The constitutional court has published an explanation of its ruling about the Penal Code reform. At the beginning of July, the constitutional court has ruled that most parts of the amendment to the Penal Code were not unconstitutional. In the clarification, however, the Court explains that by adopting the changes in a fast-track legislative procedure, a type of legislative procedure that omits some part of the process in order to adopt the changes faster, the coalition has violated the rules of procedure. In order for a fast track legislative procedure to be justified, conditions like the urgency of the adopted law has to be fulfilled which was not the case in connection with this Penal Code reform.
The coalition's argument for using the shortened legislative procedure was the alleged violation of fundamental human rights in criminal proceedings by the Office of the Public Prosecutor.
However, neither the opposition nor the then Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová saw reasons for the fast-track procedure and they filed a petition to the Constitutional Court. In addition to the legislative process, they also objected to the reduction of criminal penalties and statutes of limitation.
Constitutional lawyer Radoslav Procházka recalls that this kind of paradox – that a violation of the Rules of Procedure does not necessarily mean a violation of the Constitution is not a new case. The constitutional court also made such a ruling in the past. He assumes that the Constitutional Court will rule the same way on the issue of the legislative process in the future, and this could only change when the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament will be made a Constitutional law.
In the meantime, Parliament approved yet another amendment to the Penal Code that, according to the government, reflects recent consultations with the European Commission. But the changes might not be sufficient as the Justice Ministry has received another letter critical letter from the European Commission.
TASR
