Documents and publications
Newsletter Nº 9
July 25, 2003

CONTENT:

1. COURT MEMBERS' SELECTION TRANSPARENT PROCEEDING

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COURT MEMBERS' SELECTION TRANSPARENT PROCEEDING
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The President of the Nation has issued the Decree N 222/03 through which he self-limited the discretionary faculties the National Constitution gives him when nominating the Juries of the Supreme Court of Justice. He also proposed a citizen consulting proceeding regarding the technical and moral capacity and commitment of the suggested candidates with the democratic system and respect for human rights.

The decree's text is based on the documents called "A Court for Democracy", which were written by six civil society organizations, Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC), Centre for Legal and Social Studies (Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales - CELS), Poder Ciudadano Foundation, Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales -FARN), Instituto de Estudios Comparados en Ciencias Penales y Sociales (INECIP), and Users and Consumers Union (Unión de Usuarios y Consumidores), who in 2002 joined their efforts in order to produce some proposals to recreate the credibility and legitimacy dissipated by the Supreme Court throughout the 90's.

Section 99 of the National Constitution confers the President the faculty of nominating candidates to occupy the place of Jury of the Court, only with the requirement of getting the Senate's correspondent agreement. Since the said decree entered into force, a new system has been created through which any vacant in the Court shall be filled by a public consulting proceeding, where the society may evaluate thoroughly the aptitude and independence of criteria's conditions of the suggested candidates, as well as their career and commitment with the democracy's values..

The proceeding will start with the publication of all the curricular antecedents of the suggested candidates in the Official Bulletin and in two very important newspapers, and also through Internet, in the page of the Department of Justice and Human Rights of the Nation (Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos de la Nación). The citizens, the NGOs, professional schools and associations, academic and human rights entities, will be able to present in paper the objections and comments they consider appropriate about the candidates. Likewise, the candidates shall fulfill the requirements of the Public Ethics Law, among them the presentation of a patrimonial sworn statement and other statement regarding their working antecedents and studies or companies they have worked for during the last eight years of professional exercise. With all these things, it will be completed the necessary elements to evaluate if their incorporation to the Court raise objections or cause interest conflicts in the moral or material field.

Also, reports to the AFIP will be demanded in order to verify if the candidates fulfill their impositive duties and, as it says article 3rd of the decree, the selection proceeding shall guarantee that the final composition of the Supreme Court reflects the genre and especiality diversities and the country's federal representation.

Once all the mentioned steps were made, the Executive Branch, in less than 15 days, will evaluate the opinions and comments compiled, and will or won't allow the presentation of the candidates to be approved by the Senate.

Since 1863, when Bartolomé Mitre established the First Supreme Court of the Nation, few presidents escaped from the temptation of naming "friends juries" or juries identified with their party election, and the last straw was during the 90's with the composition of the so-called "automatic majority", that seriously affected the public credibility in the judicial system.

In this context, the setting off of the advising and public participation mechanisms destined to reveal the processes of decision making, represent a revelant step for the improvement of the institutional quality, which is essential for the sustainability's building.

It is to be hoped that the implementation of this decree achieves preventing any attempt to count on a justice submitted to the current politic power and that the remaining reforms be impelled so as justice can be definitively part of democracy.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

   Decree 222/03:
   http://www.farn.org.ar/bd/ecolegis/tc/4454.html

   A Court for Democracy I
   http://www.farn.org.ar/docs/p19

   A Court for Democracy II
   http://www.farn.org.ar/docs/p20