International

International standards

Judicial training is relatively recent phenomenon. the first training schools were created at the end of the 1950s and in the 1960s, in france, the netherlands and morocco in particular. the north african and french-speaking african countries set up their schools in the 1980s and 1990s. the countries of eastern europe started to develop their judicial training in the 1990s and 2000s, after the fall of the berlin wall. although the vast majority of countries now have a school, this has only been the case for the last decade. there are no official texts defining the principles of judicial training, but there are nevertheless a number of standards that serve as references, in particular the iojt's global declaration.

Pre-2016 standards

The two declarations of principles

In 2015, two initiatives emerged from judicial training institutes that aimed to define the principles behind their action. These initiatives would lead to two declarations

  • The European Declaration of Fundamental Judicial Training Principles, dating from June 2016, adopted by the EJTN. This declaration provides a basis and a common framework for the European judicial area and the judicial training institutions.
  • The Declaration of Judicial Training Principles, dating from November 2017, adopted by the International Organisation for Judicial Training (IOJT). This declaration is the fruit of an initiative proposed by the ENM in 2015 at the 7th IOJT conference. It was the first global declaration laying down a set of universal principles of judicial training. It has been approved by 129 member institutes of the IOJT, from 79 countries. This instrument provides international standards for the training of judges and prosecutors, to reinforce their contribution to the rule of law.

   Video: Judicial training, what contribution to the rule of law? (video in French)