Venice Commission approved draft law on reforming Supreme Court of Justice

Chisinau, Oct. 25 /MOLDPRES/- The Venice Commission published yesterday a note on the draft law related to the reform of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ).

Minister of Justice Sergiu Litvinenco said that the CSJ reform will begin after setting up the new Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM).

"The CSJ reform is the second stage of cleaning the judiciary, after the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), which is now being carried out. The others will follow," Litvinenco said.

The Venice Commission mentioned that the intention to reform the powers of the CSJ is a step in the right direction and warned about the importance of respecting the principle of internal independence of judges in the process. Regarding the proposed composition of the CSJ, the Commission said: "Completion of the Supreme Court by judges with extensive experience in the judicial function and by judges from other backgrounds is a very common solution, which has the advantage of mixing cultures, experiences and skills" . The Commission suggested the diversification of the means of standardizing the judicial practice,and the more detailed exposition of the complaint in the interest of the law.

The Commission also recommended the gradual or temporary reduction of the number of CSJ judges. Regarding the extraordinary evaluation procedure, the Commission noted that "it is ultimately up to the competence of the Moldovan authorities to decide whether the prevailing situation in the Moldovan judicial system creates a sufficient basis for the submission of CSJ judges to extraordinary integrity evaluations". The Commission appreciated the waiver of the professionalism evaluation stage and the waiver of the financial motivation of those who will promote the evaluation. At the same time, the Commission noted that "The evaluation process described in the project cannot in any case be equated with disciplinary procedures. As the Venice Commission previously noted, "evaluation and disciplinary liability are two very different things."

The Venice Commission recommends that the Evaluation Commission, instead of having the power to issue a decision, should have the right to prepare "evaluation findings" for the CSM, on the basis of which the Council would make its reasoned decision . The Commission pointed out that the ban on activating the system for a period of 10 years appears to be disproportionate and needs to be reviewed.