Court staff and bailiffs’ training in European civil and criminal law

Abstract

Not all justice professions have had equal access to EU law training in the past. Whereas the offer of continuous training on EU law for judges, prosecutors and notaries is widespread and well-established, this is not the case for other justice professions, such as court and prosecution office staff and bailiffs (judicial officers). One of the main problems and challenges with providing training activities for these professions is the fact that each Member State has a different definition for court staff and different types of bailiffs. The professional status and backgrounds of bailiffs differ in terms of status (public/private officials) and competencies depending on the Member State. There is also a wide diversity of educational background, responsibilities and specific roles of the court staff in each country. For a long time, there has been an overall lack of awareness of the EU law aspects of court staff and bailiffs’ duties.