KOSICE, December 7, (WEBNOVINY) — The Association of Judges of Slovakia (ZSS) disapproves what they call politicians exceeding the reasonable degree of balance when deciding over crucial issues of the judiciary in a situation when the government has lost support of the parliament, informed ZSS President Dana Bystrianska.
“Based upon the Resolution of the European Association of Judges adopted in Istanbul on September 4, 2011, the Association of Judges of Slovakia appealed to representatives of the executive and legislative branches to refrain from interference into the independence of judiciary in choosing, appointing, and career promotions of judges, disciplinary actions, and unauthorized criticism of the judicial power. Without any result,” informed Bystrianska. The association argues that decisionmaking in issues such as choosing judges or their promotion are a part of the judicial power’s legitimacy which means that essentially the Judicial Council should exercise its powers regarding these issues.
Bystrianska also underlined that in his letter from this November, the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) president pointed out that legislation effective from May 1, 2011 does not respect independence of the judiciary, which the ZSS president considers to be expressing fears of the executive’s political interference into the judiciary as a result of judiciary’s principled positions. She is convinced that discrepancies between Judicial Council Chairman and former Minister of Justice Stefan Harabin and the Justice Ministry, where Minister Zitnanska filed multiple disciplinary motions against Harabin, could lead to both judges and the public perceiving as increased level of interference into the judiciary and could lead to curbing their trust in the judiciary.
SITA