The President of the Constitutional Committee, Jelena Božović (New Serbian Democracy), said today that she expects that body to propose a candidate for the election of a judge to the Constitutional Court to the Parliament on Tuesday.
At today's Committee meeting, she said that everyone cares about the Constitutional Court being functional and for the benefit of all citizens.
"The committee worked according to an expedited procedure, we complied with laws and regulations, and we made additional efforts to do everything in addition to our numerous obligations in parliament so that we could, as soon as possible, hopefully on Tuesday, elect a judge of the Constitutional Court, that is, what is within the competence of the committee, to propose to the plenum for further deliberation," said Božović.
Today, the Committee is hearing four of the nine candidates for the competition for the election of a judge that the parliamentary body announced on December 3. Candidate Nikola Golubović, an expert in the field of environmental rights, answering questions from Committee members, said that he is not a member of any party, nor has he ever been.
He said he has over 20 years of work experience in the legal profession.
Golubović is also a member of the Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures. He also applied for a position as a judge of the Constitutional Court in 2023. At that time, he said that he participated in the development of a set of legal regulations, was a negotiator for the OSCE mission, and a lecturer at the School of Environmental Activism.
When asked by Sonja Popović (DPS) how much citizens trust the Constitutional Court and what, if elected, he would do to improve its efficiency, Golubović responded that citizens' trust in the Constitutional Court has significantly improved in the last two years, but transparency could be at a higher level.
He reminded that the Constitutional Court, according to publicly available data, has a large number of unresolved cases, around 2,1 thousand, of which 1,7 thousand relate to constitutional appeals.
"It is necessary to increase efficiency and promptness and find a modality to resolve constitutional complaints as quickly as possible," said Golubović.
Kojičić: The Independence of the Constitutional Court is Threatened by the Order Itself
Law professor Jovan Kojičić, responding to questions from the Committee members, said that the independence of the Constitutional Court is threatened by the very system that exists in Montenegro, which enables inefficiency.
Kojičić received his doctorate in law in Germany and continued his postdoctoral studies in Sweden in the field of human rights and international law. He is an expert of the Council of Europe and a consultant-expert of the World Bank. He was an advisor to the former Prime Minister Milo Đukanović.
"If I were elected, I would point to the legal order, I think our real order allows someone to disrespect something," he said.
He believes that changes in Montenegro have indeed happened, that things are going well, "maybe it could be faster, but we also need capacities."
He believes that 2035-2040, according to his research, will be very beautiful in Montenegro and the Balkans.
Zoran Mikić (GP URA) asked Kojičić what the challenges of the Constitutional Court are in the area of electoral legislation, recalling the situation in Kotor (when the judges could not decide on an electoral appeal) and how he would contribute to resolving those challenges.
Kojičić pointed to the proportionality test which has four dimensions – legality, public interest, suitability, and that something cannot be excessive to the detriment of individual rights.
"When you run it through this, everything is clear so that you can see what this opinion (of the constitutional judges) is about and there must be someone who will say - that is not our value, that is not our standard," said Kojičić.
Jelena Božović recalled the situation when the then parliamentary majority amended the Law on Local Government in 2022 and postponed the local elections to October, when they were supposed to be held in June of that year and the mandates of all councilors were extended.
She said that the then Democratic Front (DF) filed an initiative to review the constitutionality and legality of that decision and the Constitutional Court characterized it as unconstitutional, "but it was not binding on anyone, the elections were held, although their constitutionality was questioned."
"Why didn't anyone say - what are we here for? What would you do?" asked Božović.
Kojičić responded that this is allowed by the Montenegrin legal system, which has led to a "total captive state" as the US State Department pointed out in 2019.
"And you need to find the levers of that captivity... Even if you want to do something, you are distracted, and you don't see who it is at all - that's the system. And you need to work on freeing the system, and that's a process," said Kojičić.
Zoja Bojanić Lalović (DPS) reminded of the legal norm that judges apply for the competition themselves.
"In your opinion, is it a more meaningful solution for, for example, the Bar Association, the Judicial Council... to recognize quality personnel and propose them?" asked Bojanić Lalović.
Golubović recalled the broad definition of the term "eminent lawyer" in the law. He believes that the legislative framework has been improved by amendments to the Constitution in the very election of Constitutional Court judges, but in some "future legal solutions it is necessary to find a mechanism to control the integrity of candidates applying for Constitutional Court judges."
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