On July 13, the
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of the Slovak Republic submitted a draft constitutional amendment on judicial reform into
the interdepartmental review. The bill is an attempt at a comprehensive
reform of the general and constitutional judiciary that implements the main theses
of the 2020-24 govt proclamation programme.
The interdepartmental
review restricts pathways to legislative and constitutional change by the
executive. Unlike MPs, who are legally exempt from the prepublication, the
Cabinet and Ministries must first submit every proposed change of the law on
the books into the interdepartmental process (under Act No. 400/2015 Coll. on
Lawmaking and the Collection of Laws). The process allows the general and
professional public, as well as anyone interested, to comment on the bill
before it is presented to Parliament. The prepublication of a piece of
legislation allows the public to control the exercise of lawmaking and even constitution-making
powers. The author of the bill ought to consider the comments and either agree
or disagree with the changes or make alternative proposals.
The MoJ seemingly
consulted the constitutional amendment bill on judicial reform widely,
including the Judicial Council, the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic
and other stakeholders. It remains to be seen if the proposed reforms will be
received well by the general and constitutional judiciary. The bill focuses on
these critical items:
- reform of the composition
of the Judicial Council;
- review of the property
and declared assets of judges;
- reform of the
Constitutional Court;
- constitutional review
of legislation in complaint proceedings;
- introduction of
retirement age for lower court and Constitutional Court judges; and
- the establishment of
the Supreme Administrative Court.
According to the
explanatory note to the bill, the MoJ has the following opinion of a
constitutional amendment:
A sensible and prudent
constitution-maker implements more extensive changes to the text of the
Constitution either (i) due to "tectonic" societal change and the
consequent need to adapt the text of the Constitution to the new social
contract (in which case the amendment is remaking the Constitution to reflect
the new identity of the community), or (ii) due to a change of paradigm of
understanding and out views on the optimal design of a specific constitutional
mechanism, design of govt power or the function of a constitutional body (in
which case the amendment corrects specific elements of the constitutional
identity of the community). From this point of view, the proposed
constitutional amendment falls within the second category of changes to the
master-text Constitution [...]
Let us return to this reform after some time and judge
whether the proposed reforms better specific points of constitutional design or instead negatively impact the document's identity.
Suggested citation: Šimon Drugda, "Draft Constitutional Amendment on Slovak Judiciary Made Public" (slovakconlaw, 26 July 2020) <https://slovakconlaw.blogspot.com/2020/07/draft-constitutional-amendment-on.html>
