A total of 36 teams from 12 EU Member States, three Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia), and Moldova will compete and try to win the 2024 THEMIS Competition. The number of participating teams has increased compared to 2023, when 31 teams took part in the event.
The first event will take place on 14–17 May in Budapest (Hungary), hosted by the Hungarian Office of the Prosecutor General. This Semi-final A will focus on EU and European Criminal Procedural Law. Moreover, for the very first time, Semi-final B will deal with a new topic: Administrative Law.
The European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) would like to thank the institutions hosting the Semi-finals: The Office of the Prosecutor General of Hungary, the Studiecentrum Rechtspleging in the Netherlands, the Ministry of Justice of Italy, and the German Judicial Academy in Trier.
What is the THEMIS Competition?
The 2024 THEMIS Competition consists of four Semi-finals:
- Semi-Final A: EU and European Criminal Procedural Law: 14-17 May – Budapest (Hungary)
- Semi-Final B: EU and European Administrative Law: 2-5 July – Utrecht (the Netherlands)
- Semi-Final C: EU and European Civil Procedural Law: 25-28 June – Rome (Italy)
- Semi-Final D: Judicial Ethics and Professional Conduct: 16-19 July – Trier (Germany)
The teams have to deliver a written paper on their topic of choice within the theme of the Semi-final, give a 30-minute presentation, reply to questions from the audience, and have a 45-minute discussion with the jury.
Each team includes three judicial trainees, and a tutor may accompany them. A person is considered a judicial trainee if they are regarded as such under the national law and have not attended initial training activities for more than two years.
The winners and runners-up from each Semi-final will be able to attend the THEMIS Grand Final, which will be held in Naples (Italy) in December 2024.
The winning team will be awarded a study visit funded by EJTN in the country of their choice.
A video featuring the 2023 THEMIS Grand Final is available on YouTube.
The papers
Each participant in any of the Semi-finals must present a written text on any subject related to the topic of the relevant Semi-final. In 2024, participants had approximately one month to produce their papers.
The papers are written in English and feature new ideas, critical appreciations, or proposals regarding the subject of the semi-final in question.
The best-written papers across the four Semi-finals are published in the THEMIS Annual Journal, an annual academic publication.
Competing teams’ papers are published in the EJTN Online Training Catalogue.
Now that the teams have submitted the written text, they will prepare a creative presentation and defend their positions before a jury of legal experts.
EJTN wishes all the competing teams the best of luck. Since 2010, EJTN has organised the highly acclaimed THEMIS Competition, open to future EU magistrates undergoing entry-level training. The competition is an event for debating topics, sharing common values, exchanging new experiences, discussing new perspectives, and practising judicial skills.
The Portuguese Centre for Judicial Studies (CEJ) and the National Institute of Magistracy (NIM) of Romania created, financed, and ran the event from 2006 to 2009.
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