Financiarul

Addressing on Wednesday at the Cotroceni Palace the fledgling magistrates who passed the exam organized by National Institute of Magistrates (INM), President Traian Basescu tackled the deepening crisis of the judiciary that sees its credibility plummeting, evoking to this end the case of the Supreme Court of Justice and Cassation (ICCJ), but also that of the Upper Council of Magistrates (CSM) which lost before the Constitutional Court.

“Regrettably, a situation of arbitrary imposition of a judge’s will happened just recently in the highest judicial instance of the country, the Supreme Court.

The crisis flare-up in the (…) judiciary is not necessarily caused by the shortage of personnel, nor by the lack of resources, but by the manner the Supreme Court of Justice itself has acted, in breach of the Constitution.

This is the severe predicament of the justice system that was for the entire country to see, as the effect of a Constitutional Court ruling. Moreover, the crisis is deepening.

Today CSM too has lost before the Constitutional Court. This is why justice is in a state of crisis: the crisis of credibility,” argued Traian Basescu.

He called on the young magistrates to bend to a sole master, the law, an attitude that will earn them the respect of fellow people.

“I would very much want these new generations of judges and prosecutors to bring to the judiciary the fresh breeze we all need.

And this is not so much what personally I, the ladies and gentlemen in CSM, or the journalists are striving for, but it’s the desire of all Romanians,” said the President.

Basescu also argued that the “major disease” plaguing the Romanian society has to do with the malfunction of the judiciary.

“When I say malfunction, I am not referring to erroneous decisions in the first place, but to decisions of the magistrates that are delayed to long. It is important for Justice that justice is done quickly. (…),” Basescu said.

He stressed that with justice makers dragging their feet for several year, the justice act is delayed and for this reason the President urged the young magistrates to do “justice well and fast.”

The head of state also noted that this is the first series of young magistrates who pass the INM exam after the law was amended so as to require the aspirants to magistracy to first pass an exam before they accepted into practice.

“It has become a tradition for me to welcome every new series of judges and prosecutors at Cotroceni in sign of my respect for the position of judge and prosecutor.

I believe I had more than 1,000 judges and prosecutors go through this brief ceremony since I took over as President,” added Basescu.

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that there is no juridical conflict of a constitutional nature between the judiciary authority represented by CSM, and the executive authority, represented by the Government and the Ministry of Justice and Citizens’ Freedoms (MJLC).

“After deliberation, the Constitutional Court found by unanimous vote that the issues raised by CSM do not meet the elements of a legal conflict of constitutional nature in the meaning of Art. 146 Para. e) of the Constitution,” reads a CCR release.

CSM president Virgil Andre ies announced at mid-May that CSM had sought a Constitutional Court ruling on the “repeated violation by the Government and MJLC of the Council’s constitutional role as guarantor of Justice independence.”

CSM accuses the “serious impairment of justice independence by chronic under-financing to the judiciary, following the government’s repeatedly prorogating under emergency ordinance the transfer of the budgets of appellate courts, tribunals, special courts and instances to ICCJ.’