1. SPECIALISED STUDY VISIT AT THE EUROPEAN PUBLIC PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE

Presentation

The study visit will be organised at the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). The EPPO is the independent public prosecution office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU. The aim of these visits is to provide specialised training and case studies for criminal law and investigative judges, and prosecutors who deal with Financial and Economic crimes.

The study visit will focus on:

• Presentations on EPPO’s functions, procedures and competences
• A case study

Requirements

To participate in study visits at the EPPO, you need to be:

• A criminal law judge or an investigative judge, or a prosecutor working on Financial and Economic crime cases

Calendar

A maximum of two specialised study visits will be organised during 2025 with EPPO, amongst which one in the 1^st semester:

Financial conditions

A daily allowance of 180 € will be paid to participants by EJTN during the whole period of the study visit. Transport costs will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis up to a maximum of 500 € upon receipt of original transport documents. National participants will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis. Further information can be found in the Financial conditions document.

Deadline for application

The deadline for applications is Monday, 16 December 2024, 18:00 Brussels time.

A second call for applications for the study visits of the 2^nd semester will be issued in April 2025.

STUDY VISIT WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS

Presentation

The study visit will be organised with the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament and the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF). The study visit is designed to provide beneficiaries with an insight into the EU law making process and the host institution’s functioning and procedures. The role of OLAF is also explained.

Requirements

To participate in study visits in EU Institutions, you need to be:

• A judge, prosecutor, court/prosecution staff or judicial trainer

Calendar

Two study visits are organised during 2025 with the EU institutions, amongst which one in the 1^st semester:

Financial conditions

A daily allowance of 180 € will be paid to participants by EJTN during the whole period of the study visit. Transport costs will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis up to a maximum of 500€ upon receipt of original transport documents. National participants will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis. Further information can be found in the Financial conditions document.

Deadline for applications

The deadline for applications is Monday, 16 December 2024, 18:00 Brussels time.

A second call for applications for the study visits of the 2^nd semester will be issued in April 2025.

STUDY VISITS WITH THE COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (CJEU)

Presentation

The study visits will be organised at the Court of Justice of the European Union. The aim of these visits is to provide a deeper knowledge on the powers, organisation and functioning of the Court.

The study visit will focus on:

• Presentations on the Court’s competencies, procedures, and case law
• Participation in a Court hearing

Requirements 

To participate in study visits at the CJEU, you need to be:

• A judge, prosecutor, court/prosecution staff or judicial trainer

Calendar

Four study visits will be organised during 2025 with the CJEU, amongst which two in the 1^st semester:

Financial conditions

A daily allowance of 180 € will be paid to participants by EJTN during the whole period of the study visit. Transport costs will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis up to a maximum of 500 € upon receipt of original transport documents. National participants will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis. Further information can be found in the Financial conditions document.

Deadline for application

The deadline for applications is Monday, 16 December 2024, 18:00 Brussels time.

A second call for applications for the study visits of the 2^nd semester will be issued in April 2025.

STUDY VISIT AT MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY – “Country of Origin Information and Anthropological Expertise in Asylum Cases”

Presentation

The study visit is organised by the Department ‘Law & Anthropology’ at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, located in the city of Halle in Germany, is a leading center for research in socio-cultural anthropology. The Department ‘Law & Anthropology’ aims to offer a stimulating interdisciplinary forum where both anthropologists and lawyers can engage constructively and conduct cutting-edge, policy-relevant research linked to intensified interactions within and between societies, communities and cultures in contemporary Europe and beyond. These interactions call for an in-depth assessment of the ways in which different normative orders and systems of morality coexist at various levels of decision-making. The Department strives to systematically involve legal practitioners in researching and theorizing concepts of justice and the accommodation of diversity in rapidly changing contemporary pluralistic European societies. To this end, the Department organises an annual one-week study visit for up to 15 judges, prosecutors and court/prosecution staff in collaboration with the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN).

The aim of the study visit is to provide deeper knowledge and comparative perspectives on how to adequately address cultural and religious diversity in the courtroom, with specific reference to various forms of transnational mobility and how they are transforming European societies and legal systems (see below).

Through a mixture of presentations, collaborative team-work exercises with Department researchers, self-study and joint discussion sessions, participants are offered the opportunity to develop in-depth contextual understanding of social, cultural, religious and normative diversity dimensions that are of direct relevance to their judicial practice. The visit is structured around a core exercise, called Rethinking Judgments. Each participant is required to submit a case from their home jurisdiction and relevant to discuss the study visit’s theme two weeks before the start of the visit. During the week in Halle, participants will be invited to rethink – and, if they wish, to rewrite parts of – the decision of the case they submitted, in light of the exposure to Law and Anthropology they have had. On the last day of the visit, participants will be invited to present the findings of their Rethinking Judgments exercise to the rest of the group. Academic materials in preparation for the Rethinking Judgments exercise will be shared with participants before the visit starts.

For the year 2025, the following study theme will be offered for participants: “Country of Origin Information and Anthropological Expertise in Asylum Cases”

Among the various forms of transnational mobility, the forced mobility of persons seeking protection from persecution has moved to the centre of attention of European policy makers and publics alike, with asylum systems and policies becoming a highly contested policy area.

In this challenging context, judges who are tasked with asylum adjudication do not only face complex legal questions, but are also confronted with a diversity of life worlds and political, economic, sociocultural and normative contexts which are largely unfamiliar to them. Assessing and interpreting contextual information from a wide range of countries of origin, grasping unfamiliar worldviews and normative orders and taking diverse experiences into account become a crucial skillset. This is where the discipline of sociocultural anthropology can make a contribution.

This training examines situations where country of origin information and anthropological expertise are critical in establishing whether an applicant meets the requirements for refugee status according to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the Qualification Directive.

In asylum decisions, decision-makers have to assess the credibility of applicants and the situation in the country of origin, in order to make a finding on the risk of persecution upon return. Accordingly, evidence on country conditions is an essential part of the asylum decision making. Such evidence includes the applicant’s situation in the country of origin pertaining to human rights, security, access to services and minority groups treatment.

Evidence on country conditions can take many forms, such as country of origin reports (COI), media articles, think tanks and academic publications as well as expert evidence. Many issues arise concerning such evidence, for instance about its objectivity, reliability, helpfulness in reaching fair decisions, and how to assess the quality of cultural expertise and balance it against other evidence. Some issues involve how country of origin information is used, for instance how COI is selected, how authority is attributed to different COI, whether they are used consistently and according to transparent principles in order to treat similar cases alike. Unusual accounts of persecution particularly challenge decision-making given the difficulties in obtaining supporting evidence.

In this training we will focus on the use of country of origin information and anthropological expertise concerning three illustrations of contested themes of (1) internal relocation, (2) exclusion from refugee status due to the commission of a particularly serious crime, and (3) difference between persecution and prosecution. Very often the general nature or bias of the available country of origin information do not capture the variety of situations faced by applicants especially in relation to these themes and attempts to contextualise the accounts of persecution present serious difficulties.

Requirements

Judges, prosecutors and court/prosecution staff with first-hand experience of asylum adjudication and a keen interest in questions of sociocultural and religious diversity in judicial practice as well as a strong motivation to building bridges between legal practice and academia. One of the primary aims of the Judicial Study Visit Programme is to enable participants to jointly explore some of the questions they are confronted with in their home jurisdictions. Participants are therefore expected to actively contribute to in-class debates, in line with an understanding of learning as a collective endeavour. Prospective applicants are asked to submit a short letter of motivation in which they indicate how and why the theme of the study visit is relevant to their own judicial practice and experience, including – if possible – references to cases which could be suitable for the Rethinking Judgment exercise. Good working knowledge of English is required as the selected participants will be expected to actively contribute throughout the study visit, including but not limited to, presenting case materials from their own jurisdiction, comparative background information on their home jurisdictions and the findings of their Rethinking exercise on the last day of the visit.

Calendar

One study visit will be organised at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in 2025:

Financial conditions

A daily allowance of 160 € will be paid to participants by EJTN during the whole period of the study visit. Transport costs will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis up to a maximum of 500 € upon receipt of original transport documents. National participants will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis. Further information can be found in the Financial conditions document.

Deadline for applications

The deadline for applications is Monday, 16 December 2024, 18:00 Brussels time.

COMBINED STUDY VISIT COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EU/EUROPEAN PUBLIC PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE

Presentation

The study visit will be organised at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). The aim of this visit is to provide a first-hand insight into the visited institutions.

The study visit will focus on:

• A general introduction to CJEU and to EPPO
• Participation in a Court hearing at CJEU
• A case study brought before the Court by EPPO

Requirements

To participate in study visits at the CJEU and EPPO, you need to be:

• A judge, prosecutor, court/prosecution staff or judicial trainer

Calendar

One combined study visit at the CJEU and EPPO will be organised in 2025:

Financial conditions

A daily allowance of 180 € will be paid to participants by EJTN during the whole period of the study visit. Transport costs will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis up to a maximum of 500 € upon receipt of original transport documents. National participants will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis. Further information can be found in the Financial conditions document.

Deadline for application

The deadline for applications is Monday, 16 December 2024, 18:00 Brussels time.

STUDY VISITS WITH THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS (ECtHR)

Presentation

The study visits will be organised in collaboration with the European Court of Human Rights. The aim of these visits is to provide a deeper knowledge of the Court, its functioning and its case law.

The study visits includes:

• Presentations on the Court’s competencies, procedures, and case law
• Possibility to attend a hearing session (to be confirmed)
• Meeting with a Judge from the Court
• Presentation of the HELP Programme of the Council of Europe and the Commissioner for Human Rights
• Presentation of the European Ombudsman
• Visit to the European Parliament

Requirements

To participate in study visits at the ECtHR, you need to be:

• A judge, prosecutor, court/prosecution staff or judicial trainer

Calendar

Five study visits will be organised during 2025 with the ECtHR, amongst which three in the 1^st semester:

Financial conditions

A daily allowance of 190 € will be paid to participants by EJTN during the whole period of the study visit. Transport costs will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis up to a maximum of 500 € upon receipt of original transport documents. National participants will be reimbursed on a real-cost basis. Further information can be found in the Financial conditions document.

Deadline for applications

The deadline for applications is Monday, 16 December 2024, 18:00 Brussels time.

A second call for applications for the study visits of the 2^nd semester will be issued in April 2025.