SLOVAKIA'S highest legal authority, the Constitutional Court, as of today is operating with just 4 justices out of its full complement of 13, and will continue to run on this skeleton staff until new justices are appointed by the president.
The election terms of six judges came to an end on January 22, with three already having left their posts in the preceding months. Parliament has not yet managed to elect a sufficient number of candidates for President Ivan Gašparovič to choose a new complement of judges.
The court will be unable to rule on important matters in its current state, as these issues must be addressed in a plenary session of at least 7 justices.
Legal experts warn that the situation will result in further delays and an even larger case backlog at the Court, which is currently dealing with 2,667 filed petitions and cases.
So far, parliament has elected 17 candidates for the vacant seats, but Slovak law requires that the president be presented with twice as many candidates as there are vacant seats. Thus, the president has to wait until parliament elects an 18th candidate before he can nominate the 9 new justices to the Košice-based court.
Parliament is expected to elect the last required candidate at its upcoming session starting on January 30.
