Long road to justice – Reform of judiciary in Montenegro

About publication

Authors: Vladimir Vučković, Mira Popović, Siniša Gazivoda

Publishing year: 2020

After eight years of accession negotiations with the EU, the judiciary is positioned as one of the key obstacles and there are no indications in which manner and how quickly the situation in this area will improve.

The Constitution prescribes that the Parliament elect the Supreme State Prosecutor and four members of the Judicial Council (from among eminent lawyers) by a 2/3 majority of votes of all MPs (55 MPs) in the first round of voting, and a three-thirds majority (49 MPs) in the second round. This majority remains unattainable for a long time period, which reflects on the ongoing interim state in the prosecution, and the questionable legitimacy and legality of the work of the current composition of the Judicial Council, some of whose members have long expired.

Since October 2019, the head of the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office has been the Acting Supreme State Prosecutor, and out of 15 basic and high prosecutor’s offices, 11 of them are in the interim state, including those working for the largest number of citizens (Higher State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica and Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica).

The views and opinions in this analysis „Long road to justice – Reform of judiciary in Montenegro“ are partialy expressed in the “EU’s Failure in Europeanizing Montenegro”, doctorial thesis of the main author, defended at Masaryk University in 2018.