The judges of the Supreme Court are currently deliberating whether they will adopt the Draft Amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the General Session, which is one of the key documents so that the election race for the most important position within the judicial branch of government can continue according to clearly established rules.
What key changes were made to the draft document was not answered by "News" from the Supreme Court until the new Rules of Procedure are adopted at the session.
"Given that it is a Draft, we cannot provide you with the key changes that you requested, because the General Session has yet to adopt the Rules of Procedure, after which they will be available to the public and published on the website of this court," the Service's response states. for public relations of the Supreme Court of Montenegro.
The adoption of the Rules of Procedure delays for months the election process opened after the Judicial Council made a decision on July 5 to publish a new public advertisement for the position of President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro.
According to "Vijesti" data, the key changes within the document concern the rule of whether judges/candidates should be given the opportunity to vote at the General Session, regardless of whether they come from the Supreme Court, as well as whether that way discriminates against any of the applicants during the election cycles.
Precisely because of this, according to unofficial data from "Vijesti", the possibility is not excluded that some judges of the Supreme Court will turn to the Judicial Council to ask them to cancel the summer public advertisement for the election of the President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, because this was done before the by-laws were adopted. , which follow legal changes.
According to the new Law on the Judicial Council and Judges, the Judicial Council declares itself on all candidates who received more than half of the votes of the total number of judges of the Supreme Court at the General Session.
If none of the registered candidates receives the necessary majority in the first round, the vote will be repeated between the candidates who received more than a quarter of the votes.
Such a legal solution greatly increases the possibility of obtaining a proposal that will reach the Judicial Council, because in earlier cycles the candidate for the most important position in the judiciary in the first round needed the support of two-thirds of the total number of judges of the Supreme Court.
Because of this, numerous election cycles have already ended on the first rung.
Lawyer and co-author of numerous publications and analyzes on the state of the judiciary, Veselin Radulović, told "Vijesti" that judges of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, who are candidates for the president of that court, should not vote when determining the candidate's proposal, because that way the position is filled by candidates who do not come from that court.
"The Rules of Procedure of the General Session of the Supreme Court allow this now, but I will remind you that Judge Ana Vuković did not vote in the process of determining the proposal, because she was a candidate. It is an example of good practice and I think that every judge of integrity should do so when deciding on his rights or obligations. It is not disputed that candidates who do not come from the Supreme Court cannot vote at the General Session of that court, and it would be good if these issues were defined by changes to the Rules of Procedure", Radulović believes.
Four candidates applied for this summer's public advertisement of the Judicial Council - Acting President of the Supreme Court Vesna Vučković, Supreme Court Judge Ana Vuković, former representative of Montenegro before the Human Rights Court Valentina Pavličić and President of the Administrative Court Miodrag Pešić.
Lawyer Raduković believes that even if there is a request from the judges of the Supreme Court to cancel the current advertisement, the Judicial Council should not do that, stressing that it would be a form of new obstruction...
"The Judicial Council should not cancel the advertisement and issue a new one when the Rules of Procedure are amended. There is no legal basis for that and there are no legal obstacles to ending the procedure based on the published advertisement. Such announcements and initiatives represent a continuation of the obstruction in the process of electing the president of the Supreme Court, which mainly comes from a part of the judges of that court who have shown an inappropriate level of irresponsibility until now. The Supreme Court had time to amend the Rules of Procedure, and I will remind you that the Law on the Judicial Council and Judges had to be amended in order to unblock this process and prevent further obstructions in the election of the President of the Supreme Court. At the end of the year, four full years have passed since the Supreme Court has been in an acting state, and the key responsibility for this lies with the judges of the Supreme Court, who did not show the readiness and will to do away with bad practice after the third unconstitutional mandate of Vesna Medenica, when she was unanimously proposed by all the then judges of the Supreme Court", concluded Radulović.
Acting status in the Supreme Court has been almost four years since Vesna Medenica decided to leave her position at the end of 2020 after illegally spending a year and a half in her third term.
On September 6, 2021, the Judicial Council entrusted the acting position to judge Vesna Vučković.
Radulović: Some judges are afraid of the threat of Vesna Medenica
Lawyer Veeselin Radulović believes that the choice of a key position in the judiciary is stalled, as he stated, "by a number of judges who are still under the influence of former president Vesna Medenica".
"Vesna Medenica's influence on the Montenegrin judiciary is still present and we witness it almost every day, primarily through the proceedings against her which, just like the election of the president of the Supreme Court, cannot even begin. Last year, in an interview with TV Vijesti, Mrs. Medenica publicly threatened the holders of judicial positions, and it is obvious that a number of judges are under her influence, that is, they are afraid of the threats she made," says Radulović.
He emphasized that the election of a professional person with integrity to the position of the president of the Supreme Court is being stopped by "such persons in the judiciary, because it is up to them and those who, together with Medenica, are obstructing and mocking the judiciary in a peculiar way, that the situation remains unchanged and that reforms in the judiciary do not start with dead spots”.
"The election of the President of the Supreme Court is crucial for an independent and impartial judiciary, and that procedure is being obstructed by all those who brought the judiciary to the state it is in, in which it is possible to order judgments and in which the key roles are still played by staff who were not elected, nor did they advance, on the basis of knowledge and merit".
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