Introduction

This is the third webinar that is organised within the framework of the project TRIIAL – TRust, Independence,
Impartiality and Accountability of legal practitioners safeguarding the rule of Law under the EU Charter.
The TRIIAL project, which was funded by the European Union’s Justice Programme (2014-2020), under G.A.
no 853832, provides freely accessible training activities and tools for judges, lawyers, prosecutors, and
arbitrators on the European rule of law, mutual trust, judicial independence, impartiality and accountability.

This event is dedicated to discussing recent case law from the CJEU and the ECtHR on judicial accountability
standards, the challenges faced by national courts on applying these standards, and whether and how judicial
interactions can assist the enforcement of the rule of law in Europe. The first speaker will discuss the scope
and limits of the freedom of speech of judges through the lens of ECtHR case law. The second speaker, a
former civil judge will address the challenges faced by Polish courts in ensuring the respect of CJEU standards
on disciplinary sanctions against the judiciary in Poland. The third presentation will focus on defamation
lawsuits brought by judges and respective ECtHR case law against Portugal for violation of freedom of
expression. The final presentation will look at the future and consider two pending preliminary rulings sent by
Romanian courts concerning disciplinary sanctions and civil liability of judges adopted in the context of
controversial reforms of the Romanian judicial system: what role can the Cooperation and Verification
Mechanism (CVM) established at the time of Romania’s accession to the European Union play in the fight for
justice and rule of law? Moreover, which ECtHR caselaw should inspire the CJEU in the currently pending
cases on the Romanian justice system reform.

The speakers will present the key aspects of these cases and the reasoning developed, and will then reflect on
the implications of these decisions with scholars and practitioners from the institutions involved the TRIIAL
project.

For Programme and Registration form click HERE

UPDATE! For Final Programme click HERE

Past TRIIAL webinars are available here: https://cjc.eui.eu/projects/triial/