Presentation to the 11 Conference of the International Association for Court Administration (IACA, The Hague, The Netherlands, May 18-20 2016. The role of the judicial secretary in Latin American judicial systems. Judicial reform trends and new developments towards the design of court administration based court and judicial offices models.

2. Latin America
Problems in the judiciary
The judicial secretary origin and evolution
Judicial reform trends
The judiciary as a system
The path towards court administration
Perspectives

3.  Common cultural and historical heritage
 Spanish and Portuguese monarchies
 Vertical conception of power
 Political system
 Three tiers of public power
 Understanding of the separation of powers
 Similar institutions and political dynamics
 Governance
 Increasing institutional stability
 Different levels of judicial independence
 Judicial career

4.  Bureaucratic and cumbersome proceedings
 Outdated (often artisanal) working methods
 Poor personnel policy and absence of incentive schemes
 Lack of a training policy
 Absence of new court models
 Inadequate infrastructure
 Poor processing and use of statistical information
 The role of lawyers is often distorting
 Theoretical and abstract legal education
 Confusion between judicial and administrative activities

5. Judicial Office (Italy): distinction between
 Judicial activity, in charge of the judge
 Administrative activity that supports the former, in
charge of the secretary, “administration of the
administration of justice”(Constitutional Tribunal of
Spain, 56/90 judgement)
Secretariat
 Physical space in which the materializing work of
judicial activity is performed under the direction of the
secretary
 Courts, prosecutors and public defenders offices

6. Spain
 They were lawyers / public notaries
 They collected fees for their activity
 Dependent on the Ministry of Justice
Germany
 Rechstpfleger
Latin America
 Inherited position from the Spanish judicial organization

7.  Appointed after a selection process
 Activities during judicial proceedings
 Legal certification of acts and documents – “public faith”
 Legal control of judges acts and rulings
 Issuance of interlocutory decisions endorsed by the judge
 Own Statute
 Appointment of reputable jurists
 Possible appointment to judgeship after 10 years of service
 Dependent on the Ministry of Justice / Claim of transfer
by the General Council of the Judicial Power (White Book
“Libro Blanco”)
Ongoing debate about its role

8. Typical judicial unit
 Court, prosecutors and public defenders offices
Different number of secretariats depending on
 Jurisdiction
 Workload
Deficit in the number of judges
Distance between regulations and practice

9.  “Imported” from Spain, but with institutional
differences
 High technical qualification
 Functions
 Legal Statute
 Control of judicial acts
 Validity of documents
 Legal certification of acts and documents – “public faith”
 Legal control of judicial acts and rulings
 Issuance of preparatory measures
 Administrative activities
 Procedural control of legality and veracity
 Real practice
 Delegate judge
 Responsible of the secretariat functioning
 Strong delegation by the judge

10.  Dissemination
 Dialogue and consensus building
 Operation manuals designing
 Pilot experiences
 Continuous training of actors
 Training of trainers
 Adjustment and multiplication of best practices
 Improvements based on existing court models
 Gradual designing of new court models
Tension: Judges cultural reluctance to court administrators
TODAY

11. Design of new court models
based on the separation between
judicial and administrative activity

12. A NEW PARADIGM
The Judiciary as a System

13.  Access to Justice: Diversity of pathways
 Training: Continuing education
 Management: Organization of the work, case
management, leadership, teamwork and use of ICT
 Administration: General operation of the system,
judiciary, optimal use of resources, governance and
strategic planning
 Infrastructure: Physical environment, material and
technological inputs
 Regulations: Rules of organization and operation
 Consensus Building: Awareness raising, dissemination
and dialogue
 Cooperation: Constant interaction
THE JUDICIARY AS A SYSTEM

14.  Access to Justice: Diversity of pathways
 Training: Continuing education
 Management Organization of the work, case
management, leadership, teamwork and use of ICT
 Administration: General operation of the system,
judiciary, optimal use of resources, governance and
strategic planning
 Infrastructure: Physical environment, material and
technological inputs
 Regulations: Rules of organization and operation
 Consensus Building: Awareness raising, dissemination
and dialogue
 Cooperation: Constant interaction
AND
The Judge in the Traditional Model
THE JUDICIARY AS A SYSTEM

15.  Access to Justice: Diversity of pathways
 Training: Continuing education
 Management Organization of the work, case
management, leadership, teamwork and use of ICT
 Administration: General operation of the system,
judiciary, optimal use of resources, governance and
strategic planning
 Infrastructure: Physical environment, material and
technological inputs
 Regulations: Rules of organization and operation
 Consensus Building: Awareness raising, dissemination
and dialogue
 Cooperation: Constant interaction
AND
The Court Administrator
THE JUDICIARY AS A SYSTEM

16. New Criminal Procedure
 Separation between judicial and administrative activities
 New courts, public prosecutors office and defenders
 Professionalized administrative support
 Transparency
 Coordination and institutional commitment
 Permanent monitoring
 Periodic evaluation

17. Mega Offices
 Unification or merger of judicial offices devoted to the
same matters
 Division of other offices aimed to specialization
 Unification of proceedings and concentration of cases of
the same matter
 Increased ways of access to judicial information
 Procedural judge
 Administrator of the office
 Common offices
 Administration of the circuit
 Notifications
 Reception of documents
 Record keeping
 Internal mail

18. Associated Judicial Management Model, Mendoza
 It has been implemented with the goals of:
 Freeing the judges of administrativecompliance and
functional tasks
 Optimizing judicial performance and accelerating the
processing time and disposition of cases
 The Court Administrator position was created under
the dependence of the state Supreme Court
 It coordinates the processing of cases of four former
civil, commercial and mining courts (plus 2 judges
appointed afterwards)

19. Public Prosecutor´s Office, City of Buenos Aires
New Design
1. Early Intervention Unit –UIT-: it takes action at the
beginning of each case, evaluates and decides according
to its characteristics
2. Common Processing Unit -UTC-: it acts in coordination
with UIT and prosecutors teams
 It centralizes and streamlines the tasks of research
support
 It is in charge of a Prosecutors office administrator
3. Prosecutors Teams: six prosecutors teams that are
competent on criminal and misdemeanor offenses
 They conduct the investigations being freed from
administrative tasks and bureaucratic procedures

20. Integrated Judicial Center, Soyapango
 Physical integration of courts in a geographic area
 Administrative integration: operation of common
specialized branches responsible for the administrative
and legal work of the courts
 Focus on strictly legal-judicial activities, seeking
specialization of civil servants and greater agility,
process quality and resolutions
 Administrative-legalwork assigned to specialized offices
 Design, development and implementation of a system
for processing information
 Staff training

21.  Growing importance of management and
court administration
 Increasing proactivity of the members of
the judiciary
 Towards court administration
 Appointment of secretaries
 Interdisciplinary approach for the design of new
court models
 Consensus building and interaction with
civil society
 Public policies for all the judicial system
PERSPECTIVES

22. Thank you!
luismariapalma@yahoo.com.ar
luis.palma@ub.edu.ar