Judicial Vacancies and Political Strategy: Mapping the Future of the Slovak Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court of Slovakia has been working one judge short for over a year, following judge Jana Laššáková’s resignation at the end of September 2023. Questions have been raised now about the motivation of the Parliament to hold the seat open. At the January hearing for the sole nominee to the Constitutional Court (even though legally there should be two candidates put forward for each vacancy) opposition MPs voiced concerns about the selection process, speculating that the delay might be strategic—possibly to reserve the position for General Prosecutor Žilinka should he resign, or even Prime Minister Fico.

Building on my earlier commentary,[1] I now focus on the implications of the ongoing judicial vacancy, the timeline for upcoming appointments, and how the 2021 introduction of staggered terms is reshaping the institutional structure of the Constitutional Court.

Chart of the Day: Changes in the Population Size of Slovak Judges over a Decade

I recently thought about how much of constitutional law is ebb and flow, action and reaction. Which is why today I decided to analyse a graph that I have had in my desk drawer for a while. See the waterfall graph of the Slovak judges’ population size between 2011 and 2025 (Figure 1). The graph visually shows staffing shifts in the court system as increases and decreases from the original value. The initial value in the graph is 0, based on the fact that I could not get the exact number of judges in January 2011, but it could be any value. What is important is the pattern created by adding and subtracting from judges’ population over time, and as you can see ebbs and flows. 

The number of judges in Slovakia is affected yearly by four specific events: the appointment of new judges (which adds to the pool), the resignation of retiring judges, their removal, and death (all of which reduce the population). The Ministry of Justice reports each of these events under the “Change Notices” section on its webpage, and it has done so since 2011.