Presentation to the 11 Conference of the International Association for Court Administration (IACA, The Hague, The Netherlands, May 18-20 2016. The role of the judicial secretary in Latin American judicial systems. Judicial reform trends and new developments towards the design of court administration based court and judicial offices models.
The Judicial Secretary Profession in Latin America. Towards Court Administration
1.
2. Latin America
Problems in the judiciary
The judicial secretary origin and evolution
Judicial reform trends
The judiciary as a system
The path towards court administration
Perspectives
3. Common cultural and historical heritage
Spanish and Portuguese monarchies
Vertical conception of power
Political system
Three tiers of public power
Understanding of the separation of powers
Similar institutions and political dynamics
Governance
Increasing institutional stability
Different levels of judicial independence
Judicial career
4. Bureaucratic and cumbersome proceedings
Outdated (often artisanal) working methods
Poor personnel policy and absence of incentive schemes
Lack of a training policy
Absence of new court models
Inadequate infrastructure
Poor processing and use of statistical information
The role of lawyers is often distorting
Theoretical and abstract legal education
Confusion between judicial and administrative activities
5. Judicial Office (Italy): distinction between
Judicial activity, in charge of the judge
Administrative activity that supports the former, in
charge of the secretary, “administration of the
administration of justice”(Constitutional Tribunal of
Spain, 56/90 judgement)
Secretariat
Physical space in which the materializing work of
judicial activity is performed under the direction of the
secretary
Courts, prosecutors and public defenders offices
6. Spain
They were lawyers / public notaries
They collected fees for their activity
Dependent on the Ministry of Justice
Germany
Rechstpfleger
Latin America
Inherited position from the Spanish judicial organization
7. Appointed after a selection process
Activities during judicial proceedings
Legal certification of acts and documents – “public faith”
Legal control of judges acts and rulings
Issuance of interlocutory decisions endorsed by the judge
Own Statute
Appointment of reputable jurists
Possible appointment to judgeship after 10 years of service
Dependent on the Ministry of Justice / Claim of transfer
by the General Council of the Judicial Power (White Book
“Libro Blanco”)
Ongoing debate about its role
8. Typical judicial unit
Court, prosecutors and public defenders offices
Different number of secretariats depending on
Jurisdiction
Workload
Deficit in the number of judges
Distance between regulations and practice
9. “Imported” from Spain, but with institutional
differences
High technical qualification
Functions
Legal Statute
Control of judicial acts
Validity of documents
Legal certification of acts and documents – “public faith”
Legal control of judicial acts and rulings
Issuance of preparatory measures
Administrative activities
Procedural control of legality and veracity
Real practice
Delegate judge
Responsible of the secretariat functioning
Strong delegation by the judge
10. Dissemination
Dialogue and consensus building
Operation manuals designing
Pilot experiences
Continuous training of actors
Training of trainers
Adjustment and multiplication of best practices
Improvements based on existing court models
Gradual designing of new court models
Tension: Judges cultural reluctance to court administrators
TODAY
11. Design of new court models
based on the separation between
judicial and administrative activity
13. Access to Justice: Diversity of pathways
Training: Continuing education
Management: Organization of the work, case
management, leadership, teamwork and use of ICT
Administration: General operation of the system,
judiciary, optimal use of resources, governance and
strategic planning
Infrastructure: Physical environment, material and
technological inputs
Regulations: Rules of organization and operation
Consensus Building: Awareness raising, dissemination
and dialogue
Cooperation: Constant interaction
THE JUDICIARY AS A SYSTEM
14. Access to Justice: Diversity of pathways
Training: Continuing education
Management Organization of the work, case
management, leadership, teamwork and use of ICT
Administration: General operation of the system,
judiciary, optimal use of resources, governance and
strategic planning
Infrastructure: Physical environment, material and
technological inputs
Regulations: Rules of organization and operation
Consensus Building: Awareness raising, dissemination
and dialogue
Cooperation: Constant interaction
AND
The Judge in the Traditional Model
THE JUDICIARY AS A SYSTEM
15. Access to Justice: Diversity of pathways
Training: Continuing education
Management Organization of the work, case
management, leadership, teamwork and use of ICT
Administration: General operation of the system,
judiciary, optimal use of resources, governance and
strategic planning
Infrastructure: Physical environment, material and
technological inputs
Regulations: Rules of organization and operation
Consensus Building: Awareness raising, dissemination
and dialogue
Cooperation: Constant interaction
AND
The Court Administrator
THE JUDICIARY AS A SYSTEM
16. New Criminal Procedure
Separation between judicial and administrative activities
New courts, public prosecutors office and defenders
Professionalized administrative support
Transparency
Coordination and institutional commitment
Permanent monitoring
Periodic evaluation
17. Mega Offices
Unification or merger of judicial offices devoted to the
same matters
Division of other offices aimed to specialization
Unification of proceedings and concentration of cases of
the same matter
Increased ways of access to judicial information
Procedural judge
Administrator of the office
Common offices
Administration of the circuit
Notifications
Reception of documents
Record keeping
Internal mail
18. Associated Judicial Management Model, Mendoza
It has been implemented with the goals of:
Freeing the judges of administrativecompliance and
functional tasks
Optimizing judicial performance and accelerating the
processing time and disposition of cases
The Court Administrator position was created under
the dependence of the state Supreme Court
It coordinates the processing of cases of four former
civil, commercial and mining courts (plus 2 judges
appointed afterwards)
19. Public Prosecutor´s Office, City of Buenos Aires
New Design
1. Early Intervention Unit –UIT-: it takes action at the
beginning of each case, evaluates and decides according
to its characteristics
2. Common Processing Unit -UTC-: it acts in coordination
with UIT and prosecutors teams
It centralizes and streamlines the tasks of research
support
It is in charge of a Prosecutors office administrator
3. Prosecutors Teams: six prosecutors teams that are
competent on criminal and misdemeanor offenses
They conduct the investigations being freed from
administrative tasks and bureaucratic procedures
20. Integrated Judicial Center, Soyapango
Physical integration of courts in a geographic area
Administrative integration: operation of common
specialized branches responsible for the administrative
and legal work of the courts
Focus on strictly legal-judicial activities, seeking
specialization of civil servants and greater agility,
process quality and resolutions
Administrative-legalwork assigned to specialized offices
Design, development and implementation of a system
for processing information
Staff training
21. Growing importance of management and
court administration
Increasing proactivity of the members of
the judiciary
Towards court administration
Appointment of secretaries
Interdisciplinary approach for the design of new
court models
Consensus building and interaction with
civil society
Public policies for all the judicial system
PERSPECTIVES