Can the President of the Slovak Constitutional Court Defend It?

TY - ICOMM

T1 - Can the President of the Slovak Constitutional Court Defend It?

AU - Drugda, Simon

N1 - Based on a dataset for appointments of Constitutional Court judges in Slovakia since 1993-present. For an access contact the author at: [email protected] Simon Drugda, Can the President of the Slovak Constitutional Court Defend It?, Int’l J. Const. L. Blog, July 2, 2019, at: http://www.iconnectblog.com/2019/06/can-the-president-of-the-slovak-constitutional-court-defend-it?

PY - 2019/7/2

Y1 - 2019/7/2

N2 - For the fourth time since February, the Slovak Parliament failed to select candidates to replace constitutional judges whose term of office has expired. Only seven judges remain to run the most powerful court in the country. What is more, as the Parliament enters summer recess, the next round of hearings will not begin until mid-September.The new President of the Constitutional Court (PCC), Ivan Fiačan, has kept a low profile during the controversy. When the Parliament resumes its business, however, the PCC should be prepared to defend his Court. Two senates of the Court are now defunct because there are not enough judges to staff them. The Court has been overrun with unassigned cases and a terrible backlog.The PCC has two potent statutory and one informal power that allow him to put pressure on the Parliament and contribute to the selection process: 1) the power to nominate candidates for constitutional judges; 2) to attend parliamentary sessions; and 3) the exclusive power to speak for the Court. In this contribution, I examine these three powers that have great defensive potential.

AB - For the fourth time since February, the Slovak Parliament failed to select candidates to replace constitutional judges whose term of office has expired. Only seven judges remain to run the most powerful court in the country. What is more, as the Parliament enters summer recess, the next round of hearings will not begin until mid-September.The new President of the Constitutional Court (PCC), Ivan Fiačan, has kept a low profile during the controversy. When the Parliament resumes its business, however, the PCC should be prepared to defend his Court. Two senates of the Court are now defunct because there are not enough judges to staff them. The Court has been overrun with unassigned cases and a terrible backlog.The PCC has two potent statutory and one informal power that allow him to put pressure on the Parliament and contribute to the selection process: 1) the power to nominate candidates for constitutional judges; 2) to attend parliamentary sessions; and 3) the exclusive power to speak for the Court. In this contribution, I examine these three powers that have great defensive potential.

KW - Faculty of Law

KW - Constitutional court

KW - Nonjudicial functions

KW - Powers of Constitutional Court Presidents

KW - Constitutional law

UR - http://www.iconnectblog.com/2019/07/can-the-president-of-the-slovak-constitutional-court-defend-it/

M3 - Net publication - Internet publication

PB - Blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law

ER -