Minister Habijan speaks on radio programme "A sada Vlada" on amendments to Judicial Academy Act to facilitate entry in judiciary for young professionals

Minister of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation Damir Habijan was a guest on the Croatian Radio programme "A sada Vlada" to discuss various topics, mostly from the field of justice and digital transformation

Amendments to Judicial Academy Act will facilitate earlier entry in the judicial system for legal professionals 

At the beginning of the guest appearance, Minister Habijan touched on the age structure of judges, mentioning that there are currently 1,650 judges in the system, of which only 16 are aged 34, while almost 600 are aged between 60 and 70, the latter being the limit for the retirement of judges. 

“I find the situation rather alarming, which is why I am looking at how to bring “fresh blood” into the system. We have a situation where people, after graduating from the Faculty of Law and passing the bar exam, which is not easy, have to go to the State School for Judicial Officials. So, in addition to working in court, they have to attend classes and take the final exam which is identical to the bar exam they have already passed”, explained Minister Habijan.  

"Consequently, people enter the system at the age of 35 to 40, which is quite bad and late, and this is why are amending the Judicial Academy Act, since the State School is an organisational unit of the Judicial Academy. The amendments will retain and provide very clear, objective and transparent criteria for entering the system, but the School itself and its requirements will no longer be mandatory", he added. 
Speaking about amendments to the Judicial Academy Act, Minister Habijan stressed that greater importance would be placed on the training and specialisation of judges. 

“I think this is crucial, especially if we take into account life situations. In particular, we have an obligation to transpose the nature protection directives into our national legislation, which is something specific and will certainly require new training and specialisation of judges. So, the direction we need to take is one that will ensure that judges have continuous professional training and development", said Minister Habijan, noting that the current concept of the State School had created a "bottleneck" and led to the fact that we have quite an old age structure of judges.  

Emphasis on changing the negative public perception of justice

Minister Habijan also touched on the relocation of the State Attorney's Office to the new premises in Branimirova ulica. 

"I am glad that we have realised the relocation of the State Attorney's Office to new premises with the State Attorney General, and we expect USKOK to move into the new premises around mid-year, so that the State Attorney's Office and USKOK will be in one place", said Minister Habijan, adding that this was evidence of the continuous investments of the Government and the relevant Ministry in creating better infrastructure and material conditions for people working on those complex tasks. 

"We need to provide even better tools for USKOK, which is why we are working and are planning to change both the USKOK Act and the Criminal Procedure Act. At this point, we are working with legal experts and practitioners to identify "bottlenecks" in criminal proceedings. It is a fact that certain procedures that take too long, which brings us to the issues of the perception of and trust in the judiciary, which are not at a high level. My main goal in these four years is to change the perception of justice", said Minister Habijan. 

"I don't think the situation is as bad as part of the opposition wants to portray it, but it certainly could be much better. It is necessary to speed up certain procedures and see where the problematic points are that need to be changed. I am convinced that we will be able to speed up some things", said Minister Habijan, noting that certain institutes were legally defined and as such could not be changed.  

“The service of court decisions can partially reduce manipulations and delays, but I would not say that we can save a lot of time there. The course of the procedure itself needs to be examined and certain institutes that can lead to accelerating things. We all have the tools in our hands and responsibility for our work, which is why we need to approach the whole process responsibly”, Minister Habijan concluded on the topic of public perception of the judiciary. 

First Judicial Police Act to be adopted

Speaking about prison capacity, Minister Habijan said there were 3,950 places in prisons at the moment, while the number of people deprived of liberty was 5,080, but changing on a daily basis. 

"What is critical is the criminal offence of irregular entry, stay and movement. We are talking about Article 326 of the Criminal Code. Out of the 5,080 persons deprived of liberty, half of them are in pre-trial detention, which is a subject of discussion with those who order pre-trial detention, but it is also time to start building new prison capacities", said Minister Habijan, suggesting that the geopolitical situation in terms of the migrant crisis was not going
to change. 

“We have started with Varaždin and Lipovica - Popovača and 300 new places for persons deprived of liberty, and with the municipality of Perušić, where a new penitentiary with 400 places for persons deprived of liberty will be located. In addition, new employment of judicial police officers is underway and, after the completed competition, we currently have about 1,700 judicial police officers, which is the largest number in the last 10 years", said Minister Habijan, adding that about 12 million euros would be allocated from the budget for the needs of the judicial police, and a Judicial Police Act would be adopted for the first time by the end of the year.  

A need for balance in regulation of artificial intelligence

Lastly, Minister Habijan spoke about the very current topic of artificial intelligence, concluding that it was not something to shy away from, as despite the risks in terms of protection of personal privacy, personal data and copyright, it could also bring numerous benefits. 

"The European Union has adopted the Artificial Intelligence Act, and our obligation as a member of the European Union is to implement it in our system and adopt our own act. The Task Force has been formed and we are moving towards transposing the Act", stressed Minister Habijan, emphasising the imperative not to overregulate things, as was often the case with the European Union, which is why the EU was losing competitiveness in relation to China and the United States. 

You can watch the entire programme on the Croatian Radiotelevision website. 

PHOTO: HRT 

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