The Estonian Minister of Justice Kristen Michal commended the Estonian Public Prosecutor’s Office, the police and the Estonian Forensic Science Institute for successfully carrying out an international operation that led to the arrest of persons suspected of widespread money laundering.
The e-annual reporting environment, created by the Estonian Centre of Registers and Information Systems for entrepreneurs to enable filing annual reports electronically, was voted the best solution of its category from among more than 460 projects at the global e-solution contest World Summit Award 2011.
Today will begin the preparations for the high-level law congress to be held in Estonia and for this purpose the Steering Committee of FIDE, the International Federation for European Law, will assemble on Friday in Tallinn under the leadership of dr iur Julia Laffranque.
According to Rein Lang, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Estonia, the re-election of Prosecutor Raivo Sepp to the office of Vice President of Eurojust shows that Estonia is recognised as a good co-operation partner in proceedings of criminal cases with international dimension.
The Minister of Justice of Estonia, Rein Lang participated in a high-level cyber security conference in the USA and met with Louis Grever, the Executive Assistant Director of the FBI and with Eric Holder, a colleague in the USA.
On the 12th of January, a summary of crime statistics 2009 was introduced at the Ministry of Justice according to which the number of criminal offences registered in Estonia has decreased by 5.1 percent.
A World Record was made by the fastest establishing of an enterprise via Internet, using the e-Commercial Register Company Registration Portal of the Centre of Registries and Information Systems of the Estonian Ministry of Justice.
Cross-border digital signature and Digital Land Register that have been developed in the Centre of Registers and Information Systems of the Ministry of Justice reached the final of the European eGovernment Awards.
Today, a convoy of the Prison Service brought Milan Martić into the country. Milan Martić was the last president of the unrecognised Republic of Serbian Krajina, convicted with a judgement of the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia.
Top-level specialists of the Cyber-Crime Prevention Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted a high-level conference about the technical investigation of cyber-crime in Tallinn, in cooperation with the Estonian Ministry of Justice and the Estonian Forensic Science Institute (EKEI).
This week, the first company in Estonian business history was created in the Company Registration Portal with a Finnish ID card, without the founders of the company having had to leave their desks to get the company officially registered in Estonia.
Today the Government approved a draft legislation with which the punishments for several offences against the Republic of Estonia will be made more severe.
Estonian Company Registration Portal can now be used to found companies by holders of Finnish ID cards. Holders of Portuguese, Lithuanian and Belgian ID cards have been able to use this service for some time.
The Company Registration Portal can now be used to found companies by holders of Portuguese, Lithuanian and Belgian ID cards. Finland will soon join this list.
Ministers Rein Lang and Jüri Pihl visited the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington and met with the managers of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
Starting from 1 October 2008, electronic petitions for expedited order for payment procedure can be submitted in Estonia.order for payment procedure is the simplest, quickest and the most resource-sparing way of reaching a judgment in case of claims that are not disputed, e.g. in the case of a claim for child support or a minor debt owed to a neighbour.
Today, on 29 September, Rein Lang, the Minister of Justice, and Jüri Pihl, the Minister of the Interior, met with Matthew Friedrich, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the United States of America during their visit to the US. The aim of the meeting was to enhance cooperation in judicial matters between the two countries.
Today, on 16 September, the Ministry of Justice sent to other ministries for approval a draft Act on post-sentence detention, which will help to protect society from dangerous recidivists and reduce repeated offences.
At the event organised for the purpose of recording memories relating to the Narva prison camp, the Minister of Justice commended the city of Narva for valuing its history and emphasised that all repressions carried out after World War II must be thoroughly mapped and documented.
Today, on 29 July, Rein Lang, the Minister of Justice, Jüri Pihl, the Minister of the Interior, and Jaak Saarniit, Chairman of the Management Board of Riigi Kinnisvara AS, inaugurated Viru Prison in Jõhvi.
Starting from Monday, 21 July, individuals and companies can submit electronic petitions for expedited order for payment procedure. The aim of the project is to enable individuals and companies to communicate with courts via the public E-File.
A draft Act which the Ministry of Justice today sent to other ministries for approval provides for reorganisation proceedings of companies facing solvency problems as an alternative to the current bankruptcy proceedings.
In April the police authorities of Estonia and Latvia as well as executives of the Estonian Forensic Science Institute signed a Memorandum of Understanding that provides for the exchange of DNA profiles and making comparisons in the DNA register between the two countries.
The Estonian Forensic Science Institute and the Estonian and Latvian police signed an agreement concerning the exchange of DNA data in order to identify the persons who have committed a crime in the other country.
The draft which amends the procedure for the provision of state legal assistance in a manner that the advocate providing state legal assistance is to be appointed by the bar association was sent by the Ministry of Justice to other ministries for approval.
This week a 14-member delegation from the Balkan states visited Estonia in order to acquaint themselves with the rapid development of the Estonian prison system.
Probation supervision has been provided for ten years on 1 May. It has been a successful period – there are four probation supervision regions in Estonia with a total of 230 officers.
Today, on 11 April, the Estonian Forensic Science Institute will celebrate its 70th anniversary. In connection with the anniversary a festive event was arranged which was opened by the Minister of Justice, Rein Lang.
Today, on 8 April, a public hearing is held in Brussels concerning crimes committed by totalitarian regimes which discusses two major themes – the knowledge about the totalitarian crimes and the ways of seeking conciliation.
Today, on 3 April, the Government approved the anti-corruption strategy for 2008-2012 which concentrates on preventing corruption in private sector, healthcare and political party financing.
Tomorrow, on 7 March, a meeting will be held in Viru Prison in the framework of the project The Strengthening of the Estonian Prison System which was cofinanced by Norway. At the meeting the representatives of the Estonian prison system will give an intermediary overview of the current achievements and future steps to the foreign experts and the Norwegian Ministry of Justice.
Today, on 28. February, the officials of Latvian Ministry of Internal Affairs visit Estonia to gain experience about the application of electronic surveillance. The Latvians are interested in preparing and carrying out the electronic surveillance project in Estonia.
Today, on April 3, the Government approved the draft Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure Amendment Act in order to fight international corruption.
As a result of the amendments to the Commercial Code that took effect in the previous week, private limited companies and public limited companies entered in the commercial register of Estonia can now easily merge with companies established in the European Economic Area, while preserving legal continuity.
The Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union reached a political agreement on the choice of law governing international contracts (the so-called Rome I Regulation).
At the Hague Diplomatic Conference a convention was signed by nearly 50 states which simplifies the recovery of maintenance support from obligors residing in foreign countries.
The Ministry of Justice has submitted a draft to the Government which specifies the necessary elements of a criminal offence in the case of attacks against computer systems and provides for severer punishments for such offences.
At the end of October the Centre of Registers and Information Systems of the Ministry of Justice and the Vaata Maailma Foundation signed a cooperation agreement the objective of which is to render Estoniathe state with the most secure information society by 2009.
According to the results of a recent racism and xenophobia survey commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, there is no base for an increase of the number of hate crimes in Estonia, considering the attitudes and feeling of security of people in Estonia.
The September issue of the reputable
European Lawyer magazine features an
article by current and former Ministers of Justice Rein Lang
and Jüri Raidla, who state that thanks to the new Entrepreneur’s Law, Estonia could soon be compared to
the US state of Delaware for its enterprise-friendly business environment.
The Company Registration Portal has been chosen at the Tunnusta ettevõtluse edendajat /Recognise promoters of enterprise/ awards ceremony held at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications to represent Estonia at the 2007 European Enterprise Awards.
At the meeting held today, on 18 July, the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Internal Affairs decided to develop a package of law amendments aimed at improvement of the situation in traffic.
The Centre of Registers and Information Systems introduced electronic registration possibilities to Europe at the conference fair “Work on E-Justice 2007” taking place in Bremen, Germany, from 29 to 31 May.
The Council of Europe has adopted a new regulation establishing a European small claims procedure. This means that submitting cross-border claims of up to EUR 2000 will be much easier in future.
Around one-tenth fewer crimes were registered in Estonia
in the first half of 2007 compared to the last six months of 2006, and the
number of inmates in the country’s prisons decreased by more than 10% in the
same period.
Last week the Schengen Evaluation Working Party which assembled in Brussels and consists of representatives of all the member states of the European Union and representatives of Norway, Switzerland and Iceland heard a report of the expert group on the level of the personal data protection in Estonia and approved the same.
Today, on April 16, Justice Minister Rein Lang introduced the development plans and goals of the justice system to the employees of the Ministry and representatives of the institutions in its area of government.
At the cabinet meeting that took place today, March 22, the ministers got acquiainted with the report drawn up by the expert commission formed in September of 1994 to investigate the circumstances of shipment of equipment for military use that took place on m/s "Estonia" and decided to disclose it.
On February 26 Justice Minister Rein Lang announced the 15th anniversary year of the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia in the hall of the Council of the University of Tartu. The logo of the anniversary was also presented.
The Riigikogu adopted the Child support Act, which allows single parents to apply to the state for child support provided that they initiate court proceedings against the parent who is in violation of the support obligation.
On February 1 amendments to the procedure for confiscation of proceeds of crime entered into force, considerably simplifying confiscation of proceeds of crime, including, for example, cars, houses and amounts on a bank account.
On January 24 the Public Information Act Amendment Act passed the third reading and was adopted by the Riigikogu. The act was aimed at increasing the transparency of the public authority and bringing the effective act into compliance with the modern information technology developments.
The Riigikogu adopted extensive amendments to the special part of the penal law, which specify the elements of criminal official conduct, tax crimes, economic crimes and crimes against intellectual property. The new law will enter into force on March 15.
Along with the introduction of the expedited Commercial Register procedure the coverage of the fields of activity of entrepreneurs has been changed as of this year. For instance, entrepreneurs will have to indicate the actual activities of the company and the number of the fields of activity recorded in the Commercial Register is limited from now on. This helps to make certain what the company is actually doing.
The personal data protection act adopted by the Riigikogu, which enters into force as of 2007, will considerably improve the protection of personal data and regulate the processing of personal data lawfully granted for public use.
The Ministry of Justice will send to other ministries for approval a draft act, which prohibits persons convicted of sexual crimes against children from working with children and gives the parents information about the conviction of a person of such crimes in the case of a justified interest.
According to the summary of the crime statistics in 2006 prepared by the Ministry of Justice, crime in Estonia is back to the level preceding the rise in 1999.
In the first week over a hundred first entry and amendment applications have been submitted via the portal for remote administration of companies, which was opened on January 2, 2007. Most of the applications have been processed by way of the expedited procedure.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
On the 8th of February, Estonian Minister of Justice Rein Lang and the U.S. Ambassador to Estonia Aldona Z. Wos signed two agreements between the two governments - the Extradition Treaty and the Instrument to the Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
