site.btaChief Judicial Inspector Criticizes Proposed Legislation

Chief Judicial Inspector Criticizes Proposed Legislation

Sofia, June 6 (BTA) - The Chief Inspector of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), Teodora Tochkova, criticized proposed amendments to the Judicial System Act in a letter to Justice Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva.

Tochkova wrote that the proposed provisions concerning the SJC Inspectorate's status and functions do not take account of the relevant constitutional framework. The Constitution assumes that the SJC Inspectorate is not an integral part of the judicial system as it does not administer justice. It is a supervisory body which needs a high degree of independence from the judicial authorities as well as external institutions, she noted.

It is only for the SJC Inspectorate that the Constitution prescribes that its budget "shall be adopted by the National Assembly in the framework of the budget of the judicial system." This constitutionally implied separateness of the Inspectorate's budget is not taken into account in current legislation and in the proposed amendments, Tochkova said.

The Chief Inspector and the other SJC inspectors are independent in performing their functions and are only subordinate to the law, she said, noting that this is the second aspect of the Inspectorate's constitutional independence. The proposal for the Chief Inspector and the other inspectors to be subject to attestation by the SJC clearly contravenes the independence rule, she argued.

Another fundamental problem in the bill is its vagueness about the scope of the checks conducted by the SJC Inspectorate, Tochkova went on to say. The proposed interpretations of constitutional terminology and the provisions about the Inspectorate's new powers are a cause for serious concern. The Inspectorate's powers regarding the financial interests declarations required from judges, prosecutors and investigators have not been defined clearly and accurately.

The notion of integrity has been interpreted in a very inadequate way, according to the Chief Inspector. The bill says that an integrity check on a judge, prosecutor or investigator is designed to find out whether the subject has received financial or other benefits beyond the constraints of the law, which may call into question the subject's independence and impartiality. But integrity is a universal moral quality and it is both unnecessary and impossible to define it as a legal justification, she said.

She also finds that the definition of the term "encroachment on the independence of judges, prosecutors and investigators" is unsatisfactory.