2013 Meetings of the Central Council, of the Regional Groups and of the four Study Commissions of the IAJ

From 5 to 10 October 2013 the Ukrainian Association of Judges hosted the 56° IAJ annual meeting.

The meeting was successfully organised thanks to the efforts and kind hospitality of the Ukrainian Association.

The Four Study Commissions proposed the following issues for the next years:

1SC: ““Media, including social media, in the courtroom and their effects on judicial independence and the proper administration of justice””;

2 SC.: “Challenges for civil environmental law”;

3 SC: “Environmental pollution: is criminal law a good instrument? A further evaluation” ( transborder pollution, mining, killing of the forest);

4 SC: ” Health and safety at work””.

A Conference on the High Councils for the Judiciary took place on Wednesday and two resolutions were adopted:

• The resolution on the High Councils for the Judiciary

• The resolution concerning the independence of the High Council for the Judiciary (Vyschaya Rada Yusticii) of Ukraine

• The Association of Judges of Montenegro was unanimously admitted by the Central Council as an IAJ member:

“President Reissner informed the assembly that there were no Montenegrin delegates attending the meeting and recalled that the report on the application had already been distributed by email to IAJ member associations. He then invited the rapporteurs, Mr. Sessa and Mrs. Hung to take the floor and illustrate the main aspects of the application and their findings. President Reissner thanked them and asked whether there was any question. After receiving a negative answer, he proceeded to an open vote. There were neither abstentions nor contrary votes and the Association of Judges of Montenegro was unanimously admitted by the Central Council as an IAJ member” (Yalta 2013).