Publication of decisions issued by disciplinary bodies – prevention of disciplinary misdemeanours

November 5, 2019

In preventing disciplinary misdemeanours committed by judges, it is vital that they have a prior consistent and unequivocal understanding of which actions of theirs may constitute a disciplinary misdemeanour. Enabling judges to have public access to the decisions of the disciplinary bodies of the High Judicial Council (“the Council”) in order to be informed on the examples of sanctioned behaviours, i.e. which types of behaviour constitute actions which may be prosecuted in disciplinary proceedings, is among the measures used to prevent misdemeanours, which have been recognised and recommended by the EU. This would help judges to avoid proceedings which may lead to their being held liable for breach of discipline, but this would also increase the transparency of the Council’s work. For these reasons in particular the Project will offer the necessary support to the Council to publish its decisions.

Publication of the decisions made by the disciplinary bodies of the Council on its website will be important not only for the judges but for the wider public, who would thus be able to get better acquainted with how to recognise prohibited types of conduct of judges. This would be particularly important to the interested parties in court proceedings. Based on the description of prohibited and sanctioned types of judges’ conduct, they would be able to seek protection for their rights in disciplinary proceedings brought against judges who act in a similar manner in the proceedings they are parties to, thus encroaching upon their right of access to justice, fair trial, and trial within reasonable time etc. Publication of disciplinary decisions will enable the interested parties in court proceedings to act as a sort of corrective mechanism for judges’ conduct, which in turn contributes to the prevention of commission of disciplinary offences.

Publication of decisions issued by disciplinary bodies – prevention of disciplinary misdemeanours

Related info

Project