When we talk about competitions in which judges grow in the Courts of Appeal...

In FACTS, we follow the topic of how judges grow in the hierarchy. How competitions are held, how the members of the competition commissions are selected, who visits whom. Are these committee members close… Is the Judges Guild guarded against what, why and how… What happens when a person who does not have the necessary habilitation is elected as a member of a commission that will determine the development and how a certain magistrate will grow in the hierarchy… This is… Or we just have… “small“ omissions.

And so the procedure for selecting judges in the Commercial College of the Courts of Appeal is coming to an end, because the SJC will consider the motivated opinions of the Commission on Attestation and Competitions. We have already written about Associate Professor Dr. Ventsislav Petrov, who does not have a scientific specialty in commercial law. But he participates in the procedure for selecting judges in the Commercial College of the Courts of Appeal? Assoc. Dr. Vencislav Petrov does not have a scientific specialty in commercial law and a habilitation in this scientific discipline. According to generally available public information, he is a specialist only in family and inheritance law and can only evaluate candidates for promotion in civil law. Associate Professor Dr. Vencislav Petrov has never taught commercial law and has not written publications on commercial law. How does he evaluate, since he is a specialist in civil law?

What past practice shows
The previous practice of the SC of the SCC is indicative of a completely formal verification of the activity of the competition commissions and of justifications in the style of - “… this is what the commission decided and nothing depends on us“.

The judges, participants in the competition, request that the members of the competition committee be heard in connection with specific circumstances that cast significant doubt on its objectivity and impartiality in the evaluation of the candidates.

With these requests, the judges aim to ensure the conduct of a lawful procedure for the appointment of the ranked candidates. It would simply be proper for the Judicial College of the Supreme Judicial Council to exercise its control powers in reality, and not formally. Until now, unfortunately, there has been keeping the evaluation criteria a secret and using the convenient phrase - “… we cannot interfere with the competition commission“.

And it's time for the SJC to pronounce…