CSM, Chamber Justice Commission approves reform: the news

A mixed system, binominal with proportional share, and the drawing of the districts of the Court of Appeal to form the constituencies for the election of the robots to the Superior Council of the Judiciary. New rules on appointments to the top of the judicial offices. Stop the revolving doors between politics and the judiciary, with the ban on simultaneously exercising jurisdictional functions and holding elective and governmental positions, a single transfer of functions between prosecutor-judge and vice versa, roof for out-of-office positions and the ‘personal file’ of magistrates . These are the relevant points of the reform of the CSM and of the judiciary dismissed by the Justice Commission of the Chamber, which last night concluded the vote on the amendments to the government’s proposals and today with the mandate to the rapporteur gave the definitive go-ahead to the text, which will be in the Chamber, as planned, from 19 April. CSM. The High Council of the Judiciary is back to 30 members: 20 togates (2 legitimacy, 5 pm and 13 judges), 10 lay people, plus 3 members by right: the President of the Republic; the first president and the attorney general of the Cassation. The draw of the districts of the Court of Appeal was added to the electoral system as approved by the Council of Ministers on 11 February last, with a proportional correction. It is a mixed electoral system that leaves the possibility for individual candidates to emerge without having to connect to lists. In fact, it is based on individual applications: each candidate freely submits his / her application without the need for presenters. There must be a minimum of 6 candidates in each binominal college, of which at least half of the less represented gender and if spontaneous applications do not arrive or gender equality is not guaranteed, it is integrated by drawing lots to arrive at the minimum number of candidates foreseen; draw also foreseen to rebalance the candidacies of the less represented gender. APPOINTMENTS – For positions at the top of judicial, executive and semi-executive offices, the assignment is decided on the basis of the chronological order of the openings, to avoid the so-called package appointments. Training is highly valued, selection procedures are made transparent . There is an obligation to hear no less than 3 candidates for that post. REVOLVING DOORS – The reform introduces a ban on simultaneously exercising judicial functions and holding elective and governmental positions, as is possible today. The ban applies to both national and local elected offices and to national, regional and local government offices. There is an obligation to take a leave of absence, without paychecks in the case of local offices, to take up the position (today, at least in some cases, there is an accumulation of allowance with the salary of the magistrate). Magistrates who have held elective positions of any kind at the end of their mandate can no longer return to carry out judicial functions: ordinary ones are placed out of office at the ministry to which they belong and other ministerial administrations, as well as at the State Advocacy. There remains the possibility of taking on non-judicial functions in the consultative sections of the Council of State, the control sections of the Court of Auditors and the Office of the Massimario della Cassazione. For administrative and accounting magistrates, placement at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers is envisaged. Magistrates who have stood as candidates in electoral competitions and have not been elected for three years cannot return to work in the region that includes the constituency in which they applied for, nor in the one in which the district where they worked is located, as they cannot take up positions management and carry out the most delicate criminal functions. If they came from offices with national competence (for example the Supreme Court), they cannot perform directly judicial functions for three years. it will be established with the implementing decrees. The out of role is not possible before 10 years of effective exercise of the judicial functions, and even if there is uncovering in the office to which one belongs. Furthermore, a period of time must elapse between one assignment outside the role and the next. The maximum limit is reduced to 7 years (with the exception of 10 years for constitutional bodies, of constitutional importance, for governing bodies). CHANGES OF FUNCTION – There is only one passage between prosecuting and judging functions in the criminal, within 10 years from the assignment of the first location (therefore the internship period is excluded). This limit is not valid for the transition to the civil sector or from the civil sector to the prosecuting functions as well as for the transition to the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Cassation. PERSONAL FILE Currently, at each professional evaluation (every 4 years up to the evaluation week) the magistrate must produce to the Judicial Council, and then to the CSM, sample measures on the activity carried out and statistics relating to his own activities and compared to those of the office of belonging. Already there will be reports in the event of ‘significant anomalies’. The reform provides for the annual implementation (no longer every 4 years) of the existing magistrate’s personal file, with the overall history of the activities carried out. The dossier contains data, not assessments of merit. It is proposed to constantly update the file, also following the procedure of the various measures. Therefore, “an overall picture of the work done, not an opinion on the individual measures”.