Pregledni rad
https://doi.org/10.3935/zpfz.71.34.08
An Analysis of Certain Statistical Indicators Regarding the Efficiency of the Croatian Civil Judiciary
Marko Mećar
orcid.org/0000-0003-2456-0865
; odvjetničko društvo Laktić & partneri d.o.o., Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The intention of this paper is to provide an analysis of certain statistical indicators regarding the efficiency of the Croatian civil judiciary, since efficiency is one of the most important aspects of the judiciary. After a brief overview of different statistical indicators which may be used to measure the efficiency of the judiciary, this paper focuses on the analysis of the statistical indicators disposition time (hereinafter: DT) and clearance rate (hereinafter: CR), used by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (hereinafter: CEPEJ) and the statistical indicators regarding the number of unresolved cases, the number of judges and the number of resolved cases per judge published by the ministry competent for the judiciary. Although CEPEJ’s statistical indicators should be used cautiously due to methodological inconsistencies in the data, the paper concludes that these statistical indicators are useful to the extent that they can point to structural flaws in the judiciary system or can point to a trend of rise or decline in the judiciary’s efficiency.
The central part of the paper focuses on the analysis of the DT and CR statistical indicators for the Croatian judiciary in general and compares it to the DT and CR statistical indicators for the judiciaries in other EU Member States. Further, the paper analyzes the statistical data published by the ministry competent for the judiciary regarding the number of unresolved cases, the number of judges and the number of resolved cases per judge, drawing conclusions therefrom on the efficiency of different parts of the Croatian judiciary. Also, historical statistical data published by the ministry competent for the judiciary are analyzed to show whether systematic problems in efficiency of concrete parts of the judiciary exist, as opposed to short-term efficiency shortfalls. The paper also highlights the lack of adequate, publicly available statistical data on the efficiency of the judiciary which limits the possibility of reaching a conclusion on the causes for such lower efficiency.
The paper concludes that, taking into consideration the publicly available data, it is possible to reach conclusions as to which parts of the judiciary have lower efficiency, those being litigation procedures, especially before first instance municipal courts. However, there are no publicly available data that would show the causes for the lower efficiency of these parts of the judiciary, even though public authorities have means at their disposal to obtain and publish such relevant data. Such practice by public authorities hinders further efforts of the interested public to focus the discussion on the real causes for the lower efficiency of the Croatian judiciary and ultimately, on the necessary reforms aimed at increasing its efficiency.
Ključne riječi
judiciary; Republic of Croatia; efficiency analysis; CEPEJ; EU
Hrčak ID:
266135
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.11.2021.
Posjeta: 1.065 *