European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters, May 2004

At the European Information Association's 13th annual conference in Edinburgh on 26th April 2004, the website European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters was named as the winner of the EIA European Information Sources Award for 2003 in the electronic category. The site at http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/ejn/index_en.htm is produced by the Directorate-General for Justice and Home Affairs and Jose Alegre from the DG was there to accept the award. The EIA's press release quotes Ian Mayfield, Associate Librarian at Portsmouth University who made the presentation as saying: "It is well structured, clearly laid out and easy to navigate either by topic or by geographical area. A particular strength is the fact that it presents comparative information in the same format so you can easily compare how different legal systems work."

The site is certainly a worthy winner as it fills a real gap by collating and providing information that is not easily accessible elsewhere. It aims to give information at a national, EU and international level on civil and commercial legal systems and procedures. It genuinely offers real content, not just smart presentation, and in view of the range of judicial systems within the member states and the further complication of EU or international variations, it is a useful aid to simplify dealings in cross-border issues. It provides comparative information on the judicial systems; contact details; technical issues such as how to bring a case to court, service of documents, evidence taking, standards of proof; and key areas of law of interest to the EU citizen such as divorce, maintenance, bankruptcy and victim compensation which fall beyond the normal remit of EU law but which clearly have an impact on EU citizens living and working in a freedom of movement environment. In addition to the information on the site, extensive hyperlinks lead to full texts of legislation, official sites of national and international institutions and other reference sources.

The structure of the site is simple: you can navigate by topic from the left hand menu and by geographical area form the right hand menu where you select the relevant country flag, or the EU or international icon. The main body of text is displayed in the centre, with the navigation bars remaining available so that it is easy to change topic or display data for another country at any point. At present there is national information only for the EU15, and that is not yet complete in all sections for all countries. However there is already a substantial amount of material on the site and no doubt parallel information for the new members will also be added in due course in addition to the completion of the sections already in place.

A key link is to the European Judicial Atlas in civil matters at http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/judicialatlascivil/html/index_en.htm. This tool is designed to identify easily which court is competent to hear a given case. Additionally it is an example of the Commission's more interactive approach on the web, allowing you to download and print a variety of forms or to request them online.

The site stresses that is not a substitute for legal advice but nevertheless the Network does provide information on many questions that are asked by the general public and it will certainly be a valuable tool in promoting and improving judicial cooperation between member states.