28 November, 2022
On Monday, November 28, the Judicial Council adopted amendments for improvement of the procedure for selecting candidates for the judicial positions at district (city) courts and regional courts.
The amendments provide that henceforth:
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the competition for the position of district (city) court and regional court judge will be announced on the first working day of September of the calendar year, unless the Judicial Council decides otherwise;
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the term of office of members of the selection commission shall be four years instead of the previous three years, in order to align the regulation with the term of office of self-governing institutions and members of the Judicial Council;
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the status of a member of the selection commission shall not be compatible with the performance of the duties of a member of the Judges Qualification Board;
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a person with advisory rights, namely the chair of the Judicial Council or an authorized representative, will also be able to participate in the selection examination;
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the development of the examination and a casus to be solved will be carried out by the Division of Case-Law and Research of the Supreme Court;
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prior to competency interview, the applicant will be given a summary of the specialist's assessment and an assessment of compliance with the set criteria.
Amendments to the selection procedure enter into force on November 28, 2022.
In order to reduce the backlog of cases in the Supreme Court and to ensure that cases are considered within a reasonable time period, the Judicial Council decided to temporarily amend the breakdown of numbers of senators in the Departments and to establish that from January 1, 2023, there will be 12 senatorial positions in the Department of Administrative Cases of the Supreme Court, 14 senatorial positions in the Department of Civil Cases of the Supreme Court and 9 senatorial positions in the Department of Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court. Whereas, from July 1, 2023, there will be 11 senatorial positions in the Department of Administrative Cases, 15 senatorial positions in the Department of Civil Cases, and 9 senatorial positions in the Department of Criminal Cases.
Additional information:
According to the law On Judicial Power the functions of the Judicial Council include:
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establishing the procedure for selecting judicial candidates;
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deciding on the total number of senators in Departments based on the proposal of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.