Judicial training institutes play an essential role in the development of the judiciary as they are charged, depending on the legal system, with the initial and / or continuous education and training of the members of the judiciary. Judicial training is, indeed, at the centre of a high performing, independent and impartial judicial system. Independent judicial training institutions are not only the key to the transmission of strong legal knowledge and skills, but they are also responsible to ensure that the judiciary is free from interference, starting by the preservation of an independent, unbiased and free mind-set of the future and current judges. 

Against this background, the regional workshop served as a platform to exchange best practices and experiences on modern judicial training methods between heads of judicial training institutes from selected countries of the MENA region and Europe. Among the discussed topics, the participants discussed the following topics from a comparative perspective: 

1. Selection processes of future judges and entry of trainee judges to the judicial training institutions; 

2. Curricula of theoretical judicial training;

3. Practical training of trainee judges;

4. Organizational structures (including financial and administrative means of judicial training institutes).

Sharing expertise and best practices through regional cooperation is essential to the development of independent judicial training institutions and contributes to strengthen the respect of the rule of law in the MENA region. Consequently, a second regional workshop on judicial training is currently being planned for 2019 in order to pursue and deepen the exchange on modern judicial training methods in the region.