Even Judges Are Surviving, Aren't They?

A poll conducted some ten years ago showed that the position of a judge was one of the most sought after professions. "For ten vacant positions, over five hundred candidates applied", says a judge of the District Court Miroslav Todorovic.

A judge's reputation was outstanding. "When I was an apprentice fifteen years ago, I took care not to overstep my lunch break by a single minute. When a judge said something, we would freeze, looking up to him with something akin to awe", reminisces a judge of the Commercial Court Milenko Ristivojevic. Today judges represent, even according to the opinion of the people from the judiciary, one of the most degraded professions. Parties barge into a courtroom and yell, accost judges on the streets, and even judges of the Supreme Court receive anonymous letters of threatening and vulgar contents.

Even though the erosion of confidence in the judiciary has been going on for years, the bottom has been touched during the post-election crisis. Lighting candles in front of the court buildings organized by the Student Protest has in a symbolic way marked the courts as the place where justice has died. Generally, a large segment of the public has lived to see judges as mere obedient personnel who change the election results for the benefit of the regime. If nothing else, they have been proven right by the extracted lex specialis.

Prior to that other war, a lawyers convention was held in 1935 on the following topic - independence of the judiciary. One of the conclusions was that there can be no talk of the independence of judges unless they are highly paid, and that the current salaries were meager and insufficient. The salary of a district court judge at the time was 3000 dinars. As comparison, teachers were earning between 900 and 1200 dinars, and professors around 1500.

What judges are earning today is plainly apparent. However, the independence of the judiciary is not solely based on them. According to the words of a Constitutional Court judge Slobodan Vucetic, no regulations exist in the courts on solving housing problems. "It is inadmissible",he continues, "that the position of a judge depends on the court president or on his connections with the authorized ministry".

"If in the court, for example, no priority lists exist for apartments, and such issues are solved elsewhere," explains Ristivojevic, "you can well imagine what the position of a judge is who is waiting for an apartment from the executive authorities. Whether he shall get an apartment or not could depend on the verdict he passes". Pressure which the judges are submitted to are no longer such as they previously were - for someone to directly call them on the phone and dictate what verdict he shall pass - explains a judge. Now things are done a lot more discreetly. An agreement is made with the court president - and he knows which case should be allocated to whom - and that's that.

The actual situation in the courts is especially slowing down verdicts, and is a consequence of the lack of judges as well as insufficiently expert knowledge and experience of those who have replaced the ones who have resigned. However, nothing shows that the minister of justice Arandjel Markicevic is overly worried by it all.

Who are today's judges? According to Todorovic's words, they can be classified into three groups. The first have completely dedicated themselves to their profession and cannot imagine a different life. The second group is the one which is afraid of any kinds of changes and uncertainties. Finally, the third are made up of those who, via their spouse or family, are relieved of financial worries and practically don't live off their salaries. Also, young lawyers are still interested in becoming judges, but do not wish to remain in that position. They come to acquire expert knowledge, qualifications and contacts after which they open up their own law office.

The difference between the employees of the educational system and them lies in the fact that judges are not allowed appear on the streets in the mass of demonstrators and to express their dissatisfaction with their financial position and status with banners. By law, along with military personnel and policemen, they are deprived of the right to strike.

"The law prohibits judges from engaging in any activities other than their profession," says Ristivojevic. "A judge can be acquitted of his duty even if he was to sell apples from his orchard".

Supplementary income, namely, is treated as abuse of office and a degradation of the profession's esteem. "If such cleanliness is required of the judges, then the government has to treat us in an according manner", says Todorovic. "Not only are we incapable of living off our salaries, but we also receive them every forty days. Which means that instead of twelve salaries, we receive eight". Still, despite it all, the general assessment is that the majority of the judges, more than ninety percent of them, act in a maximally honorable and honest fashion.

"When the students were lighting their candles in front of the court building, certain colleagues were crying," says Ristivojevic. "The elections make up only a part of the cases which the judges are confronted with. On account of all that had occurred there, everything is tainted".

"Now is the ultimate moment when the judges should get organized and take part in the preparations of the bills on judges and courts", says a Supreme Court of Serbia judge Milan Subic.

"The judges have huge misgivings towards those bills," explains Ristivojevic. "A certain fear exists that it shall be a way to bypass the constitutional category of the permanency of a judge's position. Even though the Assembly of Serbia has chosen judges for life, now, due to the new organization, the Constitution could be surpassed. Such as - yes, you have been chosen for life, but that applied to those organizations, and now there is a new organization of the courts. Following that, it is possible that in two years time they shall be reorganized again and we would be back to re-appointing judges as in the previous period".

Generally speaking, these bills have incited skepticism amongst the judges who fear that their positions shall not be the least bit improved. Among other things -in the bill on judges- article three states that the "judge is relieved of all worries about his financial position" as well as that the "material independence of the judge is guaranteed by the government". It is hard to imagine that the regime could have come up with anything more cynical in the midst of the judges poverty - the government had also guaranteed the security of the bank savings.