Project Summary:

Reform in the justice sector is a key area in Moldova’s national development policies and plans. Through its mandate, the NIJ can directly influence the quality of judicial acts, the reform of the justice system and ultimately the trust of people in justice institutions and processes. The project will strengthen the institutional capacities and further reinforce the physical infrastructure of the NIJ to enable an environment for nurturing next-generation justice professionals, equipped with skills, knowledge and competences compliant with the demand for efficient justice. To this end, the NIJ will be assisted to lay the foundation and incorporate concepts of legal research, reasoning and writing into the professional training of judges and prosecutors, building upon the NIJ’s vision on practice-oriented training program. The institution will be supported to upgrade its digital offer by further developing, integrating and enhancing the learning technology, capability and content to improve retention and acceleration of immersive skills-based learning.

Objective:

The general objective of the project is to foster a more efficient justice system accessible to all by reinforcing national capacities and structures to provide efficient skills-based training for legal professionals in Moldova.

Expected results:

• NIJ’s capacities (knowledge and methodology) to incorporate concepts of legal research, reasoning, and writing into the legal professionals’ training enhanced;
• Technical capacities of the NIJ to securely manage the internal IT system enhanced;
• NIJ’s e-tools and content management platforms upgraded and integrated;
• Hardware capacities for organizing the training process at the NIJ upgraded;
• NIJ’s building envelope renovated;
• Networking and engagement of the NIJ in activities of regional and international judicial training platforms enabled;
• Legal English Curriculum developed.

Accomplishments:

• Translation and publishing of the Romanian edition (2,500 copies) of the book “How judges think” by Richard Posner, as a considerable contribution to promoting further expertise in legal research, reasoning, and writing;
• Review on the implementation of the NIJ’s mock trial program completed, with substantive recommendations for strengthening the existing mock trial training methodology endorsed by the NIJ;
• Methodology for embedding legal research, reasoning, and writing concepts into the NIJ’s mock trial program developed and endorsed by the NIJ;

• Induction training course for embedding the legal research, reasoning, and writing concepts with the NIJ's mock trial program developed;

• Report “Judgment drafting and Training on Legal Writing in the Republic of Moldova”, developed with U.S.-UNDP support, launched;
• Two assessments carried out to determine the status and to define possible solutions to improve the information technology system (software and hardware components) of the NIJ, used both in the administration processes and in the training process;
• NIJ’s hardware and software capacities for organizing the training processes upgraded;
• Participation of the NIJ representatives in two European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) events supported;
• Renovation of the NIJ building envelope renovated;
• Legal English course as a professional toolkit developed and submitted to the NIJ to be integrated with the NIJ's training programme for legal professionals. On-line training course on Legal English developed and available on NIJ’s e-learning platform.