Rule of Law for Lawyers (ROLL)

January 2023 – December 2025

Funded by the European Union.

International Commission of Jurists, Forum for Human Rights (Czechia and Slovakia), Free Courts (Poland). In close cooperation with Helen Duffy from Human Rights in Practice and supported by the participation of the Romanian Institute for Human Rights.

Project Overview

Judicial independence, under attack or under pressure in many EU countries, is a gateway to protecting access to justice and human rights.

This project aims at fostering the effective use of strategic litigation to ensure access to judicial systems that are independent and effective. This will be achieved by increasing the capacity of human rights lawyers and CSOs. We will also enable the exchange of new and best practices among them.

Through the project we will also increase awareness and understanding of the importance and utility of the rule of law, and use of strategic litigation to protect and promote it by national human rights institutes (NHRI), lawyers and law students.

Specifically, we are interested in the following themes:

  • institutional independence of the judiciary;
  • autonomy of the prosecution service, incl. governance structures and procedures;
  • appointment procedures for the judiciary and prosecution;
  • freedom of expression of judges;
  • judicial and prosecutorial disciplinary procedures and their accountability;
  • judical ethics and accountability.

The project targets eight focus countries: Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechia, Slovakia, Malta and Spain. 

Project Activities

The project partners will:

  1. publish a factsheet on the link between the EU Fundamental Rights Charter and the rule of law;
  2. organise 3 capacity-building and exchange workshops for lawyers and CSOs;
  3. provide a set of mentoring sessions to lawyers
  4. publish a series of podcasts on the rule of law;
  5. publish the final Mapping Report with recommendations.

For more information about the project contact Carla on carlacamilleri@aditus.org.mt.


Hybrid – Judicial Independence Workshop – Malta

It is with great pleasure that we are launching to the second Judicial Independence Workshop which will be held in Malta, on the 23rd and 24th November 2023, at the Corinithia Marina Resort in St. Julians. Particpants from Malta have the unique opportunity to attend either in-person or online, whilst participants from overseas can attend online. Anyone interested in particpating, please send Carla an email.

Judicial Independence Podcast

The Judicial Independence Podcast is part of the ⁠Rule of law for lawyers project (ROLL)⁠ implemented by the ICJ, in partnership with Free Courts, aditus, Forum for Human Rights and Human Rights in practice. The podcast series looks into the current challenges to the rule of law, particularly to the independence of the judiciary in Europe. Throughout the course of 10 episodes of this podcast, we will speak with experts to shed light at some of these issues and will read more

Factsheet on Judicial Independence & the Rule of Law

The Rule Of Law for Lawyers (ROLL) project aims to promote independent and effective judicial systems that protects human rights by strengthening the knowledge and ability of lawyers and civil society organizations (CSOs) in national and European strategic litigation.

OPPORTUNITY: ROLL (Rule of Law for Lawyers) Litigation on judicial independence

Call for Participation in workshops for lawyers on strenthening judicial independence and the rule of law through strategic litigation The International Commission of Jurists – European Institutions (ICJ-EI) along with its partners (Human Rights in Practice, Free Courts, aditus, Forum for Human rights) is inviting lawyers from eight EU Member States (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Malta and Spain) to join three workshops in 2023-2024. These workshops focus on using strategic litigation in order to protect judicial independence and the Rule read more