Current Vulnerabilities in the Functioning of the Romanian Judiciary System

Abstract

On August 23rd, 2017, by a PowerPoint document presented at a press conference, the Minister of Justice proposed a new set of amendments to the "laws of justice" (Law no. 303/2004, Law no. 304/2004 and Law no. 317/2004), without impact studies and prior consultation on key legislative issues, to ensure decisional transparency regarding the magistrates (judges and prosecutors) and the civil society.

The draft was communicated to the Superior Council of Magistracy, and in its meeting of September 28th 2017 the Plenum issued a negative opinion on the whole project, taking into account the votes expressed in numerous general assemblies of the judges and prosecutors from the courts and prosecutor's offices, where they were rejected, in overwhelming proportion, among other things, all substantive changes to the draft law, reorganization of the Judicial Inspection as a structure with legal entity within the Ministry of Justice, the amendments of the decisions for al the nominations at the top of the judiciary system (General Prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor's Office attached to HCCJ, first deputy and assistent, the chief prosecutor of the NAD, his deputies, the chief prosecutors of the Prosecutor's Office attached to the HCCJ and the NAD, as well as the chief prosecutor of DIICOT and his deputies), the proposed amendments regarding the magistrates' liability regime, the changes of the recruitment system of the magistrates - the age limit (30 years) for admission to the National Institute of Magistracy and the required seniority in another legal profession of at least 5 years, the amendments regarding the exams for promotion in executive positions, maintaining the court budget at the Ministry of Justice, as well as the establishment within the Public Prosecutor's Office attached to HCCJ of a specialized directorate with exclusive competence to carry out criminal prosecution for the offences committed by judges and prosecutors, regardless of their nature and gravity.

There are difficult years yet to come, and the support of the European Commission under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism of Romania's progress in achieving specific benchmarks in the field of judiciary reform and the fight against corruption will be essential.

Keywords: judicial system, Judicial Inspection, Superior Council of Magistracy, magistrates' liability regime, status of judges and prosecutors, admission in magistracy