THE 70-TRAINING CYCLE ON DISCIPLINARY RESPONSIBILITY OF JUDGES SUCSESSFULY COMPLETED

The second series of 20 trainings on disciplinary responsibility of judges, organised by the Judicial Academy in cooperation with the High Judicial Council (HJC) and with the Project’s support was conducted in the period May-October 2021, in an online format.

This last series marked the completion of a two-year cycle of 70 trainings on disciplinary responsibility of judges, organised for judges of courts of all jurisdictions in the Republic of Serbia and carried out with the support of the Project. The trainings were attended by more than 1,700 judges (over 85% of the planned number of participants), which is a significant success considering the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to organise these trainings on site after the first 36 trainings held from September 2019 to February 2020 which recorded more than 90% of the target number of participants. Since the transition to an online format, fewer participants-judges were able to attend the trainings due to technical limitations and lack of required equipment in the respective courts.

The importance and the very impact of the trainings was particularly confirmed by the recommendations communicated by the participating judges to their colleagues, highlighting the interactive approach and the practice-oriented concept, with numerous examples and case studies. In addition, a large number of participants expressed their interest to reattend the training. The training program and lecturers were rated with the highest marks, with commendable notes and expressing support for this type of training to be adopted in general, for all trainings organised for judges.

The training curriculum on disciplinary responsibility of judges, developed by the Project with the expert assistance of the High Judicial Council and its disciplinary bodies, is now a permanent module within the Continuous Training Program for Judges of the Judicial Academy.