Amendments to the Law on HJPC under thread: no Legal provision for quality based evaluation of Judges and Prosecutors?

Only 12 days ago, on June 14th, in my article on LinkedIn

Scandinavian days at the HJPC

I wrote that the HJPC:

?‘… cannot wait to get the proper legal basis to improve the integrity mechanism and a more paramount appraisal system for judges.’

I warned that:

‘… the HJPC is in need of strong friends, supporting the institution which still is under regular attacks of powers, trying to undermine its functioning. Heavy wordings but it is what it is. So by no means can we lean back in confidence that the heart of the amendments will be eventually adopted by Parliament.’

Unfortunately, it looks like my words were of a predictive character. Shortly before this weekend, we learned that the Minister of Justice has made one last-minute change in the Draft of the amendments to the Law on HJPC, before presenting it for adoption to Parliament.

Only two words were erased (I will spare the readers the details: lawyers will find their way if they want) but with tremendous negative consequences. Should the Law on HJPC in this article remain as it is now, it would mean that the HJPC will still be stuck with the blockade of the Court of BiH on more quality based criteria for the annual evaluation of Judges and Prosecutors.

In my opinion, this would also mean that the infamous Quota-system will have to be kept upheld since there is no possibility to replace it for another merit-based performance evaluation. I would not want to participate in one of the most popular national sports in BiH: speculating on who would have been pulling strings to get this action done. Let us just hope it did not come from within the Judiciary because it will not work out in favour of the Judicial Office Holders nor will it bring the citizens a better functioning Judiciary.?