On 28 and 29 November 2024, the French Council of State and ACA-Europe organised a seminar on ‘Ethics and the recruitment of members of the Supreme Administrative Courts and Councils of State’. This symposium was the fourth to be held under the Finnish Presidency, following the symposia in Inari in May 2024, Zagreb in February 2024 and Stockholm in October 2023.

This seminar was unique in that it was held in Versailles, a unique and historic place for Europe, which saw the start of the French Revolution, the end of absolute monarchy and the signing of the peace treaty with Germany and its allies in 1919, marking the end of the First World War.

More than sixty participants attended: representatives of the Councils of State and supreme administrative jurisdictions of the ACA-Europe Member States, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and States with guest or observer status with the Association.

Based on the Stockholm model of spontaneous, short speeches and lively, free-flowing discussions, participants were able to discuss the ethics and recruitment of their members. These issues prompted them to question their organisation and operation, their strengths and weaknesses, at a time when justice and the judges who deliver it are the focus of increasing public attention.

Initially, a general report was drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire answered by 32 of the participating institutions, making it possible to highlight common and isolated difficulties and possible solutions, and to compare legislative frameworks and case-law. This report is available on the association’s website.

The seminar then gave participants the opportunity to share their knowledge and information, their questions and answers, at three round tables. The first two dealt with ethics, the first focusing on form, i.e. the nature of ethical rules, how they are drawn up, their scope and their effects, and the second on substance, i.e. the content of these rules. The third and final round table addressed the recruitment of administrative magistrates, access routes, the main criteria for recruitment and the difficulties encountered during recruitment.

These discussions opened with the words of the Vice-President of the French Council of State, Didier-Roland Tabuteau, who recalled that ‘at a time when the rule of law is under attack, when judges are being abused, we must also discuss what makes us strong, so that institutions can resist. Because the rule of law, now more than ever, is essential for the future of nations and Europe.’

The first round table on the institutional framework of ethics led to debates on the sources, form and scope of ethical rules in the participating countries. The participants discussed the institutionalisation of ethics, the need for a written code of ethics and who should draft it. They also addressed the issues of the mandatory nature of ethical rules, the distinction between them and disciplinary rules and the scope of ethical rules, i.e. whether they extended to trial judges and members of the litigation and advisory divisions. This first round table was also an opportunity to consider the creation of a special body responsible for ensuring compliance with ethical principles as a third-party guarantor of decisions.

The second round table gave ACA members the chance to present the basic principles and rules that make up their codes of ethics. An initial discussion focused on the principle of probity and the distinction between a judge’s management of his or her own assets and the status of entrepreneur, which is at odds with ethical principles. The discussions then turned to the principles of independence and impartiality, in particular the possibility of a judge sitting on cases involving a public body of which he or she had been an employee, and then to the subject of religious and academic neutrality and its limits. In conclusion, the participants stressed the importance of the independence, impartiality and neutrality of administrative justice in relation to users, in order to maintain the latter’s confidence in the public justice service.

The third round table on recruitment methods for administrative magistrates was firstly an opportunity to consider the routes into the judiciary and the selection criteria. The participants noted the importance of diversity in the professional backgrounds of judges, the general difficulties involved in recruitment, particularly in recruiting judges from different social backgrounds and meeting gender equality criteria. Finally, the question of the role of the legislative and executive powers in the selection process for administrative judges was addressed.

These exchanges on the fascinating subjects of ethics and recruitment, which represent daily difficulties for the participants, show that ACA-Europe has become a privileged forum and a regular setting for dialogue between the judges of Europe’s supreme administrative courts. Its next seminar will take place in The Hague in March 2025, and will be co-organised by the Dutch and Belgian Councils of State.