Governing program 2018-2020/ Justice: Modernizing legislation to prevent abuse by judiciary

The modernization of legislation on the judiciary in order to prevent "authority overstepping or abuse by this power of the state", having the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism lifted during the current term of the European Commission, and improving prison conditions are some of the goals set forth in the 2018-2020 Governing Program rolled out by the PSD-ALDE ruling coalition. 

"We intend to modernize legislation on the judiciary to bring it in line with that of other EU member states and prevent authority overstepping or abuse by this power of the state. The same principles will apply to the judiciary as those described for the business milieu, in that we will support the adoption of a 'fresh start' milestone before entering the centennial year. We will immediately enforce the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Romania that have not yet been implemented in the Romanian legislation and we will transpose the provisions of the European directives," reads the Governing Program. 

The program also provides that a special department shall be set up at the Ministry of Justice, tasked with reducing the number of normative acts and correlating them with the European legislation, as well as assessing the legislation of Romania and setting it on a different foundation, beginning with impact studies, to citizens' knowledge of the law and law enforcement by the public authorities. 

As far as human resources are concerned, the program provides for supplementing court staff and balancing, together with the Superior Council of the Magistracy, the schemes of judge panels to reach a ratio of 1.5 to 2 clerks / judge and do away with protracted trials where the solution is handed down in one year, and it takes another year to notify the judgment. 

A dedicated chapter in the program refers to improving penitentiary conditions.

AGERPRES