Romania - National Institute of Magistracy - EJTN

Established in 1992 in order to meet the needs of shaping a professional body of highly qualified magistrates – judges and prosecutors, National Institute of Magistracy (NIM) is a public autonomous institution providing initial training to future judges and prosecutors, continuous training to appointed judges and prosecutors, training sessions to trainers, as well as the organisation and conduct of examinations or competitions relating to the career of magistrates. It is coordinated by the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM), the independent body governing the judicial system and constitutionally guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary.

NIM is run by a director and two deputy directors, who are legal professionals, appointed by the SCM.

Within NIM operates, in an advisory role, a Scientific Council composed of 13 members, who are representatives of:

• The High Court of Cassation and Justice and the Prosecutor’s Office attached to it;
• The Bucharest Court of Appeal and the Prosecutor’s Office attached to it;
• The most representative law schools;
• The NIM training staff;
• The judicial trainees; and,
• The professional associations of judges and prosecutors.

NIM is located in the country capital, Bucharest.

Initial training
There are two ways of joining the ranks of magistracy in Romania – the admission to NIM examination and the admission examination targeted at law school graduates having at least 5 years seniority in the practice of law. The selection process is based on the professional competence, skills and good reputation and it is carried out through a competition.

Successful candidates of the admission to NIM examination become judicial trainees and they follow the initial training programme for two years. During the first year, judicial trainees attend various seminars, conferences and extra-curricular activities at NIM. The activity during the second year of training is mainly organized within first instance courts and prosecutor’s offices attached to these courts, under the guidance of the traineeship coordinators, who are judges and prosecutors, part of NIM’s training staff.

Initial training is mainly concerned with the acquisition of skills. The study of law is mainly practical, preparing future judges and prosecutors for an effective and responsible future participation in their profession.

The assessment of the knowledge and skills acquired over the two years of initial training consists both of formative and final assessments.

Judicial trainees opt for their future profession – judge/prosecutor – at the end of the first year of training. After the initial training period the NIM graduation exam confers them the status of junior judges and prosecutors for one year at the end of which they are being assessed again – the capacity exam – and they become in-service judges and prosecutors.

Continuous training
Judges and prosecutors participate, at least once every three years, in continuous training programmes organized by NIM and other higher education institutions in Romania or abroad, as well as in various other forms of professional improvement.

NIM organises continuous training courses according to a yearly programme.

Continuous professional training of judges and prosecutors is carried out taking into account the need for their specialization and consists primarily of acquiring and deepening knowledge of domestic legislation, European and international documents to which Romania is a party, the jurisprudence of the domestic courts and the Constitutional Court, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, comparative law, ethical norms of the judge’s or prosecutor’s profession, foreign languages and digital skills.

NIM provides continuous training both at centralized and decentralized levels. Decentralized training targets common mandatory training areas, as well as optional training areas. It has known a significant growth since its inception in 2006 and it represents an important vocational training system which is complementary to the one at centralized level.

Training of trainers
The training staff of NIM is mainly selected from the judiciary, approximately 80% of them being judges and prosecutors. NIM also involves as trainers experts from outside the judiciary area like psychologists, lawyers, sociologists and social assistants, accountants, forensics, communication, information technology and foreign languages experts.

The training staff provides initial, continuous and training of trainers’ expertise in compliance with the established syllabi and it is composed of full-time trainers, part-time trainers and traineeship coordinators. The recruitment is made by means of a public, transparent procedure, under the terms of the Statute of the NIM training staff, taking into consideration professional and training experience.

The train-the-trainers process targets newly recruited, trainers/traineeship coordinators who express their wish to attend such programme and the ones for whom the NIM’s Scientific Council recommends the attendance.

Trainers and traineeship are assessed each 3 years based on specific methodologies adapted for each type of training. The annual assessment of trainers and coordinators of traineeships is conducted based on the procedures and the criteria set up by the Statute of the NIM training staff.

Examinations
NIM organizes on behalf of the SCM examinations related to judges and prosecutors careers, as follows:

1. Examinations for admission to magistracy:
   • admission to NIM;
   • admission to magistracy targeted at law school graduates having at least 5 years seniority in the practice of law;
2. Capacity examinations for junior judges and prosecutors;
3. Promotions to superior courts and prosecutor’s offices;
4. Appointments to management of court or prosecutor’s office positions.
5. Appointments to executive and managerial positions within the Judiciary Inspection.

NIM also organizes the graduation examination for the judicial trainees.

International relations
NIM is a member of the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) since 2007, being at the same time a member of the EJTN Steering Committee and a member of the working groups Exchange Programme, Programmes, Judicial Training Methods, Linguistics and Digitalisation. It also coordinates the Administrative Law Sub-Working Group.

NIM is very active in the EJTN’s Exchange Programme for judicial authorities and in all the other activities of the EJTN included in the Catalogue of training activities and Catalogue Plus.

NIM is also a founding member of the Euro-Arab Judicial Training Network (EAJTN).

NIM acts as a steady partner of many other schools and institutions responsible with the training of judges and prosecutors.