The Head of the Magistrate School, Neshat Fana, former member of the
High Council of Justice, thinks that the draft law “For the Organization
and Functionality of the HCJ”, which will be given to all main justice
actors for giving their opinion, gives no novelty that might serve to
the much mentioned reform.
“Everything that this law foresees is implemented today by the High Council of Justice, because there are decisions for fixing these problems. It is not a novelty. This is not a reform, in my opinion, but an exaggeration. I would welcome a draft that would convince me that it would make a different HCJ, with other competences and maybe with other actors, who might give another impulse to the judiciary”, Fana declared.
Mr.Fana insisted that the current legislation bans promoting and transferring of the HCJ members. The Minister has the right to demand a disciplinary proceeding against judges, and for every meeting there is a record in which are mentioned the changes proposed by the draft-law.
The Head of the Magistrate School sees as suspicious only one of the points that are proposed to change, and that are related to article seven. Besides the ending of the members’ mandate, it adds the concept of his discharge.
“These propositions are not regulated, because they do not define the procedure or the cases when the HCJ member is violating the law or the Constitution. There is no mechanism defined for judging this case. There is no authority that puts things in motion, or what they put in motion for discharging a HCJ member. How will the HCJ member be discharged? Who takes this decision and based on what modalities? There is nothing. By not defining anything, this is a declarative disposition”, declared the former member of the HCJ.
The Head of the School where prosecutors and judges are prepared, the HCJ reform must start by including those in the debate, rather than the politics. The second thing is that the HCJ needs more competences.
“My opinion has always been that the inspectorate should have only one, and that should be the HCJ and not the Minister of Justice. The Minister of Justice shouldn’t have any role in the inspection or the disciplinary proceeding. The HCJ needs to have it and become stronger”, Neshat Fana declared.
The novelty in this draft law is the right of the HCJ member who votes against to argue his vote through a written form, and decide a one month deadline, time during which the disciplinary proceeding should start against the Judge as soon as the inspection report will be handed over at the HCJ.
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