On February 9th, 2021, the fifth meeting of the Advisory Working Group was held on the online platform Zoom, which functions within the project “Joint Commitment for Better Achievements in the Judiciary”.
The fifth meeting represents continuity in monitoring the changes in the legal framework, which is an essential part of the Justice Reform Strategy 2017-2022. The monitoring of laws takes place on the basis of a previously developed Methodology for monitoring changes in legislation and their impact on the judiciary.
The ten members of the Advisory Working Group follow laws according to the area in which they have appropriate expertise. At this fifth meeting, the latest changes and current developments with the Law on Judicial Council of the RSM, the current developments regarding the vetting process for judges in the judiciary as well as the changes in the Law on Courts were discussed.
At this meeting, as a participant and partner in the “Joint commitment to better achievements in the judiciary” project, the president of the Association of Court Administration, which is the focus of this project, announced that a special working group is working on amendments to the law on judicial service, the court rules of procedure, as well as the regulations for the promotion of court officials in the future.
The Law on Litigation Procedure, the Law on Expertise were discussed, and the current developments with the Law on Justice for Children were also presented.
Regarding the law on probation, the Association for Criminal Law and Criminology emphasized that the law should be harmonized with European legislation in due course.
At the end of this fifth meeting, the situation in the law on judges’ salaries as well as the law on misdemeanors, which was amended in October 2020 and January 2021, was highlighted.
Two more meetings of the Advisory Working Group will follow, which will complete the process for the preparation of a document that will serve for the drafting of a Policy Document at the end of this project.