Last week the Expert
Council of Liberal Legal Professions and Insolvency Law held its
first meeting. The purpose of the Council is to involve academic and
practising lawyers in the development of legal practices pertaining
to the work of the Land Registry and Commercial Register as well as
notaries' offices and bankruptcy proceedings.
On the 5th of September, Justice Minister Rein Lang met in Brussels Joaquin Almunia, Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Commission, to discuss the legal issues of Estonia's transition to the euro.
In a conference
dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Estonian Commercial Code,
the Prime Minister and Justice Minister recognised the importance of
Estonian commercial law in contributing to Estonia's economic
success.
Tomorrow, 2
September, the Ministry of Justice, together with the Estonian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chamber of Notaries and the
Estonian Bar Association, will hold a conference in Radisson SAS
Hotel to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Commercial Code.
Until 16 September
2005 the Ministry of Justice will accept applications from non-profit
organisations and foundations who would like to receive support for
providing legal aid in 2005.
Today and tomorrow,
29-30 August, Justice Minister Rein Lang will visit West Estonia,
calling in on the institutions of the Ministry’s area of government
and meeting the mayors of local authorities and police
representatives.
On the last Sunday
of summer, 28 August, a free family event entitled "I'm clean.
I'm alive and beautiful. I don’t do drugs." will be held in
Vabaduse Square in Tallinn from 4.00pm to 7.30pm.
On August 22 the
heads of the Ministries of Justice and Internal Affairs, Police Board
and Prosecutor's Office gathered in the conference centre of
Laulasmaa Hotel in order to establish uniform priorities in combating
crime. At the end of the meeting the Ministers of Justice and
Internal Affairs signed a declaration setting out uniform priorities
and objectives.
Today, Justice
Minister Rein Lang will visit justice institutions in Narva and
Jõhvi, meet the heads of local authorities and visit the site
of the future Viru Prison.
At 3.00pm today
Minister of Justice Rein Lang, AS Virumaa Muuseumid CEO Ants Leemets,
Tallinn Cultural Heritage Department representative Boris Duboviki
and a representative of Riigi Kinnisvara AS will visit the former
Patarei prison to discuss the possible grant of use of the building
to Virumaa Museums.
With the support of
the Transition Facility of the European Union, the Ministry of
Justice will carry out the Drug Abuse Prevention in Prisons and
Rehabilitation of Imprisoned Persons project in cooperation with the
Dutch Ministry of Justice.
Until 1 September
the Ministry of Justice is accepting applications for a crime
prevention project competition where the amount of support to be
allocated is EEK 550 000 and the largest possible support per project
being EEK 100 000.
Today Justice
Minister Rein Lang will visit Põlva and Võru County
Courts where he will meet chairs of the local courts Epp Tombak and
Ülo Vijar and other employees.
The East Estonian Department of the Bureau of Forensic Medicine of Estonia whose territorial jurisdiction covers Lääne-Viru and Ida-Viru Counties will occupy the building, which opens at 1.00pm today. The Department hosts 13 positions and on average carries out 500 autopsies a year. Since the Bureau is a base institution for medical residents of the University of Tartu, practical and theoretical training concerning forensic medicine can be conducted there.
In a meeting which took place in the Ministry of Justice today, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Minister of Justice Rein Lang discussed issues of the Estonian business environment, the fight against contracts which are harmful to the state and the issue of official apartments. The ministers agreed that the Estonian business environment is sometimes too bureaucratic and that something needs to be done to improve it.
On 13 July Justice Minister Rein Lang visited Tallinn Prison in order to learn about its everyday activities and work issues. Thereafter the Minister paid a visit to the Northern Circuit Prosecutor's Office and the following day the Tallinn Circuit Court and Tallinn Administrative Court.
As of July 8 Estonian bailiffs will operate in four regions – North, West, Viru and South – instead of the former county-based system. Bailiffs were brought under four territorial jurisdictions for the purpose of improving the quality of bailiff services in line with the division of the territorial jurisdiction of courts into four regions from the beginning of 2006.
Tallinn City Court today announced its ruling in favour of the actions of the Ministry of Justice in reclaiming the site and buildings of Lennusadam Port from OÜ Agrin Partion, AS Verest, OÜ B&E and ELA Tolli AS.
In the two-day joint
seminar for officials shaping Estonian and Dutch criminal policies
held in Laulasmaa Hotel and ending today, Dutch participants admitted
that a probation supervision system is an effective means of
combating crime.
The Ministry of Justice will announce the second crime prevention project competition this year. This time 550,000 kroons is awarded as support and the maximum amount per project will be 100,000 kroons.
Tomorrow, on June 29, there will be a seminar on criminal policy in the Conference Centre of the Laulasmaa Hotel held jointly by the Ministries of Justice of Estonia and Holland, which focuses on the current and future challenges in shaping the Estonian criminal policy and introducing the problems and developments of the law enforcement system in Europe.
The task of the work group, which gathered for the first time today, is to revise the State Secrets Act, the Public Information Act and the Personal Data Protection Act and to modernise the definitions of protected, limited access and public information as well as their regulation.
At today's meeting the members of the Crime Prevention Council came to a joint conclusion that it is necessary to take complex measures to reduce juvenile delinquency and the spread of drugs among young people.
In the draft Succession Act which was sent to other ministries for approval the main amendment was the transition from the estate acceptance system to the estate surrender system. The draft act also improves the methods of keeping the estate and specifies the succession proceedings conducted by a notary public in greater detail.
Yesterday, with 73 votes in favour, the Riigikogu adopted the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Enforcement Procedure Implementation Act. The codes, which were adopted by the Riigikogu on April 20, will enter into force on 1 January 2006, on the date of entry into force of the court reform, which brings all courts under four regions.
Yesterday the Ministry of Justice sent the new draft Family Law Act to other ministries for approval. The act is aimed at modernising and clarifying the proprietary relations in the family and ensuring better protection of children and wards.
As of 2005 it is possible, similarly to the query system of the Estonian commercial register, to access the data of the entrepreneurs of various European companies on the Internet.
The Ministry of Justice supports 11 crime prevention projects with 950,243 kroons. The total number of applications submitted to the crime prevention project competition held for the second year in a row was 80.
Today Mr. Rein Lang, the Minister of Justice, introduced the plans of the Ministry of Justice for the years 2005-2007, emphasising the issues of legislative drafting and penal policy the most.
The premiere of an educational film regarding repressions during occupation “Under foreign rule: repressions in occupied Estonia 1940-1991” is introduced in the cinema Sõprus today at 14:30.
“Questions were predictably emotional but at the same time it was good to see that overreaction to this subject was recognized,” the Minister of Justice Ken-Marti Vaher commented today’s meeting with members of the Parliament fractions of Reform Party and Rahvaliit.
This morning the Minister of Justice Ken-Marti Vaher meets the Parliament fraction of Reform Party and explains the project on objectives of criminal institutions for 2005.
The Ministry of Justice announces a competition for crime prevention projects. Support is awarded in two categories – for smaller projects, the maximum support sum is 100 000 kroons, for larger projects it is 300 000 kroons.
According to the Legal Aid Act going into force today, there will be changes to the present situation where legal aid could only be requested in civil cases under special circumstances and within the court proceedings framework. From now on, legal aid can also be requested in pre-trial proceedings, for representation in execution proceedings, for drafting a legal document or for paying for other legal counsel or representation.
After the successful test period, the Harju County Court initiates the new remote court proceedings system. It is now possible to hold a court session between the court and the Murru Prison without either the judge or the detainee having to travel. This reduces the costs of the court proceedings and the security risks associated with the detainee transport.
Ken-Marti Vaher, the Minister of Justice, emphasized in his presentation at the full assembly of judges the importance of successfully implementing the Legal Aid Act and the Criminal Proceedings Code, which has reduced the court workload and hastened court proceedings through reducing the number of criminal cases.
As of the start of 2005, there were a total of 8188 persons on probation and registered in the criminal probation departments all over Estonia, of whom 212 were doing community service. In 2004, community service was done by a total of 432 persons.
At the end of last year, the land registry contained a total of 695 216 estates, incl. 336 175 plots of land, 356 751 apartment properties, 1834 building rights and 456 apartment building rights. In 2004, there were 219 479 title deed registrations, 173 515 in 2003.
At the start of 2005, the Business Registry included 67 808 business associations, 21 830 natural person entrepreneurs, 21 293 non-governmental organizations, 638 foundations and 388 subsidiaries of foreign business associations. Most of the business associations were limited companies (59 767), stock companies (6241) and profit associations (775). 3172 registered business associations have capital that exceeds a million kroons. Based on the 2003 fiscal year reports it can be said that the average net turnover of the business associations is 8.8 million kroons. The average business association lifespan is 5 years and 7 months.
The Ministry of Justice has selected the Aivar Pilv Law Office as the state legal aid supplier in damage compensation cases related to the storm damages in Estonia.
The Government has decided to send amendments to the Riigikogu for the laws related to the notarial matters to mainly reduce the notarial fees and to shorten the notarial queues. The purpose of the changes is to lower the costs of the most popular services today – the sale of immovables and their encumbering with a mortgage. In order to reduce notarial queues, it is planned to use the digital signature and to give the municipal and county secretaries the right to perform simpler acts of identification.
Ken-Marti Vaher, the Minister of Justice will open a memorial plaque today at 12.00 on the wall of the former Patarei Prison to commemorate the thousands who were oppressed in the building during the occupation.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the state will help to protect the rights of the insurance takers, if the insurance companies will attempt to sneak out of compensating for the damages.
Ken-Marti Vaher, the Minister of Justice, will propose to the Government to appoint the current Leading Public Prosecutor Norman Aas (29) as the new Public General Prosecutor.
Today at 16.00 in the White Hall of the History Museum of the University of Tartu, the Minister of Justice and the Ilmamaa publishing house will present the book „The Birth of Law“ by Jüri Uluots, the last legal Prime Minister of the pre-occupation Republic of Estonia and the main author of Estonia's first constitution.
Ken-Marti Vaher, the Minister of Justice, will open today at 13.00 in a formal ceremony in the lobby of the Tartu Courthouse II floor the Estonian Court Accounting Center that unites the accounting units that had so far worked separately in all courts.
Priidu Pärna, the Ministry of Justice chancellor, has asked to be relieved of his position from February 1 and the Minister of Justice will suggest that the Government appointed the current general prosecutor Jüri Pihl as the new chancellor.
