On 16-17 March, 2023 a delegation of the Portrait of a Judge experts conducted a research visit to Republic of Slovenia with the aim to learn of selection, evaluation and promotion of judges practises and the role of the Slovenian Council for the Judiciary and Supreme Court in these processes. The delegation consisted of researchers, judges and representatives of civil society from Lithuania, Czech Republic and Albania.
The visit was opened by the President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia Dr. Miodrag Đorđević, who stressed that judiciary is one of the three states powers and not the third power. In his opinion, the courts are be closer to human than procedures, closer to freedom than authorities and closer to society than the state.
During this visit, intensive and productive meetings with the representatives of the Slovenian Council for the Judiciary and the Supreme Court of Slovenia were held. The hosts presented in detail their national system of selection, evaluation and promotion of judges and were eager to clarify the relevant points and elaborate on the issues, which the experts found relevant. Furthermore, the meetings allowed the experts to learn of current challenges faced by the Slovenian judiciary as well as progress made in the area of digitalisation and their expected role in overcoming the current challenges. Furthermore, the role of the Slovenian Council for the Judiciary in selection, evaluation and promotion of judges was discussed in detail, including the strength of its mandate (functions granted to the Council).
The visit provided a lot of material relevant in creating a scientifically based, transparent and impartial model of the competencies expected of judges, as well as methodology for measuring these competencies and gave further impetus for a self-assessment questionnaire, which is developed in a current working package.