TRAVEL REPORT The Hon. Michael Atkinson MP Attorney-General ...

death penalty . Before it was abolished a survey was conducted . The lasttime it was enforced over the previous 20 years was in 1983 . In some cases, itwas imposed as the initial sentence and then replaced with a custodialsentence on appeal .Judges are selected and appointed for life, but, under the Constitution of theRepublic of Montenegro, they retire at 65 . They are appointed by theParliament on the proposal of the Judicial Council . The Council was foundedby this Government and calls for applications, it interviews and prepares afinal proposal for Parliament . The Judicial Council has no members from theLegislature or Executive . The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is theChairman . There are ten other members, six are judges selected by theirfellow judges, two are professors of the law schools and two representativesof the law associations .The Council is structured in such a way as to prevent the influence of thelegislature or the executive branches of the Government . They are membersof the legal professions and can make independent decisions .Removing Judges is quite rare here and they can only be removed by theChief Justice of the superior court, or by the Chief of their jurisdiction . Thisprocess has not been initiated even in the most justified cases and a muchmore rigorous policy needs to be introduced . There were two such casesabout four-and-a-half years ago, but none over the past two or three years .The more common way is an informal process, the individual judge invited toan interview with the Chief where the judge may be given a chance to resign,so there is room for informal approach before formal procedure is invoked .Judges always come from a practicing lawyer background . They are firsttrained for a period in courts, then they work as assistants to judges and thenthey work as judges in a lower Court . With appointments to Senior Court orSuperior Court, mostly judges from basic Courts are appointed . Most judgeshave been part of the judicial system from the beginning of their careers .Advocates are part of a different stream . Normally, a person decides from thebeginning of his career whether they want to work as lawyer or judge . Overthe past couple of years, unfortunately excellent judges have left the Bench towork as advocates for financial reasons .Criminal justice is not a political issue and although it is important, it is not atopic or issue that can affect election results . There are other dominant topicssuch as, the constitutional position of Montenegro which is still the centralpolitical issue . Another recent topical issue in the justice system has been thenew law about the Attorney-General who was also the State Prosecutor .Previously, this position was appointed by Parliament on the proposal of theGovernment . Other Attorneys (prosecutors) were appointed by theGovernment on the proposal of the Attorney-General . Theserecommendations are now made by the Attorney's Council which has a verysimilar structure to Judicial Council .Travel Report, Hon. Michael Atkinson, M.P. and Ms . Vini Ciccarello MP., August, 2004