The Much Needed Legal System Reform

Reforming the legal system is the foremost priority within Romania's European accession plan, a priority which, unfortunately, has been delayed so much that the E.U. became irritated about it. The message Romania received from them is quite clear: no legal reform, no accession.

This objective should not be too hard to accomplish, considering that both Romanians and Europeans want the same result from this reform process: a new legal system in Romania that would meet three essential requirements: 1) independence, 2) competence, 3) efficiency.

At this point in time there is no doubt amongst the public, the mass media and the European specialists (and not only) that the Romanian legal system, or at least part of it, is hardly independent, competent and efficient. Clearly enough, in order to correct this situation we need to carry out the thorough legal reform process that we have been postponing for so many years.

The first question that comes to mind is whether this reform process is hard to implement. An answer given in good faith would be that some parts of it are easier than others. For instance, in order to protect the legal system from political pressures, one needs to minimize the control and in-fluence that The Government, The Parliament, The Presidency and other officials, especially the minister of Justice, can exert on judges. This can be achieved easily and quickly by passing laws that would not allow the minister of Justice, or The Government, or The Presidency to replace/dismiss judges or punish them for disobedience in any other way. Nevertheless, such laws have not been passed. Not right after The Revolution, nor during the first P.S.D.R. administration, nor during the first C.D.R. administration.

Some of the necessary laws have been passed under E.U. pressure. But not all of them. Some are yet to be modified. For instance, the law concerning courts of law and judges is still being "debated' among legal experts and will not reach Parliament before two months.

However, the legal system can also be subjected to private influence, not just political influence. The general opinion about judges is that they can be bought. How to safeguard the legal system from corruption is a problem that has not been fully solved anywhere in the world. What can be done, however, is to make corruption a very dangerous and very costly temptation for those inclined to stick their hands into the cookie jar. This can be achieved by thoroughly monitoring those who form the legal system, as well as the rulings the legal system passes. And since we cannot have politicians do this job - considering that the legal system must be independent from them - the "classic' solution that has been chosen is to have judges watch over other judges by organizing sort of a professional association responsible for its own actions, image and decisions. In this case, too, the first step can consist of well-written laws, but these laws are late as well.

An honest judge is worthless if he/she is incompetent. The same goes for a legal system as a whole. I do not know how corrupt or how politically controllable the Romanian legal system is, but when it comes to competence, it leaves a lot to be desired. The latter aspect is understandable, considering that Romania has changed so fast that Romanian judges had to proceed on a learn-as-we-go basis in the little time they had available. However, the chapter they have learned the least about concerns the market economy, accountancy, finances and so forth. In other words, the Romanian legal system's capacity to punish violations of market economy rules is now critically low. One of the reasons why it is very difficult to fight corruption, at all levels, is precisely that judges are scarcely trained in this field. This is why trials concerning fraudulent bankruptcy, rigged stock exchange transactions and other schemes as such have no chance to put an end to such practices or do justice to the defrauded parties.

There is no quick solution to this problem as judges cannot be expected to learn and understand the market economy overnight. They need to be trained in this field, and therefore one of the reproaches made to Romanian legal authorities is that they are doing too little to train magistrates in areas requiring elaborate expertise.

Last but not least, there is the matter of how efficient the Romanian legal system is. Efficiency is extremely important, because it stands as one of the few instruments through which the legal system can protect the innocent from abuses, especially from abuses committed by The State. In a country with an inefficient legal system, an innocent, but "well' prosecuted man can spend years in prison waiting for some court overwhelmed by too many cases to do him justice. Or he can lose a lot of money, especially considering that the devaluation rate of the national currency is still high enough to "burn' any debt.

The efficiency problem is also not something that can be solved overnight. Moreover, any solution to this problem would require two basic ingredients: more money for the legal system and better management of that money. For the time being though, the legal system is always out of money, irrespective of how much it receives from The State. There is no need for statistics to prove that. Anyone who walks into a court house can see that for themselves.

Importantly, the Report made to The European Parliament had at least one positive aspect: while reminding us that we can kiss accession goodbye if we do not reform the justice system, The E.U. is forcing us to get done as much as we possibly can in only a few months. To pass laws that are still being "debated.' To professionally train judges, the police, the jail guards and all other kinds of personnel included in the legal system. To allocate more money - not necessarily to the judges' salaries - for archiving systems, computers, document management, professional services provided to courts and even for buildings and furniture - considering that the decrepit courthouses are definitely not of the nature to restore the faith of the misfortunate (for only the misfortunate end up in court) in the blindfolded goddess holding a sword in one hand and a balance in the other.