The Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) published on Tuesday, 13 June, the list of persons who have submitted applications to participate in the competition to fill vacancies at the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ).

Twenty-two applications were submitted to fill 20 vacancies for judges and legal professionals at the SCJ. They are the acting Prosecutor General, the acting Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases, a member of the High Council of Prosecutors, the Director of the Justice Programme of the Legal Resources Centre of Moldova, lawyers, judges from the Chisinau and Criuleni courts, as well as from the Chisinau and Balti Courts of Appeal.

The Supreme Council of Magistracy (SCM) announced, on 10 April 2023, a competition to fill vacant positions of judges at the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), as provided for by Law 64 of 6 April 2023 on the SCJ. Applications had to be submitted within 30 days. At the beginning of May, the SCM plenary extended until 9 June the competition for the replacement of judges at the SCJ. The competition is open for 20 vacancies, of which 11 for judges and nine for legal professionals.

SCM member Alexandru Postica said that this is “a technical decision”, which follows from the new law on the SCJ, and the current composition of the SCM will not decide on the candidates and will not influence the career of judges.

The Law on the SJC, as well as the Law on the external evaluation of judges and candidates for the position of judge of the SJC were promulgated on 7 April by President Maia Sandu. The first law provides for the reorganisation of the SCJ. The number of judges of the court will be reduced from 33 to 20, and lawyers, prosecutors, university professors of law will be able to apply for the position of judge. The basic role of the SJC will be to ensure uniform judicial practice.

The second law establishes that judges and candidates for the position of judge of the SCJ will be subject to external evaluation. The evaluation of the SJC will be carried out by an Evaluation Commission within six months of the start of the procedure. Specifically, the members of the Commission will analyse information on the ethical and financial integrity of both current SJC judges and candidates for vacant positions. According to the Parliament, the evaluation exercise will be applied only 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 evaluation procedure if it finds certain procedural errors and circumstances. At the same time, the SCM’s decision not to approve the evaluation will result in the dismissal of the judges.