In 2012, the Law Program’s efforts were focused on four main topics: public confidence in justice; building the capacity of the judiciary; legislative reform; and fundamental rights.

2012 Highlights

• Public confidence in justice. The Law Program continued its efforts in studying public confidence in justice by joining a new initiative, FIDUCIA, shedding light on a number of ‘new European’ criminal acts which have emerged in the last decade. CSD leads the effort on cybercrime and plays an important role in exploring other work topics.

• Building the capacity of the judiciary. The Law Program produced a study on Justice Sector Institutional Indicators for Criminal Case Management and co-organized a public hearing at the European Parliament on improving criminal justice systems in Europe, using electronic tools. In one of its newer areas of interest – environmental crime and marine pollution – the Law Program took part in the organization of training courses for members of the judiciary.

• Legislative reform. This year’s legislative efforts of the Law Program covered the areas of registration reform, organized crime, criminal law and e-justice. It prepared and presented an updated strategy for registration reform, organized a public discussion on Bulgarian penal legislation and its weaknesses affecting the fight against organized crime and participated in working groups on the new Bulgarian Criminal Code and on an e-justice legislative amendment package.

• Fundamental rights. In the broad framework of initiatives targeting fundamental rights, the Law Program continued monitoring of racism and xenophobia as part of the Rights, Equality and Diversity (RED) Network, and its work on the improvement of the penitentiary system and the situation of children victims of trafficking. It published a report on the right of defense in Bulgarian criminal proceedings and completed the first update of the factsheets on rights of victims of crime in criminal proceedings prepared for and uploaded on the European e-Justice Portal.