The Constitutional Court of Romania has ruled that there exists a
\nlegal conflict of a constitutional nature between Parliament and the High Court
\nof Cassation and Justice with regard to the creation of 5-judge panels,
\nfollowing a referral by prime minister Viorica Dancila. The ruling obliges the
\nHigh Court to select all the five members of a panel by drawing of lots, not
\njust four of them as has been the case so far, which, according to the
\nConstitutional Court, runs counter to a law from 2014. <\/p>\n
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These 5-judge panels at the Supreme Court are currently looking at
\ncases involving some high-ranking politicians, including the leaders of the
\nparties in the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance
\nof Liberals and Democrats, namely Liviu Dragnea and Calin Popescu Tariceanu,
\nrespectively. The court’s panels have so far issued final sentences in famous
\ncases, such as that involving the former government minister Elena Udrea and
\nthe former organised crime chief prosecutor Alina Bica. The Constitutional
\nCourt’s ruling has been met with satisfaction by the Social Democrats. <\/p>\n
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The president of a special parliamentary committee in charge of
\namending the justice laws, Florin Iordache, says that people who are unhappy
\nwith previous rulings can now invoke that the judicial panels that ruled in
\ntheir case were non-legal. Florin Iordache:<\/p>\n
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The Court says the ruling is effective immediately. This means that
\nall five judges sitting on the panels that look at ongoing cases must be
\nselected by drawing of lots, while for the cases that have already been
\nfinalised, the Court undoubtedly gives those who are unhappy with their
\nsentences the possibility to request that the panels who ruled in their cases
\nwere created non-legally.<\/p>\n
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Opposition MP Stelian Ion from the Save Romania Union says the Constitutional
\nCourt’s ruling may have been influenced politically, which undermines its
\ncredibility. Stelian Ion:<\/p>\n
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Today’s ruling by a political-judicial institution looks rather
\nlike a political decision. We have seen how the defence and arguments of experts
\nin law, namely the judges of the country’s highest court, have not been taken
\ninto account by the Constitutional Court and how this ruling unfortunately
\nforms part of an increasingly long list of criticisable rulings, which, apart
\nfrom the legal aspects involved, are raising more and more questions marks over
\nthe credibility of the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n
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Another controversial ruling from the Constitutional Court forced
\npresident Klaus Iohannis to dismiss the head of the Anticorruption Directorate
\nLaura Codruta Kovesi, thus in effect limiting his powers. Observers say
\nWednesday’s ruling can have even more serious consequences. On one hand, the
\ndiscussion around the formation of judicial panels undermines the prestige and
\ncredibility of the Supreme Court judges. On the other, it paves the way for a wave
\nof challenges and calls to revise previous cases, which risks casting the
\nsuccess achieved so far in the fight against corruption in a derisory light.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Constitutional Court of Romania has ruled in Parliaments favour in what it identifies as a conflict between the latter and the High Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[39495],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-79454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-judicial-panels"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n