Report on the Exchange and Summary
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European Judicial Training Network Exchange Programme for Judicial Authorities REPORT ON THE EXCHANGE AND SUMMARY Instructions: 1. The report must be sent to the EJTN ([email protected]) within one month after the exchange. 2. Please use the template below to write your report (recommended length: 4 pages). 3. Please write in English or French. Should this not be possible, the report can be written in another language but the summary must be in English or French. 4. Please read the guidelines for drafting the report (in Annex). Feel free to add any other relevant information in your report. 5. The summary shall contain a synthesis of the most important information of the report. 6. Please note that NO NAMES, neither yours nor the ones of the persons you met during your exchange, should appear in the report in order to ensure anonymity1. Initials can be used when necessary. Identification of the participant Name: First name: Nationality: polish Country of exchange: Estonia Publication For dissemination purposes and as information for future participants in the Programme please take note that, unless you indicate otherwise, EJTN may publish your report in its website. In this case the report will remain anonymous and your name and surname will not appear. To this aim, please do not mention any names in the reports. Initials can be used instead. Please tick this box if you do not wish for your report to be published For completion by EJTN staff only Publication reference: 1 To that purpose, the first page of this report will be taken out before any possible publication Réseau Européen de Formation Judiciaire/European Judicial Training Network (aisbl) Rue du Luxembourg 16B, B-1000 Bruxelles; Tel: +32 2 280 22 42; Fax: + 32 2 280 22 36; E-mail: [email protected] With the support of the European Union For completion by EJTN staff only Publication reference: Identification of the participant Nationality: polish Functions: judge Length of service: 6,5 years Identification of the exchange Hosting jurisdiction/institution: Supreme Court in Tartu City: Tallinn Country: Estonia Dates of the exchange: 2 to 13 September 2013 Type of exchange: one to one exchange group exchange general exchange specialized exchange (please specify : ) REPORT I. Programme of the exchange The exchange took place from 2 to 13 September 2013 in Tallinn, but one day we were also in Tartu and Johvi. My group consists of six judges: from Italy - civil judge, Germany - administrative judge, Romania - administrative judge, Finland - administrative judge, France - civil judge and one from Poland - criminal judge (me). First day-2 September 2013 At. 9:30 we visited Ministry of Justice in Tallinn. There we had a lecture about court system in Estonia, especially about CIS (Court Information System). This system automatically allocates cases to all judges. There are public e-files. That means that each Estonian citizen via his identity card has a posibility to contact with his case in a court. This identity card is putting to the computer with internet and with the help of two secret codes you can contact with all institutions including courts in Estonia. It is conected with digital signature. With the help of your ID card you can also vote, register your car, pay in e-shops or check your penality. I also got there an information that judges in Estonia have specialisation. It means that judge dealing with a criminal law is specialised for example in robbery cases or judge dealing with a civil law is specialised for example in tax cases. European Judicial Training Network With the support of the European Union Exchange Programme for Judicial Authorities Then, about 11:30 we visited Tallinn Circuit Court and Tallinn Administrative Court. It is in the same building in the center of Tallinn. Our host was the president of the court. He told us about courts and judges in Estonia in general and about his duties. After lunch, at 15:00 we visited Office of Prosecutor General. Each of our group got written information about prosecutors and districts in Estonia. Our host explained us the structure of office of prosecutors in Estonia and obligations of public prosecutors, the ways how to become a prosecutor and disciplinary proceedings. The Prosecutor's office leads the pre-trial proceeding ensuring the legality and effectiveness of it and represents public prosecution in court. Prosecutors decide: whether the police must start criminal proceedings or to initiate these proceedings himself; in what manner and how much evidence must be gathered; whether to allow or apply for a court permission for coercive measures or special investigative means; whether to close a criminal case or send it to the court or in which form the criminal case must be processed in the court. Worth mention is that the author of indictment must attend hearing of his case since district court to Supreme Court. There is 165 active public prosecutors in Estonia. They are working in 4 different districts: Northern District Prosecutor's Office, Southern District Prosecutor's Office, Western District Procecutor's Office and Viru District Prosecutor's Office. Each District is divided into departments. The Prosecutor General directs the activities of the Prosecutor's office at national level. Chief State Prosecutors control the Procecutor's Offices work in the field of criminal procedure by managing the respective departments. State prosecutors deal with cross-border, international and advanced level priority crimes. Distict Prosecutor's offices are administered by a Chief Porsecutor. Departments of the District Prosecutor's Office are managed by Senior Prosecutors. Special prosecutors work in district prosecutor's office and deal in a project based manner with specific crimies. District Prosecutors deal with so called "ordinary crime" in the region. There is also assistant prosecutor who has the same powers as prosecutors, except for the right to participate independently in adversarial procedures. Public prosecutor may terminate criminal proceedings if: circumstances which preclude criminal proceedings become evident, the person who committed the criminal offence has not been ascertained and it is not possible to gather additional evidence, the criminal offence has been committed by a minor (under 14 years old) or by a person between age of 14 and 18 and it is not reasonable to punish him, the guilt is small and the case has no public interest, a punishment is not appropriate as the person is already serving a punishment for something else, the criminal offence is committed by foreign citizens or in foreign states, a person has substantially contributed to the investigetion of a serious crime, reasonalbe proceeding time is exceeded or penal mediation is applicaable. In Estonia as a public prosecutor is working 31 % men and 69 % women. 44,4 % of prosecutors is between 31 - 40 years old, 27,5 % is between 41-50 years. In the evening we had a dinner and before guided tour in the Old City Center in Tallinn. 3 September 2013 at. 9:30 we visited Harju Country Court . We were shown the whole building of court and were informed about the structure of the court. It was a meeting with some civil judges and changing experiance. Then, about 11:30 we visited Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu). We had a trip in the building of Parliament. Our guide told us about the history of the building and it's architecture and also about estonian parliamentary system. We saw the main hall. Then we had a meeting with one member of Parliament and former president of Supreme Court in Tartu. It was really interesting conversation. After lunch, about 15:00 we were also visiting the Office of the Chancellor of Justice. We hadn't possibility to meet him, but we were talking with 2 women working in his office. They told us in detail about this institution and about thier work. We were shown some statistics. We were comparing competences of Chancellor of Justice in Estonia with Ombudsman in other countries. 4 September 2013 At 9:30 we visited the Harju Country Court - Criminal Court. European Judicial Training Network With the support of the European Union Exchange Programme for Judicial Authorities We met there the president of court and my mentor judge. We were also told a little bit about criminal proceedings and about the structure of the court. We met some lawyers who help judges in their work. At 11:30 we visited Estonian Bar Association in Tallinn. We met one member of this association. He presented us a little bit of history, organisation, disciplinary proceedings and some statictics. Bar Association in Tallinn has 869 members. It means that it is 1 lawyer for 1,864 people. At 15:00 we visited Office of the President of Estonia. We had a tour in President's palace. Our guide told us history about the building, it's equipment and about former presidents and present president of Estonia. President of Estonia - Toomas Hendrik Ilves was born in Stockholm and has spent much of his life living and working of five different countries. He is the president since 2006. Before he was member of european parliament, member of parliament of the Republic of Estonia, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chairman in North Atlantic Institute, Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the USA, Canada and Mexico, Head of Estonian Deck in Radio Free Europe in Germany, analyst and researcher for the research unit of Radio Free Europe, lecturer in Estonian Literature and Linguistic Simon Fraser University in Canada, director and Administrator of Art in Vancouver Arts Center in Canada, Assistant Director and English teacher in Open Education Center in the USA and research assistant in Columbia University in the USA.