Summary

Pursuant to subsections § 39 (1) and (4) of the Courts Act, courts of the first instance and courts of appeal (county courts, administrative courts and circuit courts) are administered in co-operation between the Council for Administration of Courts and the Ministry of Justice. Administration of courts must ensure the possibility for independent administration of justice, the working conditions necessary for administration of justice, adequate training of court officers and the availability of administration of justice.

It is undisputed that the attainment of all of those objectives depends, inter alia, on the availability of the necessary budgetary resources. The minister responsible for the area will approve the budgets of courts within two months after the state budget is passed as an Act, considering the opinion formulated by the Council for Administration of Courts (subsection § 43 (1) of the Courts Act). The Courts Act does not lay down more specific principles for the financing of courts.

‘The Good Practice of Administration of Courts’ approved by the Council for Administration of Courts has focused in particular on the budgetary process of each judicial authority and does not regulate whether and in what way the budgets of the courts should be comparable and balanced and on what criteria the budgets could be comparable. The Article states that many of the concerns of the courts of first and second instance, including the problems caused by underfunding, fall back on the fact that there is not a sufficiently substantial overview of courts in the financing of the court system to assess the budgetary needs and capacity of the judicial authorities to protect these needs in budgetary negotiations.