The Basic Court in Podgorica has been designated as a pilot court for the regional project "Judicial Reform Program for the Western Balkans"

The Basic Court in Podgorica announced that they have been designated as a pilot court for the regional project "Judicial Reform Program for the Western Balkans".

They recall that in May 2022, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Court Administration signed a five-year grant agreement for Norwegian support for judicial reforms in the Western Balkan countries (Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo).

Along with bilateral projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, the program includes a project for the region. "This project seeks to operationally identify and address the main procedural practices for non-compliance with Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in civil litigation," the court explained.

To this end, the Working Group for the Management of Justice (WGJM) was established, in cooperation with the judicial councils of the region, with judges from each of the judicial bodies in the region together with representatives of the academic community, and it was decided to conduct a regional study that would identify the main procedural obstacles to the violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights in civil proceedings, focusing in particular on the requirement "within a reasonable time" of Article 6.

The study includes empirical research on judicial data from each jurisdiction, both at the national level and manually collected data from 50 randomly selected civil cases resolved in 2023.

"The study will propose practical recommendations to reduce the main obstacles. They will be presented to the judicial councils and, supported by the feedback received, the recommendations will be piloted in selected courts in the region during 2025 until the end of the project in 2027, with subsequent guidelines. The Basic Court in Podgorica has the honor and obligation to pilot the recommendations and guidelines from the regional analysis, in which direction activities have already begun in cooperation with the Judicial Council, the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court, the Bar Association and the Associations of Expert Experts," the statement reads.