Towards the constitutional amendments on the judiciary: Towards the independent judiciary in Serbia or in the opposite direction

Abstract

The author presents a critical analysis of the Working Paper on the Ministry of Justice Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia from the perspective of three constitutional principles: legitimacy, checks and balances, and the rule of law (legal state). In effect, during the purported public discussion in 2017, even before the Working paper came into light, Ministry representatives had been advancing those principles as arguments for the normative solutions that appeared in the Working paper. The aim of this article is to examine whether those three principles are relevant or irrelevant for the good judiciary and, if they are, why and in what way. Upon this analysis, the author draws a conclusion on the values of constitutional proposals that the Ministry of Justice is promoting in its Working paper.

Keywords

• Ministry of Justice Working Paper on Amendments to the Constitution in the field of the judiciary
• Serbian judicature
• legitimacy
• checks and balances
• rule of law/legal state