by Dan Alexe Justice in Europe remained unaffected by the crisis. In a report published today, the Council of Europe’s European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice, drawing on data from 46 European countries, finds that despite the crisis, the European trend is still upward. In half of the states, justice seems to have been shielded in budgetary terms from the effects of the crisis. The crisis has, however, had a clear impact on the development of the budgets in other states, where human resources are often affected. European states spend on average 60 Euros per capita and per year on the functioning of the judicial system. The Council of Europe found that tax payers are no longer the only ones to finance the system, as court users are often requested to contribute too. Only France and Luxembourg provide access to court free of fees. For the majority of states, this revenue accounts for a significant resource. In some states (such as Austria), indeed, it far exceeds the operating cost of the judicial system as a whole. Such a system is part of the current trend in public management to balance, to a certain extent, the burden of the operating costs of public services between users and tax payers. There is a trend towards outsourcing non-judicial tasks within courts, while e-justice and e-courts are gaining ground. A growing trend can be noted in the use of videoconferencing in European judicial systems, especially in criminal cases. In many European states, these new reforms or projects aim at introducing or extending the use of videoconferencing (Germany, Croatia, Denmark, France, Italy,Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Norway, Romania, Russia, Czech Republic). At the same time, there are fewer courts in Europe: this downward trend in the number of courts seems to be continuing. There is a stabilised but uneven number of judges depending on the country; judges’ salaries are increasing overall, although the crisis has had an impact in some states. The “glass ceiling” remains a reality in the judiciary: a progressive feminisation of the judiciary can be observed but it is not yet sufficient to ensure equal access to the judicial hierarchy. The courts are generally able to cope with the volume of cases: a large majority of the member states are able to manage without increasing their backlogs. On the other hand, functional independence of prosecutors is not a principle shared by all states. The report sees a Europe-wide trend towards privatisation and greater professionalisation in terms of the execution of judgments. The highest number of public prosecutors (20 or more prosecutors per 100.000 inhabitants) can be found in Eastern European states (Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Ukraine), as well as in Iceland. Seven states (UK-England and Wales, Austria, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, and Netherlands) have the lowest number (less than 5 prosecutors per 100.000 inhabitants). In relation to the national average gross salary, the salaries of judges and prosecutors at the end of their career are almost two times higher than at the beginning of the career (4,2 times higher for judges and 3,4 times higher for prosecutors). The difference between start-of-career-and end-of-career pay is the most marked, both for judges and for prosecutors in Romania, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia. It is also significant in common law countries (UK-Northern Ireland, UK-Scotland, UK-England and Wales,Ireland), but only with regard to judges; which can be explained through their specific types of recruitment, among experienced lawyers. Finally, in respect to the distribution of male and female professional judges, it seemed to be is almost equal, in all surveyed countries. The average for all states or entities is 51% for men and 49% for women.17 states or entities (14 in 2010) stay in line with an appropriate male-female parity within a range from 40% to 60%. While 21 states or entities have more than 50% of women among their judges, some countries such as Slovenia, Latvia and Romania have more than 70% women judges. In contrast, 20 states or entities have more than 50% male judges and 6 of them have more than 70% male judges. In this group, the percentage of male/female distribution in small states should be interpreted with care taking into account their low total number of judges, as in Andorra (24), Malta (40) and Monaco (37).
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