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Judges Forum: A significant number of changes to the laws of justice are extremely harmful
The Forum of Judges of Romania (FJR) argues that a significant number of changes to the laws of justice are extremely harmful to the judiciary with the need to be delayed or suspended the application of those provisions,until the review of the total, or, where appropriate, the abrogation of the provisions already in force.
FJR says that in principle the legislature and the executive should consider immediately the Opinion delivered on July 13, 2018 by the Venice Commission "to avoid damaging the judiciary".
Consequently, in the opinion of the Venice Commission on July 13, 2018, the legislature and the executive are required to rethink immediately the appointment / dismissal of prosecutors in positions of senior management, to ensure conditions for a process of appointment / revocation neutral and objective by maintaining the role of authorities such as the President and the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), able to counterbalance the influence of the Minister of Justice.
According to FJR there must be removed the proposed limitations on the freedom of expression of judges and prosecutors and there should be revised the provisions on material responsibility of judges, changing the mechanism of development of recourse action.
It is also necessary that the legislative and executive power cancel the establishment of a separate structure for the investigation of the offenses committed by judges and prosecutors and to drop the provisions which provide the doubling of the period of training at the National Institute of Magistracy.
According to "the new provisions on the " laws of justice ",the meritocracy will be eliminated in the judiciary, for example, the promotion of prosecutors will be made based on subjective criteria, namely" the evaluation of the work and conduct over the past three years ",at the High Court of Cassation and Justice is accompanied by a formal interview before the Superior Council of Magistracy, thus eliminating the written tests, theoretical and / or practical and instituting a system of control of promotions, "says FJR.
According to the reorganization of the Judicial Inspection, the position of the head inspector will be strengthened in an unjustified way, who will appoint the inspectors to occupy management positions (following a simple assessment of the management projects specific for each domain) controlling virtually the selection of the judicial inspectors, leading and controlling the work of inspection and the disciplinary investigation, he will be main the only holder of disciplinary action. All these changes are aspects that indicate a relativity of the professional standards imposed to the Judicial Inspection leadership with the consequent elimination of its operational independence. This trend generates negative effects on the quality of Judicial Inspection on the liability of magistrates and, consequently, is likely to jeopardize the independence of the judiciary and even the constitutional role of the Superior Council of Magistracy as guarantor of judicial independence. The Establishment by law a provision which, on the one hand, promotes the bias of the head inspector in the designation of the Judicial Inspection and, on the other hand, establishes a total dependence of all mandates governing the inspection on the mandate of the head inspector is a violation of the principle of ensuring the legal certainty in the exercise of warrants by the respective governing judicial inspectors.
Therefore, the judiciary will be reduced (on a short term by at least 25%, unless they find measures to counteract the effects of early retirement) will be deprofessionalised by giving up exams to promote merit, will be over-tired by the increased volume of activity, will be supervised by the head of the Judicial Inspection and special sections for investigation of crimes of justice of the POHCCJ, the magistrate prosecutors will lose their de facto independence, the control being made implicitly by the Minister of justice, a political factor that will give guidance on preventing and combating crime effectively shows FJR.
"Obviously all these changes to the laws of justice, sent the President of Romania for promulgation or, where appropriate, already in force are not necessary in a court of a democratic state, not in any way beneficial for the judiciary and society . On the contrary, they are extremely harmful to the judiciary, the need to delay or suspend the application of those provisions criticized by the Venice Commission and GRECO, their total review, or, where appropriate,the abrogation of those provisions in force "said the Judges’ Forum.