By: Dr Vinko Gorenak
If you browse through the official gazettes of the former socialist state from 1946, you will notice something unusual. You will find appointments of judges to the courts of that time. But whereas the previous state – the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia, of which Slovenia was a part – had a regulated system in which only trained lawyers could become judges, this was no longer the case after 1945. In those official gazettes you will see that this or that butcher or cobbler was appointed as a judge. Legal knowledge was, of course, irrelevant; what mattered was political loyalty to the then‑communist authorities. The resulting court rulings reflected this reality: they were not based on law or on proving guilt, but on the criteria of the communist regime.
I was equally astonished when, after 1990, I began researching the disappearance of a relative. In the regional archive I found a court ruling consisting of only two sentences. The court wrote the following: “A. K. was arrested by the Partisan army on 31 May 1945 and taken to an unknown location. Since she was arrested by the Partisan army and taken to an unknown location, she is considered a German national, and therefore this and that property is confiscated from her.” Of course, she ended up at one of the execution sites in the Celje area. Such were the rulings of the time, rulings issued by butchers and cobblers. It is therefore no surprise that after 1990 most of these verdicts were annulled. But why am I writing this?
Based on the latest ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia in the case of General Leon Rupnik, I can say that the majority of today’s constitutional judges are once again “butchers and cobblers”. I am sorry, but this comparison seems more than appropriate. I must not lump all constitutional judges together, of course, some are respected and competent legal experts, but within the majority on the court, their voices are drowned out; all that remains for them is to write dissenting opinions, while leadership of the court is beyond their reach.
The regular judiciary, including the Supreme Court, annulled the 1946 death sentence of General Leon Rupnik some time ago. But the majority of constitutional judges did not overturn the Supreme Court’s decision and order a retrial; instead, they ruled definitively that the 1946 death sentence, issued by butchers and cobblers, remains valid, just, and in accordance with today’s legal standards.
Unbelievable, but this is the result of complete left‑wing uniformity on the Constitutional Court, further deepened by the current Golob’s coalition and President Nataša Pirc Musar, who proposes candidates for the court even if they have never spent a single day in a courtroom as judges. For her and the coalition MPs, left‑wing political loyalty clearly matters more than legal expertise.
Judge Dr Ciril Keršmanc felt this very directly. Nataša Pirc Musar proposed him for the Constitutional Court. He was approved by the parliamentary personnel commission and even received an invitation to the National Assembly session where he was expected to be elected. But the coalition changed their minds, and Pirc Musar withdrew his candidacy, which, in my view, is unacceptable, since at that stage the National Assembly, not the president, is the master of the procedure. Judge Dr Keršmanc was even denied entry to the National Assembly despite having an official invitation. Anyone can enter the balcony of the National Assembly as long as there is a free seat and the person passes a security check.
Such conduct by the coalition, assisted by President Nataša Pirc Musar, is more than insulting to Judge Dr Ciril Keršmanc.