Major shortcomings and challenges remain in terms of legislative framework and practice related to disciplinary liability of judges, among others:

- High Council of Justice holds sessions on disciplinary liability of judges with insufficient frequency, which is a contributing factor to delays of disciplinary proceedings. In 2019, the High Council of Justice held only 2 sessions to consider disciplinary cases; Cases Terminated by the Council 2019

- Appointment procedure of an independent inspector is still flawed, which does not guarantee adequate institutional independence of the inspector;

- The legislative framework does not envisage publication of independent inspector’s conclusions without identification data. Nor are the conclusions accessible to public upon public information requests, which presents a major challenge in terms of transparency;

-  Decisions rendered by the High Council of Justice on bringing disciplinary charges against judges are not published;

- According to the legislation in force, it is possible that two panel members out of total number of 5 (provided that the panel session is attended by 3 members) can still impose disciplinary liability and sanction on a judge, which compromises fairness of disciplinary proceedings.

Disciplinary Liability of Judges

/public/upload/EU/Disciplinary_Liability_of_Judges-ENG-min.pdf