ETHICS OF JUDGES - RECOMMENDATIONS FOR AMENDMENTS OF THE LAWS

In March 2021, the Project prepared, and submitted to the High Judicial Council (HJC) for consideration, the recommendations for amendments to the Law on Judges and the Law on the High Judicial Council regarding the ethics of judges. These particularly contain formulated proposals for amendments to the aforementioned laws related to the ethics of judges and provide detailed explanations for these proposals for amendments.

The key recommendations given are: (i) amendment of Art. 90 par. 1 line 18 of the Law on Judges: deletion of a disciplinary offense "breach of the provisions of the Code of Ethics to a greater extent" with offered alternatives for prescribing a new offense that damages the reputation of the court and judicial duty or a violation containing exhaustively listed ethical principles whose violation represent a disciplinary offense, (ii) amendment of Art. 15 par. 1 of the Law on the High Judicial Council: prescribing the Ethics Committee as a permanent working body of the HJC.

At the session held in June 2021, the HJC adopted a proposal of recommendations as a basis for a proposal to amend the said laws, which will be sent as a HJC proposal to the to the competent working group of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia for drafting amendments to judicial laws.