We started a new two-year project “Better Legal Training” co-funded by the FCO Global Opportunity Fund. In partnership with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the UK Department of Constitutional Affairs we are aiming at supporting the Bulgarian government in improving the level and quality of national legal training as part of Bulgaria's efforts to effectively implement judicial reform. The project will contribute to enhancing the efficiency of the judiciary in Bulgaria through developing well-trained and motivated magistrates, improving their professional approach, encouraging more professional competence and creating and training teams of legal English trainers in accordance with European norms.

The project addresses five concrete needs in terms of training related to the judicial and prosecutorial magistrates. Each of the elements of training is skills-based and no elements cover substantive law. External expertise will be harnessed to delivering the following trainings:

1. Bulgarian national judges, public prosecutors and investigators - their role in the context of European values as European Union judges, prosecutors and investigators - acquiring new skills and refreshing old in order to face fresh challenges.
The training will encompass an assessment of the likely impact on Bulgaria’s legal system of EU accession, Bulgaria’s place within the European Union Landscape of Institutions and Values and challenges facing Bulgarian magistrates arising out of EU accession. The focus will be on the impact of accession to the EU on the skills required, and ethical guidelines to which they will be subject, and on the expectations of citizens Europe-wide, in relation to Bulgarian magistrates functioning within such widened European horizons as European magistrates.

2. Training in the Skills of Presentation and Representation for Prosecutors
Prosecutors will be trained in advocacy and representation skills. Such training will address the quality of both their oral representation and also their ability to present in written form. It will develop skills of drafting summonses well and writing indictments with clarity, leaving no room for interpretation. Well represented views in oral advocacy enable the court to have a clear understanding of the intention of a prosecution, the reasons for the prosecution and the strength of the evidence in support.

3. Training course for court administrators and court clerks
It will aim to improve court efficiency by clarifying respective roles, but equally, separating judicial from administrative responsibilities, to ensure that the opportunity to free up judges from their non-judicial workload is exploited in the best way.

4. Legal English Language Skills for Magistrates
The project will enable Bulgarian magistrates to better comprehend and conform to European legal norms, and to improve their grasp of English usage and modern legal English terminology. A sustainable legal English team of trainers will be created as part of the induction/training programme delivered by the NIJ. This will be validated by the entry of suitable trainees for the University of Cambridge International Legal English Certificate examination at the conclusion of the programme.

5. ‘Master Class for the Master Trainers’ in legal training methods
The course will provide an update to the training approaches and a reflection on training methods applied by involving materials in context, role play and interactive learning.

These new training modules will be developed and subsequently passed over to the NIJ for further use.  Such modules could be taught both within the initial training and as part of further or continuing professional development.

Through the project Bulgaria’s capacity to implement effectively the judicial reform will be enhanced and the professionalism of magistrates improved.

For more information please contact
Eva Atanassova
Project Manager