Chapter 16 — Main Themes Encountered in Trial-Monitoring Programmes administrative cases in 2006. The OSCE trial-monitoring programmes in Albania, Azerbaijan, Croatia and Montenegro have also included components of civil and administrative monitoring in their work. Although the monitoring of civil and administrative proceedings is developed in this manual under the heading of thematic trial-monitoring programmes, some systemic monitoring programmes could also centre around civil and administrative proceedings. However, in line with the general descriptions set out in Chapter 1.4.1, this type of monitoring would most often be considered either a thematic monitoring programme or a discrete thematic element within a systemic programme, in that it has its own focus, methodology and staff. The LSMS of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, for example, divides its monitoring activities into those observing the criminal justice sector and those monitoring civil and administrative cases. As noted above, the LSMS is an instance in which a monitoring programme began by concentrating on the criminal system and only subsequently expanded into monitoring civil and administrative processes. When expanding operations into these fields, monitoring programmes will need to review any agreements or MoUs with the national authorities and confirm that they also provide access to civil and administrative proceedings.217 If, while setting up a programme, managers consider it likely that they will eventually be looking into civil and administrative proceedings, they may negotiate access agreements with the authorities that cover all these fields from the beginning. The differences in monitoring the various fields of criminal law is arguably not as great as the differences between criminal, civil and administrative proceedings, since each is regulated by an entirely different legal framework. If a monitoring programme wishes to cover all these aspects of the justice system, this may result in different teams being created to cover the distinct areas of law. In general, managers should try to hire staff with experience or specialized background in the particular type of legal proceedings they will be following.218 One of the greatest challenges in post-conflict countries and states in transition is that the legal framework for civil and administrative proceedings is often obsolete, discriminatory, inconsistent, scattered and suffering from legal vacuums. Therefore, monitoring programmes may need to make painstaking efforts to ensure that the most common and relevant substantive and procedural laws and legal material are obtained and made accessible to monitoring staff, including through translation, if necessary. Local academics and eminent practitioners have proven to be reliable trainers on civil and administrative law in host countries and are in a good position to identify the main problems in their systems. An initial challenge for new civil and administrative programmes is the identification and prioritization of cases. Existing programmes have focused on cases where vulnerable groups are involved. These have included cases related to the property rights of ethnic minorities, as well as cases on family law, conflict-related property claims and the adjudication of interim measures. It is possible that the programme will be required to identify parts of the legal framework that are obsolete, contradictory, biased or run contrary to human rights principles. This can be especially challenging when jurisprudence on particular matters is not straightforward. This was the case, for instance, with regard to property adjudication proceedings in Kosovo, which presented many legal dilemmas. Monitoring staff may need to compare how certain institutions function in other justice systems, in order to propose more effective and human rights-compliant ways of dealing with certain disputes or legal actions. Programmes will also need to be vigilant in addressing issues that may 217 See Chapter 4, “Access to court proceedings”. 218  When the OSCE Mission in Kosovo started to expand its programme, it shifted international monitors to civil and administrative proceedings and handed over criminal cases to newly hired national monitors, in order to use the experience of international professionals at the outset of monitoring new areas of the justice system. 141