Supervisory Board Approves the Justice Academy Establishment Project

On Monday, 21 November, the Supervisory Board approved the detailed description of the project for establishing the Justice Academy, prepared by the Court Administration, within the framework of the European Union Recovery Fund.

As a result of the project, a unified training centre for the professional development of judges, court employees, prosecutors, assistant prosecutors and investigators (on matters essential to the effective conduct of court proceedings) will be established—the Justice Academy. The Justice Academy will serve as a sustainable and stable foundation for the training system, providing an opportunity to plan, develop and implement training programmes over the long term, including by developing a research focus and creating a basis for the Academy’s competitiveness at European and global level.

The Supervisory Board is a project oversight body established by the Minister of Justice. It consists of representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the Council for the Judiciary and adopts strategic decisions concerning the implementation and progress of the Justice Academy project in line with the priorities of the justice sector.

 To ensure the closer involvement of the Justice Academy’s target groups in defining training needs and preparing content, the project’s cooperation partners are the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior.

It is important for the state to promote the operation of strong, competent and independent courts and law-enforcement institutions. The existing professional development system for judges, court employees, prosecutors, assistant prosecutors and investigators in interdisciplinary matters is fragmented, unsustainable and ineffective. The Justice Academy will be a permanent and unified professional development training institution established as a derived legal person governed by public law. The Academy’s task will be to ensure that justice-system professionals have the opportunity to maintain and improve the specific knowledge and skills related to their direct professional duties. A sustainable, stable and excellence-oriented professional development system for judges, court employees, prosecutors, assistant prosecutors and investigators in interdisciplinary matters essential to the effective administration of justice is an important component of an effective justice system and a state governed by the rule of law.

The Justice Academy will apply a comprehensive approach to developing the professional competencies of the judiciary, developing initial training (including training for candidates for judicial and prosecutorial positions), professional development programmes, and competencies in innovation, research and international cooperation.

To ensure the establishment of the Justice Academy, the following basic activities are planned במסגרת the project:

1.      assessment of the current situation (planned for completion by the end of 2023)

2.      development of training programmes (10 programmes are planned) and their implementation (to be ensured from the second half of 2023 to the first half of 2026, with up to 300 training seminars being held)

3.      establishment of the training environment—adaptation of premises and provision of equipment (by the fourth quarter of 2024)

Additional information:

The establishment of the Justice Academy for improving the qualifications of judges and prosecutors is the priority project of the Ministry of Justice under the European Union Recovery Fund Plan. European Union Recovery Fund financing of EUR 7.5 million is planned for the project for the period through 2026. The Justice Academy is expected to begin operations on 1 January 2025.

As part of the justice audit, the State Audit Office’s 2021 audit entitled “The Effectiveness of Investigating and Adjudicating Criminal Offences in the Economic and Financial Sector” found that, in at least 69% of the cases analysed in the audit, a lack of common understanding was identified (among investigators and prosecutors, among prosecutors, or between the prosecutor and the court), while in at least 37% of cases errors in the application of legal provisions or insufficient understanding of the circumstances to be proven in order to establish the elements of a specific criminal offence were identified. The lack of a common understanding of the application of the provisions of the Criminal Law contributes to the prolongation of criminal proceedings concerning criminal offences in the financial and economic sectors and to situations in which, in similar or comparable circumstances, persons are held criminally liable in one case but not in another.