Active participation in European Union projects:

e-Justice Portal

Participation in the online Justice working group, "Working party e-Justice - e-Law", which analyses and updates the content of the Portal in each one of the projects which comprise the e-Justice Action Plan.

European Case law identifier (ECLI)

The 2010-2014 European Action Plan on e-Justice saw the development of the ECLI project, with the objective of obtaining a unique case law identifier common to all Member States, which would allow the search in different case-law repositories both at national and European level.

The purpose of the ECLI project is the continued development of new functions with the following aims:

• Simplifying search in Community Case Law
• Improving search in case law on multiple repositories, thanks to a unique identifier (ECLI).
• Improving legal investigation via the use of linked information.
• Improving the application of Community Law by the national judge.
• Reinforcing mutual understanding between legal cultures of the EU Member States.
• Permitting the quantitative analysis of case law data.
• Disposing of an ECLI regulation, which endures with the passing of time.
• Reinforcing the Rule of Law, with the permitting of a greater transparency of Justice, via the improvement of accessibility to case law.

Legivoc

Consists in the creation of a database of legal terms, which allows Member States to understand the different legal systems, making them interoperable and, as a result, favouring the exchange of legal and judicial information, and judicial cooperation.

The CENDOJ forms part of this group and has provided its Documentary Collection Thesaurus, with over 22,000 entries, to the EU as a working foundation, which will enable the definitive creation of the European semantic web, guaranteeing an accurate translation of legal concepts.

Consultation on international legal cooperation

The CENDOJ participates in European twinning projects. They entail collaboration between two or more European institutions from different countries on a previously established matter.

The following have participated in this field:

• Morocco (2000) Modernisation des juridictions au Maroc.
• Poland (2002-2003) Twinning Project 01/IB/JH-02, Strengthening the Capacity of the Services of the Administration of Justice in Poland to combat Crime and Carry Out International Legal Co-Operation.
• Portugal (2002) configuration and development of the following computer applications: “Compendiun” and Solon Project.
• Croatia (2005) P TWINNING CONTRACT CARDS: CR 02/03.05.01 Comp: 2 Development of appropriate administrative and organisational structures “capacity building for the office for the prevention of corruption and organised crime”.
• Bulgaria (2005-2008) Project: Phare twinning programme BG-03-IB-JH-01-B (Criminal proceedings reform) in support of the Bulgarian Legal System. The activity consisted in creating a specific website for the project within the website of the Ministry of Justice in Bulgaria.
• Albania (2010-2011) Project Euralius, for the consolidation of the legal system in Albania. The technical requirements for the creation of a case law database were worked on.
• Croatia (2015-2016) “Twinning Project  Improvement of the Enforcement system in the Republic of Croatia”, which developed the website of for civil enforcement, within the existing Ministry of Justice website.
• Turkey (2016) “Twinning Project Strengthening the Legal Aid service in Turkey” design of the content for the website and the information campaign on the free legal aid system.

Furthermore, within the legal development cooperation framework, mention should be made of the following:

• Dominican Republic
• Bolivia (2013), participated, within the project financed by AECI, in the creation of the strategic lines of the case law tree in the country’s Supreme Court.
• Mozambique (2007) - creation of a Documentation centre.  

These projects imply an improvement both for the country and for our Centre in both digital and foreign language competency. They also provide other inherent benefits such as the development of more general competencies related to collaborative work, negotiation, inter-cultural knowledge, etc.

Technical and legal support for the creation of Judicial Documentation Centres

THE IBERO-AMERICAN NETWORK OF JUDICIAL DOCUMENTATION CENTRES

The Ibero-American Network of Judicial Information and Documentation Centres is a community for cooperation, coordination and mutual support amongst Judicial Information and Documentation Centres and Units in Latin America and Spain. The General Council of the Judiciary made the first steps with the creation of a specific website for IberIUS to serve as support during the Network's early development, which was gradually developed at the different Seminars and Conferences of the Supreme Courts and National Councils and which has been maintained and administered from the outset by the Judicial Documentation Centre. This website offers general information about the Network and gradually provides all available information about the different seminars and Ibero-American summits.

Ibero-American Judicial Summit

The Judicial Documentation Centre participates in two of the projects developed within the framework of the Summit:

• Coordinators of the Ibero-American Legal Knowledge Portal,
  whose objective is to be an instrument that facilitates judicial assistance in the Ibero-American sphere based on a network of legal operators that perform tasks to actively intermediate, streamline, strengthen, simplify and facilitate the traditional mechanisms of international judicial cooperation, created without detriment to the sphere of competence of the Legislative and Executive Powers of the States. At present Spain jointly coordinates the project with Mexico.
• Coordinators of the New Technologies group.
  The objective is to identify the critical obstacles of oral litigation and the technological tools that make it possible to resolve or mitigate the possible impact of this unfavourable situation within the judicial process. At present Spain jointly coordinates the project with Ecuador.

Participation in conferences and working groups

The CENDOJ, as the technical body of the CGPJ and directed, amongst other functions, at managing legal knowledge for the benefit of the Judiciary, participates in the conferences and working groups held by members of the Judiciary, in order to draw up legal information products based on the new technologies and their later inclusion on the poder judicial website. Thus the Vademecum (Prontuario) is created, with the Spanish Judicial Network (REJUE) or the base of prejudicial questions, with the Network of Experts on EU Law (REDUE).ç

Furthermore, there is collaboration on the creation of tools in the international sphere, aimed mainly at judges and magistrates.