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Election of Judges of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia in the Comparative Perspective
Robert Podolnjak
Sažetak
The comparative analysis of the election of constitutional judges in the European countries shows that there are two basic approaches – one which endeavours to enable the election of judges who will not depend on one branch of power, so that more branches of power participate in their election, most frequently executive and legislative, and sometimes even judicial. In those countries in which the parliament is the only body that participates in the election of judges, the decision is not left only to the ordinary parliamentary majority, but as a rule the two-thirds majority is required, that is, the same majority which is required for constitutional amendments in these countries. There is also a rule that the judges of constitutional courts are elected for a longer mandate, without the right to re-election. The difference between the American election of justices of the Supreme Court in relation to the European model of the election of constitutional judges is analyzed as well.
The author concludes that Croatia is one of the rare countries in which the election of constitutional judges is left to the softest qualified parliamentary majority (the majority of the overall number of representatives), while no other branch of power participates in the election. Therefore, the author pleads for such amendments of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and the Constitutional Act on the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia according to which the judges of the Constitutional Court will be elected by the two-thirds majority of all the representatives in the Croatian Parliament (Sabor), who should not have the right to re-election to this office, and their mandate would be prolonged from the present 8 to 10 or 12 years.
Ključne riječi
constitutional courts; Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia; election; constitutional amendments
Hrčak ID:
13316
URI
Datum izdavanja:
20.6.2007.
Posjeta: 2.810 *