Court System Strengthening and Modernization Project

Macedonia 2002 - 2007

DPK worked with the Macedonian judiciary and the NGO community to increase the judiciary's overall capacity by focusing on court practices and performance, transparency, and accountability.

The project formulated and implemented changes in the current framework of laws to better enable an independent judiciary. DPK worked to develop and implement proactive case management practices, including backlog reduction. Capacity was increased for court administration and management within the judiciary, as well as for court presidents, judges, and court administrators through training. DPK increased the capacity of the current legal training institution; and, on a pilot basis, introduced and improved existing levels of automation and computerization.

Legislative Framework
The DPK team contributed to the drafting of a law establishing an independent court budget and a court administrative office, which was adopted effective January 1, 2004. The law strengthened the judicial branch's role in budget preparation and made its administrative functions more concrete. The DPK team is now focused on strengthening the civil and criminal procedure codes and the enforcement of civil judgements.

Court Administration
The DPK team worked at the national and local levels to help modernize court administration in Macedonia. At the national level, the team supported the establishment of an Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) under the Court Budget Council. At the local level, the DPK team secured an agreement from presiding judges to establish seven pilot courts as the nucleus of a modern court administration system. This was achieved by introducing new and more effective administrative and managerial methodologies to improve the efficiency of the courts. DPK completed a review of the automation environment and a facilities and equipment assessment of the seven pilot courts. The review provided the basis for a facilities improvement and court modernization effort worth $2,400,000. Additionally, a closed-case survey has identified the baseline characteristics of closed and pending backlogged cases in the pilot courts.

Legal and Judicial Training
The DPK team improved the training of judges and court administrators by strengthening the Center for Continuing Education (CCE) and developing a curriculum that meets the needs of the judiciary. The DPK team co-sponsored training events and seminars for legal professionals with the CCE and has worked to strengthen the CCE through institutional development workshops. The project managed an ongoing grant to the CCE to support its activities. DPK developed a training plan covering extensive judicial training under the umbrella of the CCE, as well as training in support of project activities such as the pilot courts and the administrative functions under the new court budget law.

DPK has sponsored study tours for court administrators to Slovenia and the United States to collect best practices for the design of the AOC and for improving court administration in general.