BRATISLAVA, October 19, (WEBNOVINY) — On Wednesday, the Slovak Parliament passed a draft revision to the law on judges from the workroom of the Justice Ministry, enacting compulsory evaluation of judges every five years, which has been abolished in the currently valid law. If deficiencies are detected in the work of a judge, he/she will be assessed again after a year. If it is proven that a judge has lost professional capacity for being a judge, he/she can be removed from office.
The draft amendment that following the president’s signature is to take effect January 1, 2012, introduces an annual statistical report of judges based on which their efficiency will be evaluated. The report will be published on-line annually. With regard to disciplinary proceedings, authors of the revision suggested implementation of a random selection of the senate for every disciplinary action, that is to significantly curb the risk of abuse of disciplinary proceedings, according to Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska. The list of disciplinary senates as well as databases of chairmen and members of disciplinary senates elected by the Judiciary Council will be published on-line to ensure public control of disciplinary senates.
SITA