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On January 31, 2002, the Center for the Study of Democracy along with the American Bar
Association / Central and East European Law Initiative jointly
organized a public discussion on the Draft Law on the Amendments to
the Law on the Judiciary, prepared by a task force to the Ministry
of Justice.
Dr. Maria Yordanova, Head of the CSD Law Program, opened the
discussion. Mr. Sevdalin Bozhikov, Deputy Minister of
Justice, presented the draft law and the amendments stating reasons
for the necessity of their adoption.
MPs, experts, representatives of the judiciary and organizations
that participate in the Judicial Reform Initiative, and
other non-governmental organizations that represent the legal
community took part in the discussion that followed.
Ms. Nelly Koutzkova, Chair of the Sofia District Court and
Member of the Supreme Judicial Council, and Ms. Kapka
Kostova, Chair of the Sofia Regional Court and the Association
of Judges in Bulgaria, expressed their opinion and presented the
statement of the Association of Judges, where concrete suggestions
and recommendations are proposed. Mr. Roumen Georgiev
introduced the opinion of the Chamber of Investigators. Judge
Malina Mihailova from the Supreme Administrative Court
suggested amendments to be incorporated in the draft.
Ms. Ljubka Ilieva and Mr. Roumen Nenkov, Judges at the
Supreme Court of Cassation, Mr. Alexander Arabadjiev, MP,
Prof. Vassil Mruchkov, Chair of the Consultative Legislative
Council at the National Assembly, prof. Ekaterina
Trendafilova, a law lecturer at the Sofia University and Chair
of Modern Criminal Justice Foundation, Mr. Dragomir
Yordanov, Director of the Magistrate Training Center also
expressed their opinions and made suggestions. Ms. Doushana
Zdravkova, Chair of the Varna District Court compared the
amendments to the Law on the Judiciary to the recommendations in
the 2001 European Commission Report for Bulgaria.
Ms. Miglena Tacheva, Deputy Minister of Justice, summarized
the discussion and underlined that the professional public debate
on the draft law still remains open.
Available in Bulgarian
Full records of the discussion in PDF (395 kb) |