New Act on Courts

18. 12. 2009

A new Act on Courts came into force on April 1, 2005.

The Act on Courts brings along more transparency and efficiency in the court system and operation of courts as part of the reform in the judicial system in Slovakia.

 

The new act regulates these following areas:

(i)   basic principles of the operation of the courts;

(ii)  court system and court competence;

(iii) internal structure of the courts;

(iv) management and administration of the courts;

(v)  judicial self-administration;

(vi) participation of courts on the creation of the court budgets.

 

Basic principles include the rules such as equality of the parties before the law, oral and public proceedings before the court and public announcement of the judgement in the name of the Slovak Republic.

The law defines the term legal judge and specifies under which conditions a legal judge may be replaced.

The act introduces a new rule – the attorneys-at-law representing their clients before a court must also wear an official robe.

 

Based upon the Act on Courts, the court system of the Slovak Republic consists of district courts, county courts and The Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic.

The court system also includes The Special Court, military circuit tribunals and The Superior Military Tribunal.

 

The law stipulates in details the relevant competence of the respective courts.

In general, the district courts are first instance courts and in addition deal with election cases; the county courts serve as courts of second instance and deal with administrative cases as courts of first instance.

The Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic deals with ordinary and extraordinary appeals, resolves the disputes regarding competence, executes research regarding enforceable decisions of the courts, enforces uniform interpretation of the laws as well as has jurisdiction in other cases if so stipulated by a law or an international treaty.

The Special Court is in the position of a county court. The Special Court resolves criminal and special cases.

Military circuit tribunals are in the position of district courts. The tribunals deal with criminal cases, administrative cases and other cases if so stipulated by a law.

In general, The Superior Military Tribunal is a court of second instance for the military circuit tribunals. In some cases it also has jurisdiction of a court of first instance.

 

The provisions regarding internal structure of the courts deal in a detailed manner with the structure of the courts in general as well as with the structure of district courts, county courts, The Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic, The Special Court, military circuit tribunals and The Superior Military Tribunal separately.

 

Management and administration of the courts must not interfere with the decision making process.  

The relevant bodies for management and administration of the courts are chairman of the court, vice-chairman of the court, Judicial Council, bodies of the judicial self-administration, Ministry of Justice and the director for administration of the respective court.

 

The judicial self-administration is represented by councils of judges which also participate in management and administration of the courts.

 

Among other provisions, the legislator pays attention to the regulation regarding Central Information System, court budgets and judicial candidates.

 

The Act on Courts is supplemented by notices of Ministry of Justice which regulate spread-over system, internal revision and details on official robes of judges, prosecutors and attorneys in court proceedings. The notices came into force on the same date, April 1, 2005.