Findex II - Recommendations of Working Group 2: Definition of the criteria to be met by the bodies responsible for the lists of experts
Recommendations from the Working Groups during the Findex II project are presented in this article. They are based on the talks given at the Consensus Conference.
Organisational functions | Initially, the registering bodies should create their operating Statute, establishing their internal organisation, their composition, the functions of each person or committee, and the decision-making system, among other issues. |
Registration and deregistration of experts | Verify that the applicant being registered meets the pre-established requirements, previously discussed and agreed upon other Working groups. |
Expert support and assistance function | The registering bodies could recognise training courses run by institutions and universities. |
Payment of the expert | The registering body could establish a fair system of payment. In other words, the registering body should ensure that the expert is remunerated in the established terms. |
Composition of the body
Preliminary remarks:
• The suggested staff of the organisation of the registering body is non-exhaustive.
• Not all suggested members need to be appointed. The composition of the body depends on the particularities
of each country (size of the country, population, national unity or regionality…). Particularly, a difference should be made between a body
under a national institutional organisation and a body under a national associative organisation:
• In the case of a body under a state institutional organisation (e.g. Ministry of Justice),
the members of the body will be named by the institution, and will have a specific mandate as indicated by the governing leader.
• In case of a national associative organisation the body is an elective one, as such the members of the body will be
composed by its own members, with a specific mandate according to the candidate program.
• In the interests of transparency, the composition of the registering body must be made known to the public.
• We recommend to respect gender equality among the staff of registering bodies.
Recommendations
Physical members | The main users of the register should be represented in the bodies: |
Institutional members | - Expert organisations. Their function within the body would be to ensure the ethical behaviour of the judicial experts in accordance with the recommendations developed by WP2-WG1. |
Control of the decisions taken by the body
Several means can be used to control the decisions of the body:
• Upstream, it would be preferable for the body to give reasons for the decisions taken.
The reasoning makes the decisions of the registering body more transparent and is in line with the principles of fair trial.
• Downstream, two controls can be envisaged:
• Internal control by the Ministry of Justice or applicable Ministries.
• External control by the state administrative court.
Requirements to be met by the register created by the body
Number of register | It would be preferable for the registrar to develop a single register (and not a set of sectoral registers). The registrar could organise the register according to the nomenclature proposed by WP3. |
Way of using the register | For reasons of simplicity, the register should be accessible online via the registrar’s website. |
Access to the register | For the sake of transparency, the registrar should make its register accessible to all (not just to certain professions). It should also update the information regularly. |
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