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Clarity in justice Dr. András Osztovits judge, Kúria Courts and Communication V., Budapest - 2017. Jurisprudence-analysing working group. Set up by the President of Kúria, 2013 Aim: examine the drafting methods of Hungarian court decisions
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Clarity in justice Dr. András Osztovits judge, Kúria Courts and Communication V., Budapest - 2017
Jurisprudence-analysing working group • Set up by the President of Kúria, 2013 • Aim: examine the drafting methods of Hungarian court decisions • Members: 6 Kúria judges, a linguistics professor, a playreader, an IT expert • Forming 3 sub-groups: linguistics, information technology, comparative law
Linguistics sub-group • Result of examination several hundred decisions • cumbersome sentence structure, stylistic errors, grammatical mistakes • no uniform spelling rules of dates, numbers, names, abbreviations • legal expalantion lengthy and cumbersome • detailed factual background with non-relevant informations
Information technology sub-group • part of decisionscan be automated • computer programmecan be developed: • - canoffertextualvariables • - canrecognisenames, sensitivedatas • - nottiethejudges’ hand • - result more uniform and searchabledecisions
Comparative law sub-group • Sources: • Magna Charta of Judges (CCJE) • Vilnius Declaration (ENCJ) • draftingpractices of 18 European countries • Results: • use of clear and understandableterms is a universalneed • shortenthelength of decisions
Summary report • Published in 2014 • Five levels of unification of decision writing: • 1. linguistic correctness • 2. stylistic correctness • 3. citation uniformity • 4. structural uniformity • 5. contents • Need for a stylebook
Stylebook • Conclusions: • logical set of arguments in the reasons of a decision • only necessary factual background • summarisation and categorisation of parties arguments • avoid irrelevant explanations
Stylebook • References to legal rules • References to case law • References to legal literature • References to explanatory note of Ministry of Justice
First experiences of the Stylebook • Recommendation of the President of Kúria (2014) • Positive feedback from courts and legal professionals • More transparent and searchable decisions • 5 years later a new analysing working group