"Project titles are available in the language in which the applications have been submitted to the CEPEJ”

Candidatures: