Considerations relating to judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters – duties, difficulties, solutions
DEZBATERI
Abstract
The main objective for which the European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters was created, on the basis of the Treaty establishing the European Community, consisted in facilitating the cooperation, in fields regulated/not regulated by the European documents. The functions and duties of the Romanian Judicial Network of cooperation in the civil and commercial matters aim at facilitating this cooperation from the practical point of view. For judges who are members of the Romanian Judicial Network, an important series of duties have been established, concurrently with the obligations of the Ministry of Justice, of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, of the Superior Council of Magistracy, of the courts of appeal, of the courts of law to take the necessary steps so that the contact points for the Romanian Judicial Network in the civil and commercial matter has sufficient financial and logistic means to fulfil its duties. For instance, judges who are members of the Network, who usually carry on the trial activity concurrently are required to coordinate the preparation of documents regarding the situation and evolution, in statistical terms, of the requests for international judicial cooperation and to emphasize the judicial practice existing in these courts. The document exposes the deficiencies of the ECRIS national IT application punctually, with obvious negative effects on the fulfilment of these duties and on the reflection of reality of the activity carried out by the courts of law (activity volume, degree of engagement per judger/panel of judges, promptness, settlement duration etc. ), from the perspective of judicial cooperation in the civil and commercial matters, starting with the insufficiency of the objects existing in the classification of the ECRIS IT application. The issues listed as examples have been continuing for a long period and have been concretely signalled, proposing solutions as well, for adapting the national IT application to the needs and parameters of the cases in the matter of judicial cooperation, by reference to the obligations set forth by the Council Decision 2001/470/EC, amended by Decision no. 568/2009/EC. The difficulties effectively related to the application of those procedures provided for by the European regulations originate as well, in the manner of interpretation/application of the legal rule, in the operational (internal) procedures of the courts of law, in the short deadlines provided for by the Romanian law, which have been at the disposal of the court for carrying out certain procedures, in documents issued by the courts of other Member States, within the dilatory deadlines which they use, in the (im)possibility of accessing the European e-Justice Portal or in those deficiencies in relation to its use. The document contains a summary, as example, of these difficulties, some of them being reflected in the submissions of the Forum of Judges, which took place in Brussels, on 4 February 2020, within the 18th Plenary Meeting of the European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters. The summarized and commented judgments – see Gazette of the Romanian Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters no. 3/2018 –, refer to issues aiming at jurisdiction, recognition of a judgment, enforcement of a judgment, provisional or preservation measures, from the perspective of application of the Lugano Convention.
Keywords: European judicial network, international judicial cooperation, central authority, contact points, duties degree of engagement, continuous vocational training, statistical data, classification of objects, ECRIS related deficiencies, difficulties in applying procedures, jurisdiction, communication, notification, minor hearing, social survey, hearing date, European Judicial Atlas, European e-Justice Portal, Lugano Convention, recognition of a judgment, enforcement of a judgment, provisional or preservation measures
