The law on the Supreme Court of Justice has entered into force!

On 06.04.2023 the Law on the Supreme Court of Justice No. 64 of 30.03.2023 was published in the Monitorul Oficial (117-118).

The Law regulates the role and powers of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), the manner of selection and appointment of SCJ judges.

Thus, the following regulations were introduced:

1) the number of judges of the SCJ was reduced from 33 to 20;

2) ensuring access to the positions of judges of the SCJ for both judges (11) and non-judges: lawyers, prosecutors, law professors (9);

3) established criteria for access to the position of judge of the SCJ;

4) introduced a mechanism for the evaluation by the Ethical and Financial Integrity Evaluation Commission of the current judges of the SCJ and candidates for the positions of judges of the SCJ;

5) established a mandatory condition for persons wishing to serve as a judge of the SCJ after the reform, namely to be positively evaluated by the Evaluation Commission;

6) created the mechanism for challenging the results of the evaluation;

the powers of the SCJ have been amended to transform it into a court of cassation, the role of which will be the uniform interpretation and application of legislation in the justice system and others.

According to Art. 3 the SCJ has the following tasks:

a) examine, as first instance, the categories of cases established by law;

(b) hear, as an appeal court, cases of social and legal importance and cases revealing particularly serious violations of the law and of human rights;

(c) examine applications for review in cases established by law

d) raise objections of unconstitutionality of normative acts to be applied in the resolution of a specific case;

e) resolving other types of applications and legal issues prescribed by law.