Judicial corruption
The
Judiciary Round-tables
The
Hungarian Judiciary is independent, trusted by the general public,
but less appreciated by professionals
working in the field. It is a much closed and strictly hierarchical
branch of power lacking
transparency and accountability and refusing any initiative that
would change the system in
this regard. Delays in court cases are frequent,
unprofessional decisions are not
rare especially in business cases. Selection and promotion of judges
is not carried out according
to objective criteria, the workload is very uneven throughout the
country, and training of
judges is not continuous.
The self-governing system of the Judiciary
is completely non-transparent and
favours those who are actually in power. Lack
of transparency and accountability is caused mainly by structural
problems that could be solved
to a large extent by amending the current legislation, something that would run counter the personal interests
of Judicial Council members.
Legislative
changes are efficient only if they are supported by a wide political
and professional consensus.
Therefore Transparency International started an advocacy programme in
June 2008 to discuss
policy recommendations. A round-table discussion was convened with
high-level stakeholders on policy recommendations. This was the first time that politicians,
the executive, judges, the Judicial Council, Bar Associations, media
workers, NGOs and academics
sat down together in Hungary
(http://www.transparency.hu/kerekasztal).
Research
activities until now focused on system and structure analysis. In
order to be able to gain
a real picture of the everyday work of the judiciary further research
should concentrate on the circumstances constraining the daily life of judges and on how
they influence court decisions.
Methodology
Through
round-table discussions on central and local level about the policy
recommendations proposed
by research institutes we would like to channel the points of view of
relevant stakeholders into
the codification process. Participants of round-table discussions
would be representatives of courts,
bar associations, judges, NGOs, academia, politicians and
local/central government.
Transparency
International has the role of catalysing the process since it is the
only legitimate independent
organisation which can enhance the cooperation of very different
stakeholders in the field. Research
is based on case analyses and in-depth interviews.
Activities
