Documents and publications
Newsletter Nº 22
September 30, 2004

CONTENT:

1. THE JUSTICE MINISTER RECEIVED A PROPOSAL FROM
   SIX NGOs TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF MEMBERS OF
   THE SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE
   
   
2. JUSTICE REJECTED THE APPEALS OF THE GOVERNMENT
   OF THE CITY OF BUENOS AIRES, AND THE ONES FROM AUSA
   IN THE CASE "NOISES IN THE 25 DE MAYO HIGHWAY"

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THE JUSTICE MINISTER RECEIVED A PROPOSAL FROM
SIX NGOs TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF MEMBERS OF THE
SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE
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The Justice Minister of the Nation, Horacio Rozatti, received the representatives from Association for Civil Rights (ADC), Centre of Legal and Social Studies (CELS), Poder Ciudadano, Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN), the Institute of Compared Studies in Criminal and Social Sciences (INECIP) and the Union of Users and Consumers on September 23rd. They presented a proposal in order to reduce the number of members of the Supreme Court.

The document elaborated by the NGOs that form part of the "Forum of the Six NGOs" impel the reduction of the number of judges of the Court, in order to avoid any suspicion regarding the lack of independence of justice in relation to the politic power. Moreover, they asked the Executive Branch to support this initiative by postponing the postulation of members to hold the vacancy in the Court due to the resignation of Dr. Vázquez.

This is a continuation of a "Court for the Democracy ", a group of proposals to improve the Court, which was presented in January 2003, and that contains proposals for the executive and legislative branches regarding their responsibility about the good performance of the Argentinean Judicial System.

The proposal was presented to the legislators and to the Justice Minister and it already had a favorable answer. In the House of Representatives it is studied a bill signed by a group of deputies from different blocks, which proposes that the Court may be conformed by seven members. On the other hand, the Justice Minister, after discussing with the organizations about the reasons to implement urgently a proposal, declared for Clarin Newspaper last Monday that the Government is analyzing the possibility to reduce from nine to seven the number of judges in the Court.

After the resignation of Dr. Adolfo Vázquez, a new vacancy was left, and the President of the Nation may designate another member of the Supreme Court.

During the meeting with Rosatti, the organizations said that in case of another free vacancy -and this is a very probable thing- they would be designating five of the nine members of the Court. The NGOs declared they did know that the simple designation of most of the members does not cause by itself a loss of independence from the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, the proposal of reducing the number of its members would clear up any doubt.

The present proposal would follow the line of that one that impelled the decree 222/03, in which the President of the Nation self-limited his faculties in the designation of the judges of the Supreme Court, and allowed a major participation in the process of designation of such magistrates.

Again there is an attempt to limit the faculty of the Executive Branch in order to guarantee the independence of the Judiciary, and to contribute by strengthening the credibility of the Supreme Court. The NGOs said that the efficiency reasons that were given in order to have a reason for the extension to nine members of the Court, during the government of Carlos Menem, were really false. Likewise, it was added that it was not true that a Court conformed provisionally by eight judges cannot work correctly. Since 2002 until nowadays, the Court has worked most of the time without counting with all of its members, and this has not altered substantially its performance.

It is necessary to outline that the biggest crises in the institutional history of the Court was started with the extension from five to nine members in 1990, which allowed the ex president Menem to name was it was called the "automatic majority".

Despite of the fact there was a participative and transparent proceeding; President Kirchner named the third part of the Court in less than a year. This succession of designations may continue if it is not limited the number of judges and the president starts the process to hold the new vacancy due to the resignation of Adolfo Vázquez.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

   Document Reducción de Miembros de la Corte
   Suprema de Justicia de la Nación
   http://www.farn.org.ar/arch/reduccionCSJN.pdf

   Newspaper Clarín:
   http://old.clarin.com/diario/2004/09/28/elpais/p-01401.htm

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JUSTICE REJECTED THE APPEALS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE
CITY OF BUENOS AIRES, AND THE ONES FROM AUSA IN THE CASE
"NOISES IN THE 25 DE MAYO HIGHWAY"
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Chamber I of the Court of Appeals of the Contentious, Administrative and Tributary of the City of Buenos Aires decided to reject the resources of unconstitutionaluity presented by the Government of the City and Urban Highways SA (Autopistas Urbanas SA. - AUSA), against the sentence of second instance ennacted in the case "Noises in the 25 de Mayo Highway".

This measure maintains frimly the sentence of second instance that ordered the concesionary company an Environmental Impact Technical Study, and ordered the government of the City the creation of a Plan of Environmental Adequation where it must be specificated the level of noises in the inside of the homes and buildings situated near the Highway and public space and the technical solutions tha must be applied for the reduction of these ones.

We must remember that many favorable sentences have been enacted due to the claims of the neighbours, in first and in second instance, and the defendants still count on the possibility to suggest direct resources of unconstitutionality before the Supreme Court of the City, and eventually appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.

Nevertheless, the neighbours continue with that problem of high level of noises in their apartments everyday, noises coming from the transit of the highway, and the concessionary and the Government of the City have not yet found solutions in order to mitigate those affectations.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

   Case web page:
   http://www.farn.org.ar/participacion/control/casos01.html