SYMPOSIUM ON “TRAINING OF MEMBERS OF THE JUDICIARY FOR EFFICIENT AND
EFFECTIVE JUSTICE”
OCTOBER 23-25, 2013 - ANTALYA, TURKEY
FINAL DECLARATION
I)
BASIC TRAINING
1)
It should be ensured that individuals at universities be provided sufficient education and
training that aim at the acquisition of fundamental legal principles and culture including
the notion of democracy, fundamental rights and freedom.
In order to deliver more efficient and effective education in law faculties, it is necessary
to increase the number of the lecturers per student, to determine the quota for students in
accordance to capacity, and to provide faculties with sufficient infrastructure and
technical equipment.
Along with the classical methods and resources in legal education, the use of
technological materials and critical approach and analytical problem-solving methods
should be encouraged. Instead of the approach aiming to teach “everything”, the
education philosophy should aim to improve analytical thinking and problem-solving
skills in consideration with the preferences of students.
There should be an equilibrium established between the theoretical and practical
training; while the fundamental legal principles and theories are taught, the practical
works should also be prioritized to help students acquire the fundamental legal skills,
and, to this end, the methods to help improving problem solving skills should be heavily
involved, such as court-fiction, clinical law and short internship period, &c.
The relations and bilateral transition and communication between law faculties and
judicial institutions should be improved, and within this scope, judges and prosecutors
should be given the possibility to support practical legal education without intervening
their judicial duties, and similarly the lecturers and professors of law should be given
the possibility to work at judicial institutions under certain conditions.
In consideration of the autonomy of universities in planning their curricula, universities
should be encouraged to include classes on specialization in addition to general basic
classes, and the curricula should also include fundamental legal sciences such as
methodology of law, sociology of law and philosophy of law.
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
In order to improve the communication, and to increase the exchange of knowledge and
experience between law faculties and judicial bodies, these institutions should be
encouraged to organize mutual activities such as legal workshops and legal training.
The programs for training instructors for law faculties should be given priority. To this
end, universities should be given the opportunity to establish mutual doctorate programs
and doctorate programs on specific subjects, and also the programs for training
instructors overseas should be encouraged.
II.
PRE-SERVICE TRAINING
9)
In the selection of candidate judges and prosecutors, apart from general legal
knowledge, such personality traits as an ability of judgment, a balanced character, a
wide perspective, and intellectual knowledge should be required. Psychological testing
should be integrated into the selection process. Both oral and written skills of the
candidates should be measured.
An efficient coordination among the institutions in charge of pre-service training should
be ensured. In this context, communication and cooperation among the actors, such as
high councils for the judiciary, judicial training institutions, courts, public prosecutors’
offices and universities should be maximized.
Rather than general theoretical classes, pre-service training curriculum should focus on
practice-oriented programs. Within this context, it should include training methods,
materials that aim to improve candidates’ individual skills, as well as their analytical
thinking and problem solving abilities.
It should be ensured that a training curriculum and philosophy which takes into
consideration the universal principles of international law and basic human rights law
are applied in each and every level of pre-service training.
Durations of pre-service training should be planned in such a way as to ensure that
candidates step into the profession with full competence. Works concerning the gradual
extension of duration of pre-service training should be carried out.
Upon recruitment to all legal professions (judge, prosecutor, lawyer, and notary &c.), a
basic legal exam to serve as a common minimum standard should be carried out, and a
second exam depending on the needs of each profession should also be enabled.
The rules regarding the transition from lawyer to judge and prosecutor profession
should no longer be an exceptional and privileged practice but a general implementation
which required a certain Professional experience. Within this regard, there should be an
alignment in transition from lawyer to judge and prosecutor profession and the quality
differences between various sources should be minimized.
It should be encouraged that the persons who will be delegated as members of the
faculty during the traineeship receive the necessary education formation and it should be
ensured that they go through orientation and diversification and strengthening of
members of faculty pool should be promoted.
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
16)
III. IN-SERVICE TRAINING
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
In the process of the need analysis and in-service training plans, not only the judicial
service providers but also the parties that benefit from judicial services should be
consulted, and the active participation of the concerned institutions, judges and
prosecutors, universities, training experts and attorneys should be enabled. In the
processes mentioned, the principles of human rights law, which are shaped through the
international conventions and through the works and decisions of international
institutions and organizations such as European Court of Human Rights, should be
taken into consideration.
In order to ensure the well-functioning of the judicial duties and services without delays
and shortcomings, in-service training plans, the dates and the participants should be
determined in advance within a reasonable time. In selection of the participants,
individual demands, objective needs, the needs of judicial services, cost-effective use of
resources and the principles of justice should be followed.
Considering the contributions to the legal trainings by the active participation of judges
and prosecutors without interrupting their judicial duties, the legal obstacles, if any,
concerning this matter should be abolished.
Despite the opinions claiming that perception of in-service training as an obligation
would undermine the independence of the judiciary, it should be considered that being
subjected to in-service training will not undermine, on the contrary, the competence in
required professional knowledge would underpin the independence of the judiciary.
It should be ensured that High Courts and their members should actively participate in
in-service training, and the members of High Courts should be provided the chance to
participate not only as trainers but also as beneficiaries in in-service training.
Considering the aspects such as equal opportunities, budget limitations and workload,
members of the judiciary should be given the opportunity to conduct academic studies
at both national and international level based on specific planning. These studies should
be taken into account in the promotion, appointment, transfer and professional career of
judges and prosecutors.
In-service training materials should be published as hard and digital copy and they
should be available online for the members of the judiciary. Within this scope,
regulations should be in effect to encourage more comprehensive and more efficient use
of the distant learning methods in in-service training. The experience and the works of
the international institutions should be benefited on this matter (e.g. Council of Europe’s
HELP Project).
Regulations should be envisioned to establish what methods will be used in and by what
bodies the assessment & evaluation of the efficiency & the quality of the in-service
trainings, and supervision will be conducted. Therefore, it is vital to establish a
department in charge of planning, programming, implementation, follow-up, feedback
and updating the educational cycle as a whole.
The in-service trainings that judges and prosecutors received should be taken into
account not only in promotions and also in authorization and secondment. Therefore,
there should be established a system to track, to record and to output the data
concerning the training received.