Current and past projects

One of the critical elements for the improvement of the judiciaries’ effectiveness is the ability of local governments to train applicant and sitting judges. This training will help raise the level of ethical standards and technical knowledge. A study conducted by the American Bar Association, Europe and Eurasia programme (ABA/CEELI) confirmed the urgent need for reform in judiciaries and judicial training structures of the countries in Eastern Europe and central Asia. To date, the EBRD has conducted a number of technical assistance projects with judicial training components.

Current projects

Kyrgyz Republic Judicial Capacity-Building Project

According to the American Bar Association’s judicial reform index, the Kyrgyz Republic emerged as having one of the weakest judiciary systems in the region. The Kyrgyz Republic ranked towards the bottom in areas such as anti- corruption and efficiency of local courts in commercial law. Taking into account this existing need for judicial restructuring, in December of 2004, EBRD initiated its first, large scale judicial reform programme to improve the capacity of judges in Kyrgyzstan to deal with commercial matters. The first phase of the Kyrgyz project consisted of preparing an action plan for a sustainable programme to enhance judicial capacity in the area of commercial law. This included conducting a detailed survey of law firms, businesses, government officials and judges in order to develop a workable framework for the training programme. The implementation stage of the project consists of five components. First, it has provided consultancy to the Judicial Training Centre with the aim of strengthening its structure, financial autonomy, and enhancing its judicial training programmes. The reform project also consists of implementing a detailed training programme for existing judges and an internship program hosted overseas for selected judges with high leadership potential. The final stages of the project include establishing a law library and preparing a commercial law handbook for judges. The official launch took place in March 2006. The first module was dedicated to insolvency law and consisted of a three day training session for 90 judges who came from various courts in the country. Thereafter a series of other seminars have been conducted on various topics of commercial and financial law, with total attendance of up to 300 judges for some of the seminars. This initiative, supported by the government of Japan, the Government of Switzerland, and the the EBRD Early Transition Countries Fund (Canada, Finland, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taipei China and UK), is developed in collaboration with the International Development Law Organization (IDLO).

Future judicial capacity building activities by EBRD could include replicating the Kyrgyz project in other transition countries. Preparatory work has been undertaken in Georgia. However, for a successful programme, it is necessary that local authorities are committed to implementing reforms and are ready to listen to advice from international organisations such as the EBRD. Furthermore, coordination with other organisations is necessary to ensure that there is no overlap between assistance programmes. Finally, donor funding must be available to finance assistance.

Past projects

Secured transactions training for Slovak judges

Since 2000, the EBRD has provided technical assistance to Slovak government to prepare the new transactions legislation and to create a computerised registry for collateral. In collaboration with ABA/CEELI, the bank supported a series of seminars for local commercial judges to promote understanding of the new concepts and proper application of the law. About 70 judges participated in the programme, which included presentations from local and international experts who were involved in drafting the law.

Training Polish judges on the new insolvency law

EBRD also helped to facilitate the implementation of the new Polish insolvency law through training and education programmes. During 2003, a total of 350 judges were trained by commercial lawyers and academics who had worked on the legal reform.