EU accession:
the Copenhagen political criteria in ten Central and East European countries
Independence of the Judiciary
in Slovenia
Law
Organisations
EU - from
the European Commission's Opinion, 1997
The Judiciary: Structure
The judiciary is independent
of the other branches of government. Judges are appointed for life by the
National Assembly upon a proposal by the "Judicial Council", the body responsible
for administering the Bench. It is made up of 11 members, five of whom
are elected by Parliament upon a proposal from the President of the Republic
while the six others are selected from among sitting judges. The judges
may only be relieved of their functions by the National Assembly upon a
proposal by the Judicial Council, if they have committed a crime in carrying
out their functions, or if they have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment
lasting more than six months. They enjoy immunity and may not be detained
unless Parliament has given prior authorisation. In common with the prosecutors,
the judges enjoy freedom of expression and freedom of association.
The department of public
prosecutions is independent of the legislature and the executive. The Prosecutor
General is appointed for six years by Parliament upon a proposal from the
Government. The National Assembly may also dismiss the Prosecutor General
by a simple majority vote.
Article 25 of the Constitution
enshrines the right to contest the actions taken by the administration.
However, in practice, the only appellate body is the specialised chamber
of the Supreme Court which is currently very congested owing to the number
of cases brought before it, notably since the development of local autonomy.
Moreover, the procedure before the Court is entirely written and cases
are not judged during public audience. As a result, the Government has
decided to create a genuine administrative jurisdiction comprising four
courts whose decisions, taken following a public audience, can be contested
before the Supreme Court. This Bill is still being examined by Parliament.
In September 1994 Slovenia
created the office of ombudsman elected by the National Assembly. The ombudsman’s
task is to examine complaints sent to him. So far he has mainly been called
on to intervene by persons in prison or in detention centres.
The Constitutional Court
is composed of nine judges appointed by Parliament for a non-renewable
nine-year term of office upon a proposal from the President of the Republic.
The Court ensures that laws, decrees and regulatory acts issued by local
authorities are consistent with the Constitution, international treaties
and the general principles of international law. It also rules on requests
from appellants who feel that their fundamental rights enshrined in the
Constitution have been violated. Pursuant to Article 162 of the Constitution
any person who can demonstrate that he or she has a case to bring may bring
it before the court. The President of the Republic, the Government or one-third
of the members of the National Assembly may ask the court to rule on whether
an international treaty to be ratified is consistent with the Constitution.
Functioning of the Judiciary
The main problems facing
the Slovenian judiciary are inefficiency and the amount of time it takes
to hand down judgements: it can take five years before a civil case is
brought before the courts. Slovenia lacks judges notably as a result of
the relatively low level of pay and the statutory requirement that they
must be at least 30 years of age. This situation should be improved as
a result of the programme to equip courts with computers and the planned
procedural reforms.
The Constitutional Court
plays an important role in the functioning of the institutions and democracy
in Slovenia. Its case law has helped bolster the establishment of the rule
of law by giving certain guidelines to other courts in applying the many
new laws. Since it was created the Court has examined some 1 500 cases,
80% of which have been brought by private individuals. Around 5% have been
upheld.
from the European Commission's
Regular Report 1999
The Judiciary
The main problem is still
the slowness of the judicial process. However since last year Slovenia
started to reduce the number of backlogs, and a special programme for their
elimination was introduced by the Government. Amendments were made to the
judicial order stipulating that any court registering a one-year delay
in dealing with cases, must take appropriate measures (changes in internal
organisation of work, extension or rescheduling of working time, etc.).
Following the Government's measure the backlog was reduced by 3.2 % (mainly
in District and Local Courts).
However the number of pending
cases is still relatively high: at the end of June 1999, it was 566.000.
The 64% of pending cases concerns cases on land register and enforcement
of decisions. In particular, local courts remain overburdened; they receive
the largest amount of cases and have the highest number of pending cases.
The Government increased the budget allocation for the infrastructural
requirements relating to the work of courts and other bodies in the judicial
system, which was in part targeted to help fill vacant posts (see detailed
information in chapter 4.2 Administrative and judicial capacity)
Additionally, the following
legislative progress has been achieved:
In October 1998 the amendments
to the law on penal procedures related to the use of special investigation
methods and means were adopted. They entered into force in January 1999.
In April 1999 the new civil
procedure law was adopted, defining legal and administrative procedures
in courts. The aim of the law is, inter alia, to shorten and rationalise
legal proceedings in courts and to increase the protection of victims.
In March 1999 amendments
to the penal code were adopted. The amendments stipulate an extension of
the maximum allowable prison sentence from 20 to 30 years, and introduce
certain other more severe penalties in the field of economic crime, organised
crime, and corruption, bribery and money laundering, as well as a number
of provisions on illegal immigration.
In April 1999, the law on
the execution of judgements and its implementing rules were adopted. The
aim of the law is to nominate a new competent person (not a judge) to perform
the execution of judgements. This implies that a new function is to be
created, i.e. an independent person with a mandate from the Ministry of
Justice.
Some positive steps have
also been taken regarding the training of the judiciary. Agreement on setting
up a judiciary education centre was reached in October 1998 and first meeting
was held in February 1999.
Phare
A search on the Phare Search
Facility yields no programmes dealing with judicial independence
in Slovenia. |