To meet the public’s demand for a more fair and transparent process for judges’ selection and promotion, Open Justice developed and submitted Guidelines to the SCM on the reasoning of the SCM decisions on judges’ selection. In April 2019, Open Justice met with the representatives of the SCM and members of the SCM Secretariat to present the Guidelines and discuss their recommendations.
The Project developed the Guidelines to help the SCM improve the reasoning process of its judicial selection decisions, as the SCM was previously criticized for failing to provide a solid justification for its judicial selections. The Guidelines provide practical recommendations on
how the SCM can draft well-reasoned decisions and the resources it can use to collect information about judicial candidates. In 2018, the Ministry of Justice, with support from Open Justice, modified the legislation pertaining to the selection, promotion, and transfer of Moldovan judges within the judiciary. The SCM then amended its regulations on judicial selection to reflect the respective legislative changes. According to the new procedures, the SCM will now hold open judicial selection contests only twice a year. The next open contest for judicial appointments is scheduled for July 2019, and the SCM will use the recommendations from the Guidelines in its decision-making.
