Will Pavličić be a priority?

Several initiatives were submitted to the Constitutional Court for the evaluation of the constitutionality of the amendments to the Regulation on the representative of Montenegro before the court in Strasbourg, which were combined into one case

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Her mandate began in September 2015: Valentina Pavličić, Photo: Private archive
Her mandate began in September 2015: Valentina Pavličić, Photo: Private archive
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The Constitutional Court will decide today whether it will give priority consideration to the case on the constitutionality assessment of the amendments to the Regulation on the representative of Montenegro before the European Court of Human Rights, which, among other things, limit the mandate of the representative to a maximum of two four-year terms.

Several initiatives were submitted to the Constitutional Court for the evaluation of the constitutionality of changes to the Regulation, but they were combined into one case, explained "News" from that institution. The judge-rapporteur proposed to decide whether the case will be considered as a matter of priority.

According to the Rules of Procedure of the Constitutional Court, it considers cases according to the order in which they are received. However, exceptionally, it can consider as priority cases for which a special time limit is prescribed by law within which the court must decide, cases related to the decision on an issue of special importance for the protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens, cases related to the rights of the child, as and cases related to violation of personal dignity, deprivation of liberty, detention and respect for persons, i.e. violation of the right to life, the prohibition of torture, the prohibition of slavery and forced labor, and the right to freedom and security.

As a matter of priority, the court can deal with cases in which the conditions for issuing a temporary order for the suspension of the execution of an individual act or action are met, and other cases for which it decides. Such a temporary measure has been proposed in several initiatives in this case.

At the end of December last year, the government adopted amendments to the Regulation, which means that the current representative will appear before the European Court of Human Rights Valentina Pavlicic perform that duty until a new representative of Montenegro is elected in the procedure of the newly introduced public call. Until the amendments, the Regulation required that the Government appoint a representative for a period of four years, with the possibility of re-appointment.

Pavličić's mandate began on September 23, 2015. On January 11, the Ministry of Justice published an advertisement for the application of candidates for representative and deputy representative.

Pavličić, in response to the Government's decision, assessed that the changes are not in accordance with the Constitution, saying that it foresees that only certain provisions of the law can have a retroactive effect, if the public interest requires it.

"The decree cannot have retroactive effect", stated Pavličić, who submitted the initiative to the Constitutional Court.

Attorney Mitar Susic, who also submitted the initiative, stated that the changes introduce complete confusion into the legal order, because, according to him, the provisions of the revised text "are full of internal contradictions and are unenforceable in practice".

"The whole procedure of adopting the relevant regulation was formally incorrect and non-transparent, and its content, not only in the disputed article, but as a whole, reflects the obvious intention to break the mandate of the current representative of Montenegro, in violation of the regulations and constitutional and democratic standards, to change the conditions in the manner to make it impossible for him to apply for a public advertisement, and to fill this position with an already designed personnel solution", said Šušić, proposing the adoption of a temporary measure that would suspend all actions undertaken.

In addition to the amendment that limits the mandate to a maximum of eight years, the executive authority also corrected in the Regulation the conditions that candidates must meet in order to be appointed as representative and deputy representative.

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