Reinforcing the system of court-annexed mediation

About this project

<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">Croatian citizens and business entities use state courts to settle disputes almost exclusively, resulting in courts being overburdened with cases and becoming increasingly ineffective. Number of civil law cases where court-annexed mediation was used is extremely low in relation to overall number of cases on municipal and commercial courts. Therefore, additional measures are required to increase the use of court-annexed mediation in the Republic of Croatia. </span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">The project includes cross-border cooperation element, namely, analysis of the existing mediation system in comparison with other European states will be carried out (Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Slovenia) to highlight the possibilities for improving the Croatian mediation system. Cooperation will be realised through study visits to mentioned countries to gain insight into the functioning of their system of alternative dispute settlement</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify"><strong style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18px">The overall objective</strong><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18px">: Strengthened rule of law and increased efficiency of the judiciary</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify"><strong style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18px">The</strong><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18px"> </span><strong style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18px">specific objective:</strong><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18px"> Reinforce the system of court-annexed mediation in the Republic of Croatia and increase its use</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">The project consists of following components: </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">Component 1 – Analysis of the existing mediation system in comparison with other European states</span></span></li> <li style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">Component 2 – Sociological-legal examination of the reasons behind the underutilization of mediation</span></span></li> <li style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">Component 3 – Manual on court mediation </span></span></li> <li style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">Component 4 – Training the professional staff (judges, lawyers, civil servants, court advisers, state attorneys) on mediation</span></span></li> <li style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">Component 5 - Awareness raising campaign</span></span></li> </ul>

Bilateral cooperation results

Firstly because the project has high match with Norway and has provided great value of expertise from Norwegian side (making it more relevant for both partners). Croatian and Norwegian experts collaborated from the analysis of the under-utilization of mediation and socio-legal examination of the reasons for such an attitude, to organizing various educational and promotional activities to try to encourage judges and citizens to consider mediation and to have it more represented in practice. Excellent bilateral cooperation that was developed among the partners throughout the project cycle has led to evolve further in terms of new bilateral ideas and projects.

Project partners

• Norwegian Courts Administration Donor project partner· Norway
• Judicial Academy Project partner· Croatia