IPN News Agency presents a picture of the year in different areas in the view of governmental authorities and independent experts. “2018: how it was and how it wasn’t!?” No 4: Justice

Adoption of new Civil Code was biggest accomplishment

Secretary general of state at the Ministry of Justice Anatolie Munteanu said the justice sector reform has been  permanently in the focus of the authorities. During the past few years, considerable effort has been made in this field, both on the institutional dimension and on the functional dimension of the reform. “I’m convinced that our normative framework is predominantly good. This was appraised by experts of the Council of Europe and can compete with that of the European countries. That’s why proper and correct implementation of this framework is needed by excluding any obstacles that can generate abuses and that ultimately leave a negative imprint on litigants. Justice is a service of public interest. Consequently, society expects justice not only to be done, but to also have an effect. Only this way we can increase the people’s confidence,” stated Anatolie Munteanu.

The Ministry of Justice concentrated its efforts on formulating and promoting bills in the justice sector, which were set as priorities for this year in its area of responsibility and for achieving the priorities defined in other policy documents that were designed to increase the efficiency and independence of the judicial system, to improve the administration of justice, to strengthen integrity in public institutions and to ensure the observance of human rights.

The legislature adopted a package of laws on the justice sector that will contribute to increasing the efficiency and independence of the judiciary, consolidating the role of the Superior Council of Magistracy, promoting a system based on merits in the process of selecting and promoting judges and improving the mechanism for making the judges more responsible when doing justice. There were made a series of changes aimed at simplifying the civil-procedural legislation and at amending the criminal-procedural legislation so as to offer more guarantees when examining the appeal for issuing or extending the arrest warrant. This year, the Ministry of Justice also focused on policies aimed at fighting corruption and enhancing integrity in the public sector. Effort was made to draft the normative framework  in order to consolidate the institutional reforms done during the past few years.

The adoption by Parliament of the bill to modernize the Civil Code passed in 2003 was the biggest accomplishment in 2018. It was the result of a consistent effort made during over four years, with the involvement of a significant number of experts, practitioners and representatives of the academic community. By the new amendments, the private law of the Republic of Moldova was brought in compliance with the last international tendencies in the field.

Most sensitive segment – detention conditions

Even if considerable effort was made this year to achieve a number of important objectives, looking retrospectively we cannot say that all the actions set at the start of this year were fully carried out. “The Parliament’s agenda still includes a number of bills that could not be adopted during the last session of its mandate, but we hope they will be taken over by the future legislature. At institutional level, I cannot say there is full satisfaction. In this regard, the detention conditions remain the most sensitive sector that necessitates significant improvement and also high-quality services that should benefit the convicts, especially the medical ones,” stated Anatolie Munteanu.

According to the secretary general of state, the improvement of the justice sector was and remains a major priority for the Republic of Moldova and is an essential condition for really developing a democratic society where the supremacy of the law and the respect for the human rights and freedoms are guaranteed supreme values. The quality of justice is a commitment undertaken by the Republic of Moldova in the European integration process and becomes dominant in the establishment of the rule of law, order, justice and truth in society through the legal system.

At the same time, the combination of efforts to strengthen the justice sector through the assumption of responsibility by all the players of the judicial system, public authorities, freelancers and civil society entails the further setting of objectives that would meet the challenges of the future. The Ministry of Justice is in the process of drafting a new justice sector strategy that will enable to define a general, medium-term view, for the next four years. This will be correlated with the new priorities that will be set by the future Parliament and by the government program of the new Cabinet.

Justice sector reform wasn’t a priority for politicians

The president of the Legal Resources Center of Moldova Vladislav Gribincea said the justice sector reform in 2018 wasn’t a priority for the Moldovan politicians. A new justice sector reform strategy was to be worked out, but this wasn’t done. The repeated attempt to amend the Constitution so as to offer greater independence to judges seems to have failed after a similar attempt failed in 2017. The bringing of criminal and disciplinary proceedings against inconvenient judges continued and the judges were made to keep silent. 

A number of changes were made in the justice sector. These are mainly technical in character, but can have a particular impact on the justice system. The law was amended to ensure the hiring and firing of judges based on merits and to efficiently investigate them disciplinarily. The procedure for examining civil cases was simplified. The Civil Code was considerably modified. There was adopted new legislation that regulates the examination of disputes with the state. “Next year will be marked by the fever of elections. I yet hope that that changes that will be brought about by the parliamentary elections will foster the justice sector reform. Without judicial security that can be guaranteed by the legal system only, a modern state does not have a bright future” stated Vladislav Gribincea.

Elena Nistor, IPN

Other materials of the campaign “2018: how it was and how it wasn’t!?”:

Agriculture, regional development and environment
Defense
Education
Transnistrian settlement
Economy and Infrastructure
Health, labor and social protection
Internal affairs
European Integration
Finance