Since 1 April 2017 the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic and European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) have been actively engaged in the project “Strengthening the Efficiency and Quality of the Slovak Judicial System”. In the framework of this cooperation and as a result of a report by the CEPEJ experts containing recommendations and good practices for the purpose of improving the judicial administration, the Slovak Ministry of Justice developed a draft law with amendments to the existing legislation with a view to introducing the “visiting/guest judge” concept in Slovakia. The respective draft law was submitted to the CEPEJ for a detailed expert opinion. Therefore, the draft amendments have been reviewed by a team of experts from Italy, the Netherlands, and France, with a specific attention to the Council of Europe standards of judicial independence. The expert opinion was subsequently discussed by the working group which drafted the amendments. At the moment of the publication of this news the draft law introducing the visiting judge concept were was pending final adoption by the Slovak Parliament.

* The project “Strengthening the efficiency and quality of the Slovak judicial system” is financed by the European Social Fund.

• More information about the project
• Draft bill introducing the “visiting judge” concept (version of February 2019) [in Slovakian and English] 
• Expert opinion on the Draft bill introducing the “visiting judge” concept [in Slovakian and English] 
• Appendix II: Eléments de comparaison entre le statut des magistrats placés en France et le projet de modification du statut des magistrats en Slovaquie aux fins d’accueillir les fonctions de «visiting judge» [in French]
• Appendix III: Overall assessment of the draft law introducing the visiting judge concept in Slovakia through the perspectives of relevant experience in the Netherlands [in English]
• Statements of the authors of the Draft bill introducing the “visiting judge” concept with regard to the expert opinion [in Slovakian and English]
• Updated version of the Draft bill introducing the “visiting judge” concept (version on the agenda of the Slovak Parliament on 06.06.2019)  [in Slovakian]