Estonia - Supreme Court of Estonia - EJTN

The Supreme Court of Estonia started to organize judicial training in 2009, after the liquidation of Estonian Law Center Foundation, which had been responsible for judicial training since 1995.

The judicial training activities are coordinated by the Judicial Training Council, which 9 members include judges from county and district courts and the Supreme Court, representative of the Ministry of Justice, State Prosecutors office and University of Tartu. The judges to the judicial training department are elected every 3 years by the Court en banc that is comprised of all Estonian judges. The ministry, State prosecutor’s office and the university appoint their representatives themselves. Support services shall be provided to the Training Council by the Supreme Court.

The training activities and the structure of the judicial training department are structured according to the fields of law and the specialisation of the judges: criminal, civil and administrative law.

Every December the judicial training department informs all the judges of the annual training program, after which the judges can register for the events online. As a general rule, there are no limits on the number of judges who can participate. The trainings organized by the Supreme Court are primarily meant for judges and their legal consultants. In case there are vacancies, also the prosecutors, civil servants from the Ministry of Justice and from the Office of the Chancellor of Justice may participate in the training events. The training events are mostly lectures, but also seminars, roundtables and other types of trainings may be used.

At present, seven people are employed in the judicial training department. The judicial training department does not employ trainers, but for every course, trainers are selected from among experienced judges or prosecutors, university teachers, attorneys or other legal practitioners.