site.btaLawyer Ekemdjiev: Judicial Reform Objective Is Fair Trial within Reasonable Term

Lawyer Ekemdjiev: Judicial Reform Objective Is Fair Trial within Reasonable Term

Plovdiv, May 4 (BTA) - The objective of the judicial reform in
Bulgaria is to ensure fair trial within a reasonable term,
lawyer Mihail Ekemdjiev said in an interview for the Bulgarian
News Agency (BTA). Everyone should be equal before the law and
an uniform approach should be applied towards similar cases. Now
 the situation reminds of gambling: analogous cases are given
radically different settlement. Unfortunately, judicial
institutions shun alignment of legal standards because this
would reduce the corruption potential of their activity. The
loss of confidence in court, as a guarantor of justice, results
in disintegration of values, the interviewee said.

Mihail Ekemdjiev holds a master degree in law from the St.
Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. He got some post-graduate
training in Strasbourg. In 1997, Ekemdjiev set up an Association
 of European Integration and Human Rights, which is one of the
leading NGOs for the protection of human rights in Bulgaria.  He
 has won dozens of cases against Bulgaria at the European Court
of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Many of them have lead to changes
 in the Bulgarian legislation.

In his opinion, justice, home affairs, environment and transport
 are the most vulnerable sectors. In transport, the standing of
the Bulgarian State Railways is the biggest problem coupled by
the continuous state aid regardless of the fact that the company
 is a loss maker. The household waste, its disposal and
recycling and the availability of unlawful depots is also a big
problem. The air pollution with fine particulate matter is also
a burning issue, Ekimdjiev said.

"We cannot expect from magistrates, who started their career
under socialism to apply adequately the harmonized legal norms,"
 he observed. Only real justice creates a feeling of freedom and
 protection against arbitrariness. Legal certainty implies clear
 legal norms with predictable legal consequences.

There is no infringement procedures in the judicial sector
against Bulgaria because another form of control is used - the
cooperation and verification mechanism, which is applied only in
 regards to Bulgaria and Romania.

If there are clear standards and interpretative criteria about
the settlement of analogous cases, each deviation will be much
more visible and will put the focus of public attention on the
responsibility of magistrates.

According to the law - the Constitution and the Judiciary Act -
the supreme courts are obliged to unify the case law through
interpretative decisions. Ekemdjiev criticized the Supreme
Administrative Court for not offering such interpretation,
unlike the Supreme Court of Cassation, which is active in this
respect.

Opinion polls show that the confidence in the judicial system is
 permanently below 10 per cent. Four or five years ago the
European Court of Human Rights received 130,000 appeals
originating mostly from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria,
Romania and Serbia. Ekimdjiev noted that, quite often, Bulgaria
pays compensations for the same errors admitted by the same
magistrates.

The heavy crisis of the Bulgarian judicial system is due to many
 factors including the university education in law. There are
too many legal departments, while lecturers are few and they do
not have formed a community and do not maintain traditions. For
this reason, law in Bulgaria is only a job and not an art of
good and beauty, he stated.