Judges and candidates for Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) judgeships will undergo external evaluation. The draft law was voted in first reading at the plenary session on Thursday 16 March.

According to the authors of the draft, the evaluation of the SJC will be carried out by an Evaluation Commission within six months of the start of the procedure. The members of the Commission will analyse information on the ethical and financial integrity of both current SJC judges and candidates for vacant positions. The evaluation exercise will be applied once.

“The report on the promotion or non-promotion of the ethical and financial integrity assessment will be forwarded to the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM), which will take a final decision. The SCM may reject the report and order a one-off re-run of the assessment procedure if it finds certain procedural errors and circumstances.

The SCM’s decision not to approve the evaluation will have the effect of dismissing the judges.

This will have the effect of depriving them of the right to serve as a judge for seven years from the date of the final decision of the Superior Council of Magistracy,” the draft law states.

The decision of the SCM on the non-promotion of the integrity assessment can be challenged. The application will be examined in the Supreme Court of Justice by a panel of three judges who have not served in the SCJ until 31 December 2022. This requirement is necessary to avoid corporatism, conflicts of interest and subjectivism.

Assessing the integrity of SCJ judges is an obligation undertaken by Moldova both at national and international level. This reform is one of the basic conditions of the Association Agreement between Moldova and the European Union. This draft law aims to increase the quality of the judicial process and ensure the appointment of impartial and honest judges.