The TRIIAL Project proposal comes at a time of constitutional turmoil in many Member States. Whilst it is a common knowledge that liberal democracies require the tripartite division of powers, the role of judges and the challenges their work presents from the perspective of guaranteeing judicial impartiality, independence, and accountability, have been rarely explored and recently also threatened.
TRIIAL aims at assisting in the response of the present constitutional crisis. The standards enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR), and, in particular, in Article 47 on the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial, are part of a wider EU-level legal framework that guarantees the independence, impartiality and accountability of judges, and arbitrators and other legal practitioners. In addition, it will increase the ability of legal practitioners, including the judiciary, to promote rule of law in their everyday work on the basis of the EU fundamental rights legal framework. In doing so, the Project aims to support the development of networks of knowledgeable legal practitioners working on the rule of law and democracy.
TRIIAL will run from 1st of January 2020 until June 2022 and will provide training activities and tools for judges, lawyers, arbitrators and other legal professionals in areas of salient importance for the application of the CFR: trust, independence, impartiality, accountability of judges and arbitrators. Its main objective is to explain and disseminate knowledge of the CFR potential for ensuring and improving the fundamental rights standards, ultimately benefiting the rule of law in the Member States. TRIIAL is led by the Centre of Judicial Cooperation of the European University Institute (EUI) together with 12 co-beneficiaries, which include: 2 Judicial Schools (the Italian School for the Judiciary and the Belgian Judicial School); the National Association of the Romanian Bars; 8 academic institutions (Universities of: Barcelona-Pompeu Fabra, Eötvös Loránd, Florence, Gdansk, Ljubljana, Maastricht, Lisbon, and the Hague University of Applied Sciences), and a Polish think tank (INPRIS).