Judicial reform in Croatia has had mixed results. While some objectives of reform plans have been achieved, such as establishing a Judicial Academy, the impact has been limited and perceptions of corruption remain high. Structural issues include an overabundance of courts, uneven caseloads, and judges performing administrative tasks. Objective indicators show Croatia has fewer lawyers, judges, and legal professionals per capita than European averages. EU accession facilitated some reforms but also led to a focus on appearances over tangible results. Comprehensive and neutral monitoring is needed to further meaningful reform.

1. Judicial Reform in Croatia Is The Glass (Half) Full or (Half) Empty ? Prof. Dr. ALAN UZELAC University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law [email_address]

2. Why judicial reform? BBC and safety for tourists in Croatia The Hague complex Chapter 23

3. MoJ Anti-corruption campaign

5. “ Strategy” of judicial reform Croatian way of dealing with unpleasant jobs

8. How to evaluate reforms? Criteria? Indicators?

10. Corruption perception index 2004 2005 2006 Judiciary 3,8 Political parties 4 Judiciary 4,4 Political parties 3,6 Judiciary 3,7 Health services 4,3 Parliament 3,6 Parliament 3,6 Economy 4,2 Health services 3,6 Economy 3,5 Parties & Parliament 4,1

11. WB - BEEPS

12. Vis-à-vis : Avis on judiciary

13. EU Progress report for Croatia (XI/200 7 )

14. Comparing legal professions Structural Comparisons

17. Lawyers in Europe (per 100.000 inh.) Source: CEPEJ Report, 2008. (2006 data)

18. Number of lawyers: trends 1992-2009 Year Lawyers % Interns % 1992 1221 100 380 100 1994 1782 146 483 127 1997 2100 172 550 145 2004 2493 204 965 254 2008 3427 280 1620 426

19. Enforcement agents and notaries

20. Number of judges in Europe

21. Legal professions in Europe and Croatia

22. Judicial organization - court locations (general competence courts and specialized courts) per 100.000 inhabitants (data 2004 )

25. Judicial process - comparisons … a much harder task …

26. Expenses of European states for their justice systems € / # inhabitants (100k) data 2002. Court budget + Legal aid expenses Austria 71,30 France 32,99 Romania 5,48 Finland 51,03 Hungary 27,00 Ukraine 2,32 Croatia 30,43 Italy 46,76 Netherlands 53,07

27. Court backlogs

28. Structure of cases 2000 to 2008

30. Can you see some change? 2001.-2007. Year Litigations resolved by: Judgment % Court settlement % Else % 2001. 2002. 2003. 2004. 2005. 2006. 2007. 73154 67805 76407 103589 87762 79612 79446 62,6 58,2 64,1 65,1 57,0 61,4 62,2 3327 2857 2565 3528 3527 2814 2742 2,8 2,5 2,2 2,0 2,3 2,2 2,1 40312 45779 40135 52376 62623 47284 45619 34,5 39,3 33,7 32,9 40,7 36,5 35,7 Year Judgment based on A full hearing % Admittance % Default % 2001. 2002. 2003. 2004. 2005. 2006. 2007. 55603 51832 60180 75620 62806 61309 63927 76,0 76,4 78,8 73,0 71,6 77,0 80,5 7132 6985 6720 13474 13496 8115 4945 9,7 10,3 8,8 13,0 15,4 10,2 6,2 10419 8988 9507 14495 11460 10188 10574 14,2 13,3 12,4 14,0 13,1 12,8 13,3

31. Reform as a task in European accession? Can EU accession process resolve the problem?

32. European justice systems and the EU

34. Thank you for your attention! Judicial Reform is in a Bad Need for Social Scientists! © uzelac@post.harvard.edu