Cooperation of the Supreme Judicial Courts of the European Union in the European area of justice

forthcoming

The Network is composed of the Presidents of the Supreme Courts of the 27 Member States. Presidents of the Supreme Courts of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and the United Kingdom have been admitted as Associate Members and those of Albania, Montenegro, Ukraine and Serbia as Observers. The objectives of the Network are to: 1. To facilitate cooperation and exchange of information between members and with the European Commission The Network acts as a forum for the Presidents of Supreme Courts to exchange experiences on topics related to civil and criminal law as well as the rule of law, independence and impartiality of the judiciary and effectiveness of national justice systems. The Network aims to strengthen judicial cooperation and building trust between the Presidents as well as their respective Supreme Courts. The Comparative Law Working Group, bringing together judges and law clerks from various Supreme Courts, has been set up to identify the Supreme Courts’ interpretation of terms and concepts derived from European law and to exchange information as well as research on national case law. Collaboration primarily takes place online on the Group's Forum. The Network aims to be a reliable partner in questions concerning the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. 2. To promote the training of Supreme Court judges The Network operates an exchange programme of Supreme Court judges which encourages networking between colleagues with similar tasks and responsibilities within their national jurisdictions, thereby helping to build mutual trust between EU Supreme Courts. 3. To improve access to justice by digital tools The Network operates a case-law search engine called the Common Portal of Case Law available on the website of the Network. The Portal is integrated with the databases of 20 Supreme Courts and permits the user to perform case-law searches by different indicators and languages (with integrated automatic translation tools).