Part 2: Standards to be met by bodies in charge of registration and to be followed in the process and procedures of registration
To ensure high common criteria of judicial experts in the European Union, we recommend the following requirements for the organisation of the registration bodies and the registration process:
1. Recommendations concerning the Registration Bodies: General and Functions
To ensure harmonization and thus mutual recognition of judicial experts, every member state shall have a body responsible for the registration of judicial experts.
In order to satisfy the imperatives of transparency and good administration of justice as well as to ensure the public acceptance of the bodies and their decisions, the organisation of the bodies, the rules and processes they follow, as well as the decisions they take shall be transparent to the judicial experts, courts and prosecutors, and the public.
The primary functions of registration bodies are creating and managing registers of judicial experts. The registration bodies may also contribute to the education of (future) judicial experts or advise on topics like the framework of fees for judicial experts.
The registration body
| 1.1. shall draw up and document rules and regulations concerning its structure, policies and responsibilities and publish them, as well as keep them publicly available and easily accessible, |
| 1.2. shall define the policies and procedures for the registration as well as for re- registration or deregistration through withdrawal, not fulfilling the requirements or disciplinary measures when needed. These policies and procedures shall be published as well as kept publicly available and easily accessible. |
| 1.3. shall receive applications from any person interested in being registered as a judicial expert and ensure that the registration process is fair and impartial among all applicants, |
| 1.4. shall examine and approve the technical, professional, procedural and ethical competence of an applicant16, |
| 1.5. shall be responsible for re-registration and verify periodically17 that the registered experts still fulfil the registration requirements18, |
| 1.6. shall maintain confidentiality and comply with the laws and regulations governing the process of personal data, including, but not limited to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (the “GDPR”), |
| 1.7. shall set up a publicly accessible register of judicial experts with their specific competences based on the nomenclature, |
| 1.8. shall ensure that the areas of expertise included in the nomenclature are reviewed, updated and validated on an ongoing, systematic basis. |
| 1.9. should support continuous professional development and exchange for judicial experts and between judicial experts and other stakeholders19. |
| 1.10. can contribute in discussions20 concerning the advancement and promotion of the interests of judicial experts |
2. Recommendations for the Assessment Process and Procedures
| 2.1. The assessment process shall include the stakeholders of trials such as judges, prosecutors, experts, lawyers with competence relevant to performing the assessment. |
| 2.2. The assessment shall be planned and structured in a way that ensures that the criteria of judicial experts are objectively verified and documented in order to ascertain the competence of an applicant |
| 2.3. The registration body shall ensure that applicants are provided with documentation of the process and the motivations, in order to evaluate the decisions of the body. The decisions can be subject to reconsideration and are subject to appeal |
| 2.4. The registration shall be subject to review by the registration body within a period of no longer than five years. The registration shall remain in force unless this review leads to a decision of deregistration |
3. Recommendations for Publication
| 3.1. Registers of judicial experts shall be made public and easily accessible. |
| 3.2. Published data shall include: surname, first name, professional address, contact information, areas of expertise (according to the nomenclature) and working languages. They can include a unique registration number if issued by the registration body, academic title(s), and a link to the expert’s website. |
| 3.3. Updates of the published data, including registrations and deregistrations, shall be done regularly, at least monthly. |
16 This can be done following the criteria for the evaluation of judicial experts according to the recommendations made by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ, Guidelines on the Role of court-appointed experts in Judicial proceedings of Council of Europe’s Member States, CEPEJ(2014)14, approved on the 12th December 2014 (https://experts-institute.eu/europe-de-la-
justice/cooperation-entre-cepej-leeei/).
17 Five years at the latest.
18 See part 1.
19 This can be implemented by offering training courses, recognizing courses run by universities and other appropriate institutions and by facilitating or promoting meetings among judicial experts or between judicial experts and judges, prosecutors, lawyers, court clerks etc.
20 E.g. concerning remuneration issues and payment systems that are established in some member states
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