Any delay in passing laws obstructs the negotiation process with the European Union (EU), but their adoption without the necessary procedure and quality introduces laws into the legal system that lack quality implementation or are insufficiently communicated to the professional and general public, said the president of the Lawyers' Association, Branislav Radulović.
In an interview with the MINA Agency, Radulović said that both the dynamics of EU integration and the quality of legislative activity must be achieved.
On Monday, at two extraordinary sessions that lasted a total of less than an hour and 30 minutes, the Parliament of Montenegro adopted 25 laws necessary to meet the criteria in the negotiation process with the EU.
The debate on these laws was not conducted in detail, but was summarized and reduced to a presentation by the Minister of European Affairs Maida Gorčević and three opposition MPs. These opposition MPs did not speak about the proposed legal solutions, but rather criticized the manner in which the laws were adopted.
Responding to the question of how he comments on the passing of the law in this way and whether this represents a violation of parliamentary procedures and a degradation of parliament, Radulović said that the political elites, primarily from a rather narrow perspective, have imposed an extremely problematic dilemma.
As he stated, the dilemma is what is the primary and fundamental interest of the ongoing legislative activity - is it the speed of passing laws or their quality and respect for procedure.
"The Association of Lawyers of Montenegro, for its part, does not want to participate in this, in our opinion, wrong controversy, because both goals must be achieved simultaneously - both the dynamics of EU integration and the quality of legislative activity must be achieved," Radulović pointed out.
He stated that, in the EU integration process, some current EU members, and then candidates for membership, adopted legislative acts in English without translating them into the national language in order to speed up the process.
"However, at the same time, they paid special attention to the procedure and to ensure that the adopted legal solutions were not just "bare statistics for the European tally" but also a concrete contribution to the quality of the rule of law and legal security of their citizens and legal entities to which these legal solutions apply," Radulović added.
When asked whether European integration could be a justification for adopting laws without adequate debate and public involvement, he replied that a serious mistake was being made by advocating for only one of two requirements - the speed of adoption or the quality of the law.
These two requests, as Radulović said, cannot be viewed in isolation, nor separated from each other.
"Any delay in the process of passing laws is a direct intentional or unintentional obstruction of the very demanding negotiation process with the EU, but at the same time, adopting laws without the necessary procedure and especially the quality of their content introduces a "dead letter on paper" into the legal system - laws that lack quality implementation or are insufficiently communicated with the professional, academic or business community," said Radulović.
He cited the example of the new Law on Business Companies, which, as he said, has undergone very demanding procedures, yet is not clear enough to the business community, especially to companies founded by the state or local government units, in terms of its specific application and the obligation to re-register in a very short period of time.
"Then what can we expect from 25 new legal solutions, the titles of which we are not even able to precisely state at this time," asked Radulović.
EU integration, as he said, cannot be an excuse for the proponent of the law for poor and insufficiently communicated legal solutions, especially not for those that have not passed the verification process by the European Commission.
"Such as the proposed amendments to the law in the field of security, which was precisely pointed out in their letter by 18 non-governmental organizations and professional associations, including the Lawyers' Association," Radulović stated.
Responding to the question of what are the possible consequences for the quality of laws when a large number of them are adopted in a short period of time, he said that no matter how demanding the European agenda is and how much it requires an accelerated procedure that must have a quality response, one should be aware of the danger of disrupting the legal order by legal solutions that, upon entering into force, produce legal effects, without the legislator himself or the entity to which it applies, knowing insufficiently their content.
"Unfortunately, it must be stated that it is obvious that the executive and legislative branches do not have proper coordination on this issue, or at least that is the impression given by the public. Incidentally, in his famous quote, Cicero warned the Roman Senate that "When there are too many laws, justice is lost in their multitude,"" Radulović stated.
Asked how he would comment on the fact that two extraordinary sessions with a large number of laws on the agenda were scheduled at the last minute, when this could have been done earlier, starting on January 15, he said that this example indicates a noticeable lack of quality organization of the law adoption process.
"This way, an effect is obtained that results in a short-term benefit in the EU integration process, but also a permanent defect in the fact that legal solutions exist for which there was no public debate with the professional or political public," said Radulović.
According to him, all of this may result in the de facto existence of "new laws" in the legal system, but their actual and consistent application by those for whom these legal solutions are intended does not occur.
"Therefore, the Lawyers' Association and the entire professional public will not side with any of the "conflicting parties" that advocate a partial approach, but will demand quality parliamentary procedures, quality legal solutions and respect for the agenda agreed in the negotiation process with the EU, because the goal of the law is not their "existence", but their complete, non-selective and consistent implementation," Radulović stated.
Responding to the question of why Montenegro does not yet have a law on the Parliament and whether the adoption of that legal act could prevent the practice of adopting laws through an accelerated procedure, he said that the Parliament has a relatively well-organized Rules of Procedure, which is also a constitutional category contained in Article 91, paragraph 2 of the Constitution.
As he said, a much bigger problem is the fact that Montenegro is the only country in the region that does not have a law on the Government, so the way the Government works, organizes, composes and functions, instead of being regulated by law, are regulated by regulations and other lower-level by-laws.
"As for the Assembly itself, it has a relatively well-organized Rules of Procedure, which is also a constitutional category contained in Article 91, paragraph 2 of the Constitution, the adoption of which requires a majority of all deputies," Radulović said.
He said that a simple majority would be sufficient for a law on the Assembly, and that the Constitution prescribes a majority for the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly that is larger than that for a possible law on the Assembly.
However, as he said, this issue is not relevant in the case of "25 laws in 90 minutes", because the problem is not the absence of regulations, but their implementation.
"Therefore, we appreciate that no matter how much professional experience someone has in monitoring the work of parliament, they cannot now know with certainty the order of sessions, the manner of convening them, and the terms and methodology of the work of the legislative committee, which largely contributes neither to legal certainty nor to increasing the dignity of the legislative chamber," Radulović said.
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