Context
The European Commission’s Communication “Ensuring justice in the EU – a European judicial training strategy for 2021-2024” (hereafter the “EU training strategy”) provides a framework for the proper implementation of the competences that the Lisbon Treaty granted to the EU in relation to judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, especially through training legal professionals so as to improve the correct and uniform application of EU law. In addition, the EU training strategy is an indispensable tool to ensure “the effective application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and making the Charter rights a reality in people’s everyday lives”. While the EU training strategy highlights the positive impact of the European judicial training strategy in ensuring justice in the EU, it also makes clear that action is needed on various fronts, and that justice practitioners play an essential role in upholding the rule of law, so making the proper training of these professionals an obligation rather than an option.
Due to their unique position as regulators of the legal profession (i.e. lawyers) in the various EU Member States, Bars and Law Societies (hereafter collectively called Bars) are in the best possible position to help the EU fulfil its objectives in terms of training. As a result of regulating and providing other services to their members, Bars know where the need for training lies (i.e. which areas of EU law need to be addressed), and how they can be best addressed (i.e. which activities are best suited for successful training, so as to have a direct impact on the rights of citizens and businesses, while also contributing to the rule of law in their Member State). In fact, EU lawyers’ training needs are not static but evolve in parallel with the developments of European society and EU law.
The TRADICIL project (acronym for ‘Training of lawyers on digitalisation of justice and EU civil law) is the result of the reinforced tri-partite collaboration between the European Lawyers Foundation (ELF), the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and the Bars and Law Societies of various EU Member States (for more information, click above on “consortium”), to address lawyers’ training needs in two specific areas of EU law: digitalisation of justice and EU civil law. With TRADICIL, the partner organisations behind the project reaffirm their commitment to continue training lawyers in EU law to the highest levels of excellence, while contributing to the reinforcement of the rule of law in the EU.
Needs that the project aims to address
Lawyers’ training needs are broad and cover an extensive array of EU law. These needs go from training in “traditional” areas such as EU civil law to more specific and timely needs such as training on various aspects of the digitalisation of justice in the EU. However, training does not only focus on the content of its events, but needs to refer also to the format in which the training is delivered, as some of the justice professionals addressed by the training (lawyers in our case) may be better suited to online training, whereas others may prefer in-person training due to their field of practice (e.g. civil lawyers with a cross-border practice may prefer in-person training as it favours positive networking between the participants in the training). With this in mind, and as a result of the assessment undertaken in 2024, ELF, CCBE and some EU Bars – all organisations which know first hand, due to their status and work, the needs of lawyers in terms of training - submitted the TRADICIL project to the European Commission for funding under the Justice Programme. The project takes into account the training needs of lawyers in various areas of EU law, namely digitalisation of justice as well as family and succession law, including also the format in which the training needs to be delivered.
Objectives
To train at least 500 lawyers from 26 EU Member States in digitalisation of justice through the holding of 2 pan-European hybrid training events referring to various aspects of the digitalisation of justice
To train and facilitate networking for 316 lawyers from 11 Member States on EU family and succession law through the holding of 10 in-person seminars
To make available to EU lawyers the material resulting from the training activities through free consultation and download from ELF’s website
To undertake communication activities: (a) to reach the largest possible group of participants in the project training activities, and (ii) to keep EU Bars and lawyers informed about the project’s state of play.
To contribute to the EU’s objective of continuing training on EU law reaching 15% of lawyers in the EU by 2024
Target group
The main target of TRADICIL are lawyers, due to the importance of their training needs in the areas to be addressed by this project. Nevertheless, EU Bars are also themselves targeted, as it is very important for them to be regularly informed about the state of play of the project and to be involved in the 2 pan-European hybrid training events on digitalisation of justice (these 2 events will target all EU Member States, except Denmark, which is not part of the Justice Programme).
The fact that all the project partners are professional organisations representing Bars/lawyers is the best possible guarantee to ensure the engagement of the target groups in project activities, since lawyers are members of EU Bars which, at the same time, are members of the CCBE/ELF.
Co-funded by the European Union
Material resulting from the training events on family law held in the framework of the TRADICIL project.
TRADICIL Bucharest presentations
Material resulting from the training events on succession law held in the framework of the TRADICIL project.
TRADICIL Nicosia presentations
On 3rd October 2025, the European Lawyers Foundation and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe organised a significant event on digitalisation of justice in the EU. The event took place in Brussels, at the European Parliament, and was live-streamed. It featured top level speakers, who dealt with a variety of issues on the topic of digitalisation of justice.
To watch the event’s video recording, visit our YouTube channel here.
To access the material presented by the speakers click here.
The event’s programme is available here.