Draft law amending the regulatory framework related to the reform of the CSJ: the court will have more limited powers

Representatives of the Ministry of Justice announce that the draft law on the modification of the regulatory framework related to the reform of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) has been drafted. Thus, after the promotion of the draft, the CSJ will have more restricted competences and will not act as a second court of appeal, as it is currently. According to the ministry, this will have the effect of reducing the number of decisions issued by the CSJ, with the emphasis on “ordering the interpretation and application of the law in the justice system”.

“The basic objective of this project is to create a coherent regulatory framework by excluding any inconsistencies between the rules of the draft new law on the CSJ, which is at the stage of re-drafting, and other legal provisions governing the field of the judiciary,” a Justice Ministry statement said.

According to the authors, the draft aims to create the necessary foundation for transforming the CSJ into a court of cassation, whose basic role will be to standardise judicial practice.

The bill proposes amendments to several normative acts:

• Law No 514/1995 on the organisation of the judiciary;
• Law No 544/1995 on the status of judges;
• Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Moldova No 122/2003;
• Code of Civil Procedure of the Republic of Moldova No 225/2003;
• Administrative Code of the Republic of Moldova No 116/2018;
• Law No 155/2011 on the approval of the Single Classification of Civil Servants;
• Law No 270/2018 on the unitary system of salaries in the budgetary sector.

The amendments proposed by the draft are in direct connection with the provisions formulated in the draft of the new law on the Supreme Court of Justice, which is at a “more advanced stage of reworking”, say representatives of the Ministry of Justice.

Justice Minister Sergiu Litvinenco previously said that the proposal in the draft law on the Supreme Court of Justice, which refers to doubling the salaries for judges at the CSJ is “an unreal option”, but says that “if we want to have good judges at the CSJ, we must also ensure an adequate level of salaries”.

According to the Justice Minister, on the part of the powers of judges at the CSJ stipulated in the draft law, as well as on the reduction of the number of judges from 33 to 20, “things are nailed down”, and on the part of salaries “there is no decision”. On the other hand, Ilie Chirtoaca, representative of the Legal Resources Centre of Moldova, says that the proposal to double the salaries of judges at the CSJ is “very real”.

The draft law on the Supreme Court of Justice provides for a change in the composition of the CSJ and a reduction in the number of judges from 33 to 20 by 1 June 2023, when the new composition of the CSJ is due to start work. According to the draft, the judges of the CSJ will be selected by the Supreme Council of Magistracy (CSM) through a public competition:

13 judges will be selected from among career judges (for persons who have served as a judge in the courts, the draft requires at least 8 years of actual experience as a judge; for persons who have served as a judge of the Constitutional Court or the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) – at least 6 years of actual experience in that position)

7 judges will be selected from among non-judicial jurists (lawyers, prosecutors, university professors), who have at least 10 years’ actual experience in the respective posts.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the draft also provides for an extraordinary evaluation of the current judges of the CSJ as well as candidates for the 7 non-judge positions. The extraordinary evaluation will be carried out in two stages: evaluation of ethical and financial integrity, and evaluation of professionalism.

The draft law proposed for consideration also sets out the powers for the CSJ:

• ensuring uniform interpretation and application of legislation in the justice system;
• examining, as first instance, categories of cases established by law;
• to examine, as a court of appeal, cases of the greatest social and legal importance, as well as those which reveal particularly serious violations of the law and human rights;
• referral to the Constitutional Court for examination of the exception of unconstitutionality of legal acts resulting from specific criminal, contravention, civil or administrative cases;
• to settle applications for review of cases following a judgment of conviction of the Republic of Moldova at the ECtHR;
• settlement, in cases provided for by law, of other types of applications.

The CSJ will also be the main authority responsible for ensuring uniform interpretation and application of legislation in the judicial system. To this end, the CSJ will be able to take a number of measures:

• it will publish the recommendations resulting from the work on the generalisation of judicial practice;
• develop, approve and publish guidelines on the application of the law (similar to the ECtHR, the Romanian High Court of Cassation and Justice);
• at the request of the courts, issue advisory opinions (similar to the European Court of Justice and the ECtHR);
• issue binding judgments on applications in the interest of the law.