Online Cross-Border Training Workshop for Judges, Prosecutors, Attorneys and Other Legal Professionals

Overview

According to Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU), the Union is founded on a set of values, including the rule of law and respect for human rights. The Union is based “on the fundamental premiss that each Member State shares with all the other Member States, and recognises that they share with it, the values under Article 2 TEU” (ECJ, Opinion 2/13, para 168). In turn, “this premiss implies and justifies the existence of mutual trust between the Member States” (ibid.) which represents the “raison d’être of the European Union and the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice and, in particular, the Common European Asylum System” (ECJ, NS, joined cases C-411/10 and C-493/10, para 83).

In light of the value of the rule of law (Article 2 TEU), and notably the right to effective judicial protection (Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU), the fil rouge of the workshop is the judicial review and its scope of application in the context of EU asylum law. Three topics will be discussed.

First, the workshop addresses the interplay between Dublin cooperation and fundamental rights. In its latest case-law, the ECJ narrowly interpreted the notion of systemic flaws as an exception to Dublin transfers (X v Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid, C-392/22). Moreover, the ECJ upheld its trend of granting Member States a relevant margin of discretion in relation to the exercise of the discretionary clause (Article 17(1) of the Dublin III Regulation) and its possible judicial review (Ministero dell’Interno (Brochure commune – Refoulement indirect), joined cases C‑228/21, C‑254/21, C‑297/21, C‑315/21 and C‑328/21; and AHY, C-359/22).

Second, the workshop discusses the concept of safe country of origin as provided for in the Asylum Procedures Directive. In its recent judgment CV (C-406/22), the ECJ ruled that the designation of a country as a safe country of origin must be judicially reviewed to assess its effective compliance with the requirements requested by EU law for such a designation. That judgment has a significant impact at the national level, particularly in terms of the disapplication of the national act listing the safe countries of origin.

Third, the detention of asylum seekers, notably in the context of border procedures. In its judgment Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (Examen d’office de la rétention) (joined cases C-704/20 and C- 39/21), the ECJ stated that compliance with the conditions governing the lawfulness of the detention of an asylum seeker must be amenable to judicial review. Such a review is even more relevant where national law provides alternatives to detention (i.e. the deposit of a financial guarantee). Even in such a scenario national judges can be called to solve a conflict between national and EU law.

The workshop will discuss these topics by taking into account both the case-law of the ECJ and its implementation at the national level. At the same time, it will pay attention also to the new legislative acts adopted under the new Pact on Migration and Asylum.

The workshop will host a mix of short lectures and Q&A sessions. Two sessions will be dedicated to group work on hypothetical cases: the participants will be divided into small groups, hosted in different online rooms, and will discuss the proposed cases, together with facilitators from the TRIIAL2 team.

Please note that only speeches and lectures will be recorded; Q&A sessions and working groups will not.

Framework: This workshop is offered within the European Commission’s funded project TRIIAL 2 – TRust, Independence, Impartiality and Accountability of Legal professionals under the EU Charter (project no. 101089737, JUST-JTRA-EJTR-AG-2020). The TRIIAL 2 Project provides training activities and tools for judges, attorneys, and prosecutors on the European rule of law, mutual trust, judicial independence, impartiality and accountability (see the dedicated website here).

Target Group

Judges, public prosecutors, attorneys and other legal practitioners (including candidate judges, candidate prosecutors, candidate attorneys, and judicial advisers from European Union (EU) countries).

The workshop will host 40 participants.
The participation is free of charge.
Participants will be provided with certificates of participation.

Application

The deadline for the submission of applications is 15th of January 2025.

Submit your application, including the documents mentioned below, to martina.coli@unifi.it (cc: marcella.ferri@unifi.it). Please, mention  in the title of your email TRIIAL2 workshop on “Mutual Trust, Judicial Independence and Judicial Cooperation in Asylum”_Application”.

Italian judges are invited to follow the procedure described here: https://www.scuolamagistratura.it/. For questions, please contact internazionale@scuolamagistratura.it. The following documents shall be attached to the application:

1. CV in English or Italian (including a section on proof of knowledge of English)
2. A short motivation letter (max 2 pages) outlining the candidate’s specific reasons for applying to a workshop on Mutual Trust, Judicial Independence and Judicial Cooperation in Asylum (please describe how your professional activity correlates to the workshop’s topics and how you could both benefit from and contribute to the workshop in this field).

Selection procedure

The University of Florence will select 40 legal practitioners (the selected participants will be notified by 16th of January 2025). The selection process aims to identify participants who will effectively and actively contribute to the project and its dissemination. Please note that applicants are not required to have participated in similar training programmes before, nor will recent participation in similar training programmes necessarily prevent them from being accepted.

The applications will be assessed on the following criteria:

1. Gender and age balanced;
2. Geographically balanced;
3. Diversity of legal competences: the call is open to civil, administrative, and criminal judges; in addition, attorneys, public prosecutors, state attorneys, candidate judges, candidate prosecutors, candidate attorneys, judicial advisers can also apply.
4. Balance in the judicial hierarchy: both higher and lower instance courts shall be represented among selected participants;
5. Trainers will have priority in selection (please refer to relevant training responsibilities in your CV);
6. Knowledge of and experience with fundamental rights and rule of law issues;
7. Good knowledge of English;
8. Single participation within the same Training Project (TRIIAL 2): in principle, no participant can take part in more than one workshop among those offered within the TRIIAL 2 Project. In exceptional cases, deviations are subject to express and prior permission of the organizer.

Participants are asked to devote the necessary time to preparing for the workshops by reading the relevant materials in advance. Moreover, the selected candidates are expected to be ready to commit to active participation in the workshop

Outcome of the workshop

• You will receive a certificate of participation.
• You will be able to understand and explain the main legal issues relating to the European rule of law (the training’s “core”)
• You will receive access to all TRIIAL 2 learning materials available on the e-learning platform

You will also be able:

• to acquire the knowledge on existing case-law on Dublin cooperation, safe country of origin, detention and border procedures
• to increase your knowledge of EU asylum law
• to understand the different legal pathways in Europe to protect human rights
• to find cases decided by the ECJ or national courts which can help you solve the pending case or supporting your legal arguments
• to understand how to implement the relevant case law of the Court of Justice in your case
• to become part of a network of legal practitioners, activists, and scholars dealing with similar issues that could provide support for future questions.

Contact person and general information

For any information on the workshop or doubts concerning the call for application, please contact: marcella.ferri@unifi.it and martina.coli@unifi.it.