DESCRIPTION
OF THE ORGANISATION |
Competences of the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic
In the field of legislation:
the Ministry of Justice elaborates and the Minister of Justice submits to the Government and the National Council of the Slovak Republic draft laws in the area of:
- substantive and procedural criminal law,
- substantive and procedural civil law,
- commercial law,
- insolvency law,
- family law,
- organisation of courts and of the prosecution service,
- prison service,
- attorney at law, notary, distrainer and expert activities
In criminal proceedings:
the Minister of Justice
- submits complaints on points of law to the Supreme Court as an extraordinary remedy against a final court decision that constituted breach of law and also against a final court decision made on the basis of erroneous course of proceedings,
- in case of doubt the Minister issues opinions on criminal immunity in criminal proceedings; this opinion is binding upon all criminal justice agencies,
- issues assent to concluding agreements on the establishment of a joint investigation team,
- provides the President of the Republic with background materials in pardon proceedings and ensures the execution of the orders of the President of the Republic in these proceedings,
- on the basis of an authorisation by the Prime Minister he/she countersigns the amnesty decision of the President of the Republic
With respect to courts and judges:
the Ministry of Justice
- performs state administration of courts,
- is responsible for creating conditions allowing the judiciary due performance in the human resources, organisational, economic, financial and professional functions
- the Minister of Justice
- specifies the number of judges and of vacant judicial posts at individual courts; in case of military courts this is done after agreement with the Minister of Defence,
- appoints judges to the function of presidents and vice presidents of regional courts, president and vice president of the Specialised Criminal Court and also presidents and vice presidents of district courts,
- submits the Judicial Council proposals for allocations of judges to concrete courts,
- decides on internships of judges,
- is authorised to file a petition to open a disciplinary procedure against a judge,
- is authorised to decide on the temporary suspension from the judicial function of a judge prosecuted for intentional crime or a judge against whom disciplinary procedure is held for an act that may constitute grounds for removal from the office of a judge,
- is authorised to review the completeness of the written statement and property declaration of judges and if necessary he has the right to ask the judge to precise and/or complete them as required within 30 days,
- proposes the Judicial Council one third of the candidates for judges on disciplinary panels,
- is authorised to propose the Judicial Council candidates for the posts of the President and Vice Presidents of the Supreme Court and a nomination for the election of a candidate for the judge who should represent the Slovak Republic in international judicial bodies
After agreement with the Minister of Justice, the Judicial Council
- approves principles of recruitment for vacant judicial posts, of career development of judges to a higher instance court and appointment to a higher judicial function,
- approves the principles of performance evaluation of judges,
- approves the principles of the selection procedure for the functions of a district court president, regional court president, Specialised Criminal Court president, district court vice presidents, regional court vice president and Specialised Criminal Court vice president,
- approves the principles of judicial ethics,
- defines the content of the training of judges and prosecutors
With respect to the education of judges and prosecutors:
the Minister of Justice
- appoints five members of the Judicial Academy Board, out of who two shall be judges and two shall be prosecutors,
- appoints the director of the Judicial Academy on the proposal by the Judicial Academy Board,
- appoints and removes the chairperson and other members of the examination panel for judicial examinations of judicial candidates and prosecutor candidates
With respect to the prison system:
the Ministry of Justice
- establishes and abolishes establishments for remand detention and establishments for sentenced prisoners
the Minister of Justice
- is the superordinate of the Corps of Prison and Court Guard that is a an armed corps performing tasks in the areas of remand custody, sentences of deprivation of liberty and protection of order and security in the buildings of courts and prosecution authorities,
- appoints and removes the director general of the Corps of Prison and Court Guard and his deputies who report to the Minister,
- establishes the symbol and the flag of the Corps of Prison and Court Guard
With respect to probation and mediation:
the Ministry of Justice
- keeps the list of mediators, register of mediation centres and register of educational institutions for mediation in civil matters,
- conceptual and methodical direction and guidance in the performance of probation and mediation in the area of criminal law
- the Minister of Justice
- establishes the Council for Probation and Mediation composed of judges, prosecutors and probation and mediation officers and issues its statutes
With respect to distrainers:
the Ministry of Justice
- performs state supervision of the activities performed by distrainers and the Slovak Chamber of Distrainers
the Minister of Justice
- appoints and removes distrainers, takes their oath, decides on lifting distrainer’s confidentiality obligation, appoints and removes two out of the eleven members of the Presidium of the Chamber, is authorised to file a petition to open a disciplinary procedure against a distrainer, is authorised to suspend a distrainer from office when criminal proceedings have been initiated against him/her on grounds of an intentional crime or a distraint activity related crime; equally, he may suspend a distrainer from office when disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against him/her on grounds of serious disciplinary violation till the decision becomes final
With respect to notaries:
the Ministry of Justice
- performs state supervision of activities performed by notaries and the Chamber of Notaries issues a generally binding regulation that lays down the amount of notary’s remuneration
the Minister of Justice
- appoints and removes notaries,
- takes their oath,
- determines the number of notary offices of each court of first instance (number of notary positions) and their possible change,
- decides on lifting notary’s confidentiality obligation, is authorised to file a petition to open a disciplinary procedure against a notary,
- is authorised to suspend a notary from office when criminal proceedings have been initiated against him/her on grounds of an intentional crime or a notarial activity related crime
With respect to experts:
the Ministry of Justice
- keeps a list of sworn experts, translators and interpreters enters expert and interpreting institutes on the list, determines the scope, provides for the education and verification of professional competence of experts, interpreters and translators
the Minister of Justice
- lifts expert’s, interpreter’s or translator’s confidentiality obligation of all facts learned during the performance of or in relation with the performance of their activity, takes the oath of experts, translators and interpreters
With respect to attorneys at law:
the Ministry of Justice
- issues generally binding regulation that lays down the amount of attorney’s at law remuneration
- assesses compliance with the reciprocity requirement when entering a foreign attorney at law into the list of foreign attorneys at law
- the Minister of Justice authorised to file a petition to open a disciplinary procedure against a attorney at law,
In legal assistance to foreign countries (in criminal proceedings):
the Minister of Justice
- decides on the permission to surrender a person for the purpose of criminal proceedings or serving the sentence of deprivation of liberty or of a protective measure to a foreign country,
- permits temporary surrender of requested person for necessary procedural steps to another country,
- is authorised to release from imprisonment sentence or from its remaining part when he/she allowed surrender of the convict abroad,
- is authorised to lodge an appeal against a judgement on recognition of a foreign decision,
- decides on the request by another Member State seeking consent with transport over the territory of the Slovak Republic,
- decides on the conflict between an European arrest warrant issued by a Member State and an extradition request by a third country or another Member state concerning the same person,
- decides on the suspension of European arrest warrant enforcement,
- requests the surrender of the accused persons from abroad for the purpose of their prosecution or serving the sentence of deprivation of liberty or executing a protective measure,
- requests foreign authorities to impose remand custody on the accused in urgent cases,
- grants approval to the enforcement of foreign decisions in the Slovak Republic,
- grants approval for receiving sentenced persons from abroad to the territory of the Slovak Republic,
- decides on filing a request for transfer of criminal proceedings abroad,
- arranges temporary surrender to the territory of the Slovak Republic of a person whose participation is needed for the purpose of evidence-taking and who is either in remand custody or serving the sentence of deprivation of liberty abroad,
Other competences of the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic
the Ministry of Justice
- represents the government of the Slovak Republic in proceedings before the Constitutional Court,
- represents the Slovak Republic before the European Court of Human Rights and in proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Communities and the Court of First Instance of the European Communities,
- ensures publishing of the Collection of Laws of the Slovak Republic and of the Commercial Journal,
- secures the Official Journal of the European Union for entities identified by law,
- ensures the performance of tasks resulting from the membership of the Slovak Republic in Eurojust,
- issues the declaration of mutuality from the side of a foreign country in proceedings with an international element and certificates on the law valid in the Slovak Republic and legalises public documents
the Minister of Justice
- appoints and removes the agent of the Slovak Republic before the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg and the agent of the Slovak Republic in proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Communities and the Court of First Instance of the European Communities in Luxembourg,
- appoints and removes the national member of Eurojust and after discussion with the Prosecutor General defines the mandate of the national member and removes the national rapporteurs of Eurojust, out of whom one is a prosecutor from the Special Prosecutor’s Office assigned exclusively to terrorism issues.
MoJ is the budgetary organisation, which has its own budgetary chapter and is financed from the state budget for the respective calendar year.
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