SUPREME COURT OF MONTENEGRO
Judicial Training Centre
2014 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
JUDICIAL TRAINING CENTRE OF MONTENEGRO
Judicial Training
Centre of Montenegro
Jovana Tomaševića 2, 81000 Podgorica, Montenegro
tel + 382 20 201 890 / 201 891 / 201 893; fax + 382 20 201 892;
; ; www.coscg.org
SUPREME COURT OF MONTENEGRO
Judicial Training Centre
Contents
- 2014 Centre’s Annual Report 4
- Chronological List of Centre’s activities implemented in 2014 14
- Report on Initial Education Programme implementation in 2014 56
SUPREME COURT OF MONTENEGRO
Judicial Training Centre
Introduction
In Montenegro, the judicial training is conducted within the Judicial Training Centre, being the only institution in Montenegro in charge of the training of judges and prosecutors.
Judicial Training Centre (hereinafter referred as: the Centre) was established as a Centre for the training of judges of the Republic of Montenegro, in June 2000, in accordance with the Plan for Judicial Reform Project of the Government of the Republic of Montenegro in 1998. Up to the entry into force of the Law on Judicial Training, the Centre was conducting continuous training programmes primarily designed for judges, expert associates, interns and other court's staff.
Pursuant to the Law on Judiciary Training (which entered into force on 1st January 2007), the Centre was established as an organizational unit of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, responsible for professional capacity building not only of judges, but also of the public prosecutors and candidates for judicial or prosecutorial positions, through a special programmes of continuous and initial training.
During the years of its existence, the Centre was pursuing a specific objective that is reflected in the organized adoption and improvement of theoretical and practical knowledge and skills, using the programmes enabling active engagement of judiciary officials during the training.
In order to strengthen the role of the Centre and its transformation into an independent and self-sustaining institution in the next year, the Centre will shift the focus from the quantity to the quality, efficiency and relevance of the training aimed at enhancing competences and efficiencies of judicial office holders in their autonomous and independent exercise of functions in accordance with the ethical standards of the profession.
In 2014, the Centre completed 90% of planned activities envisaged by the Annual Training Programme.
Maja Milosevic
Executive Director of the Centre
SUPREME COURT OF MONTENEGRO
Judicial Training Centre
2014 Annual Report
Judicial Training Centre of Montenegro
In 2014, the Centre conducted a number of initial and continuous training activities for the Montenegrin judges and prosecutors, envisaged by the 2014 Annual Training Programme, as well as the activities on international and regional level. Activities set forth in the 2014 Annual Training Programme, have been established on the basis of obligations arising from the strategic documents on Montenegro's path towards the European Union, and subsequently the measures of the Action Plans for negotiating Chapters 23 and 24, expressed training needs by the beneficiaries of the Annual training programs, as well as the legislative amendments accompanying the process of judiciary strengthening.
Led by its previous experience and practice, in the course of 2014 the Centre followed a regional approach in the implementation of its activities (organisation of training activities at regional level - northern, southern and central part of Montenegro), thus the trainings were equally accessible to all Montenegrin judges and prosecutors.
In 2014, the Centre carried out its activities in cooperation and with the support of relevant international organizations, some of which have for years supported the Centre in the implementation of continuous training, as well as based on allocated budgetary funds from the budget of the Supreme Court of Montenegro. The funds allocated from the budget of the Supreme Court of Montenegro were used for the implementation of activities set forth in the Initial Training Programme for 2014, as well as certain continuous training activities.
In the course of 2014 (excluding August, in which activities are not carried out due to the annual leave season of the judiciary and collective vacation of the Centre’s staff), the Centre conducted 96 trainings, being implemented as follows:
- 72 continuous training activities designed for the Montenegrin judges and prosecutors (seminars, round tables, workshops, conferences, specialized trainings, e - learning, courses, ensuring the participation of Montenegrin judges and prosecutors to different meetings organised by regional and international institutions and organisations – a detailed list of activities implemented in the course of 2014 has been indicated in the text bellow).
- 22 initial training activities designed for candidates getting ready for a judge's or public prosecution service (entrance examination for the 2014 Initial Training Programme - written and oral part of the examination; certificate awarding ceremony for the 2013 Initial Training Programme participants; 21 two-day training modules for the 2014 Initial Training Programme candidates: criminal law - 10 modules, civil law - 6 modules; commercial law - 1 module; EU law - 2 modules; Ethics and Integrity - 1 module; Judicial Skills - 1 module; and final examination for the 2014 Initial Training Programme candidates - find below separate Report on the Initial Training Programme conducted in 2014);
- Distribution of quarterly Legal Bulletins - Human Rights in Europe to all Montenegrin courts and prosecutors' offices. The Bulletin is a source of abstracts of the latest decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, including comments.
A change that was introduced in 2014 and which will continue in the forthcoming years, related to the modern ways of professional development and its acceptance by the end beneficiaries. In the light of the above, for the first time in this year the holders of judicial offices had the opportunity to acquire and enhance their knowledge through the methodology of distance learning i.e. e-learning courses. In cooperation with the HELP program of the Council of Europe (Human Rights Education for Lawyers), via their platform of distance learning, organized were two courses, one of which has been successfully completed in 2014, while the second course commenced in 2014 and will end in 2015 (see the Chronological list of activities during 2014.)
In addition to the aforementioned judiciary training, the Centre has also conducted 37 activities related to the presentation of the Centre on domestic, international and regional level, including a couple of activities related to staff training at the Centre (find bellow a detailed Chronological list of the implemented activities during 2014.).
As already being mentioned, Continuous Training Programmes were conducted mainly in the cooperation and support of domestic and international organisations that have recognised the Centre as one of its strategic partners, and therefore we would like to thank our partners for their support and successful cooperation in the course of 2014, and they are as follows: U.S. Embassy in Podgorica, i.e. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL)- Office of the Resident Legal Adviser; Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - Mission in Montenegro, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - Office in Montenegro; UNICEF - Office in Montenegro; European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) from Luxembourg; German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ Foundation); HELP programme of the Council of Europe; Regional office of the Council of Europe in Belgrade; European Bank for Reconstruction and Development/EBRD; International Development Law Organization/IDLO from Rome; AIRE Centre from London (Advice on Individual Rights in Europe); British Embassy in Montenegro; GIZ (Regional Fund for South East Europe); Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM); UNODC; Office of Technical Assistance and Information Exchange of the European Commission (TAIEX); Ministry of Justice of Montenegro, Human Resources Management Administration of Montenegro. In 2014, in addition to the aforementioned support, continuous training activities were also carried out within the framework of the following projects: EUROL IPA Project "EU Support to the rule of law"; EU IPA 2010 "Fight against organized crime and corruption - Strengthening the Prosecution Network''; Twinning Light Project of the European Union "Improving the protection of intellectual property rights in Montenegro"; MB IPA 2012 Programme: Cooperation in Criminal Justice: Witness protection in the fight against serious crime and terrorism (WINPRO II Project); Project ''Support to the Probation Service and the system of alternative sanctions in Montenegro''.
As far as the criminal law and procedure is concerned, conducted was a total of 24 continuous training activities, of which a special attention was devoted to the following topics: Financial investigations, money laundering and assets recovery (3 training activities); Cyber crime and electronic evidence (3 training activities); Mutual legal assistance and the fight against transnational organized crime and other forms of cross - border crime (2 training activities); International Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (3 training activities); Trafficking in human beings (2 actions); War crimes; Data protection in the procedure of investigation and prosecution of criminals; Fight against organized crime and corruption: Witness protection; Corruption in public procurement procedure and the judiciary (2 activities); Strengthening joint work of the prosecution and the police; Criminal aspect of intellectual property rights; Probation work and alternative sanctions, Introduction of the Special Public Prosecutor's Office; Mediation in judicial and prosecutorial practices.
As far as the criminal law and procedure is concerned, the total of 193 representatives of the judiciary, of which 96 judiciary representatives and 97 representatives of the Prosecutor's Office took part in the training.
As in previous years, training activities in this area were to the greatest extent carried out with the cooperation and support of international organizations and through specific Projects, of the following organizations: Organization for European Security and Cooperation (OSCE) - Mission in Montenegro; U.S. Embassy in Podgorica, i.e. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL)- Office of the Resident Legal Adviser; Program for United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - Office in Montenegro; British Embassy in Montenegro; EU Project IPA 2010 "The fight against organized crime and corruption - Strengthening the Prosecution Network", implemented by the GIZ consortium- German organization for international cooperation and the Dutch Centre for international legal cooperation/CILC; WINPRO II Project; EU IPA Project ''Support to the European Union Rule of Law/EUROL''; IRZ; UNODC; EU Twinning project ''Improving the protection of intellectual property rights in Montenegro.”
Pursuant to the Law on the treatment of juveniles in criminal proceedings, envisaging specialization of all official actors in the proceedings with juvenile offenders and juveniles as participants in criminal proceedings, i.e. judges, prosecutors, policemen and lawyers, trainings in 2014 were also conducted within the Project ''Justice for Children'' implemented by the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Labour and Social Care in cooperation with the UNICEF Office in Montenegro, funded by the European Union through the European Union Delegation to Montenegro. Thus, within the aforementioned Project, 10 activities were organized related to: Specialized training for judges and prosecutors in the juvenile justice system; Implementation of the Law on the treatment of juveniles in criminal proceedings - problems in practice (two seminars); training for judges and prosecutors in the juvenile justice system on indicators for monitoring the juvenile justice system which is integrated into PRIS (2 sets); Children as victims and witnesses of the crimes - international instruments developed in within the UN framework (2 seminars); intersectoral workshops for prosecutors and police officers in the juvenile justice system (2 sets), as well as the training for trainers on the Law on the treatment of minors in criminal proceedings. Moreover, in cooperation with the Office for Technical Assistance and Information Exchange of the European Commission (TAIEX), organized was a Regional conference titled ''Strengthening the dialogue and exchange of experiences between judges and prosecutors for juveniles in the Western Balkans and the EU''. In addition to the aforementioned activities, in cooperation with the UNICEF Office in Montenegro, conducted were two activities related to the protection of child victim/witnesses of family violence in court’s proceedings and the civil aspects of child rights.
In the total of 13 trainings covering the juvenile justice system, 87 representatives of the judiciary, of which 51 representatives of the judiciary and 36 representatives of the Prosecutor's Office took part in the training.
As far as the civil, commercial and administrative law area is concerned, continuous trainings were conducted through the cooperation and support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development/EBRD and the International Development Law Organization/IDLO in Rome, UNDP Montenegro, British Embassy in Montenegro, Twinning Project “Enhancing the protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Montenegro”, SAM GIZ, ALA EU Project “Approximation of the legislation with the EU Acquis on Free Movement of Services and Competition Protection” (implemented by the GIZ), UNICEF Office in Montenegro. With the support of the aforementioned partners, conducted were 13 continuous training activities related to the following: International legal assistance in civil matters (3 training activities); Civil Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (3 training activities); Competition policy, abuse of dominant position and restrictive agreements; Registered Partnership; Bankruptcy proceedings; Maritime law; Consumer protection; Utilization of tax measures and government interventions under market conditions; Family Law of Montenegro - application of the legal instate of a temporary representative. In the activities dedicated to civil and commercial area the total of 107 representatives of the judiciary took part in the trainings.
As it was the case in previous years, continuous training in the field of knowledge of the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights was continued in the course of 2014. The total of 9 activities had been carried out, of which two activities related to the training of trainers on ECHR being supported by the HELP Programme of the Council of Europe and the U.S. Embassy in Montenegro, whereas one activity has a regional character, thus the judges through the Centre had the opportunity to exchange experience with their colleagues from the region. Other activities were carried out in cooperation with long term partners, the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM) and AIRE Centre from London, and support was also provided by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, the U.S. Embassy in Podgorica and the British Embassy in Podgorica, as well as through the Regional Project of the Council of Europe “Enhancement of the freedom of expression and information and freedom of the press in Southeast Europe''. The activities were dedicated to the following: Freedom of expression and the right to privacy (2 training activities); the right to liberty and security - standards of the ECHR and Montenegrin legislation and practice, the right to an efficient defence in criminal proceedings; Regional Conference on Article 10 of the ECHR.