Internships abroad during initial training
Since the 2009 intake, trainee judges and prosecutors at the ENM have had the possibility of completing a 3-week internship with a foreign court, an international court, an international judicial cooperation body, an international institution or an embassy or with a liaison magistrate. This internship, which is undertaken at the end of their course, enables trainee judges and prosecutors to get a comprehensive grasp of the international dimension of justice through an immersion in a judicial system that may be similar or, on the contrary, far removed from the French system. This foreign internship can also be undertaken as part of a cooperation action organised by the ENM's International Department.
Internships abroad during in-service training
As part of the "Justice Without Borders" programme, each year the ENM offers around twenty French judges and prosecutors the chance to undertake a 15-day internship in a country outside the European Union: Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, United States, Gabon, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Russia, etc.
These immersion internships in another judicial system are an opportunity for French practitioners to confront a new reality, to carry out a critical analysis of the judicial system in their host country and compare and contrast it with the functioning of the French justice system. These comparative approaches provide input for reflections on the logic, challenges and transformations of judicial and legal systems specific to each country.
Experience sharing
Two of the main schemes run by the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) have institutionalised exchanges between serving and trainee judges and prosecutors in Member States of the European Union. Concerning the in-service training of judges and prosecutors, the Exchange Programme for Judicial Authorities (EPJA) created by the EJTN in 2005 offers short and long internships in courts and judicial training institutes in another Member State of the European Union and study visits to European bodies. The second exchange programme, "AIAKOS" is dedicated to judges and prosecutors during their initial training.
This experience sharing scheme, which involves 1600 French serving and trainee judges and prosecutors every year, has several aims:
- Discovery of the judicial system of the Member States;
- Exchanges of professional practices;
- Development of the European judicial training network;
- Language training.