Moldovan parliament adopts draft on courts' reorganisation

Chisinau, 21 April /MOLDPRES/- The Moldovan system of courts will be reorganized by merging 42 currently operating courts into 15 ones, according to a draft law adopted by the parliament today.

The law's goals is to ensure accessibility and independence of the judicial system, consolidate institutional capacities of courts, ensure an as efficient as possible use of available public funds for law courts, as well as to reduce system maintenance costs.

The draft law also sees that “unification of the law courts 'headquarters will be carried out gradually till 31 December 2027, as conditions are created for it, according to a plan approved by the parliament, at a proposal by the government”, the draft law says.

The rights and obligations of the merged courts will go over to the law court due to be created, in line with the provisions of the Civil Code of Moldova. The Commercial District Court and Military Court cease working starting from 1 April 2017.

The draft does not intervene with amendments in terms of the number of judges from Moldova, but only concerning the number of courts. “The re-organisation proposed by the Justice Ministry does not refer at all to the number of courts of appeal from the country or the Supreme Justice Court, but only to the number of courts of original jurisdiction,” the document says.

The law will enter into force on 1 January 2017. The elaboration of the draft is seen in the policy matrix, annex of the financing agreement between the government and European Union on programme for justice reform support.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor M. Jantovan)