By: Petra Janša
At the end of his term on the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Dr Klemen Jaklič revealed in an interview for Družina what is usually only whispered about within the judiciary – that in Slovenia, the will of political power centres prevails over the law. Instead of serving as an independent pillar of constitutionalism, the court has, in his view, turned into a platform for the “instrumentalization of law”, where predetermined political goals are achieved through the crude misuse of legal expertise.
As his term on the Constitutional Court came to an end, Jaklič, the voice of the unyielding “minority judges”, described the situation at the court with the expression “the meat grinder”, a phrase he says was once used by a legal observer. The “meat grinder” grinds down everything that does not fit the ideological one‑mindedness, while party‑line appointments ensure a low professional standard of decisions. As the only remaining safeguard of constitutional democracy, Jaklič highlights his “exceptional dissenting opinions”. These are not merely legal texts, but relentless evidence that the majority on the court has abandoned the “mathematical logic of proof” in exchange for compliance with the power brokers behind the scenes. Jaklič’s indictment is clear: constitutional democracy in Slovenia is no longer a given, because political will has defeated the law. The contrast to this collapse of the rule of law could hardly be more cynical. While Jaklič warns of the “meat grinder”, the doyen of the legal profession, Peter Čeferin, promotes his new book, tellingly titled “Laughter in Court”, to the soundtrack of The Godfather. Where impartial justice should prevail, we now hear the laughter of an elite that mocks the system to the music of mafia films, ensuring for the “first‑class” the expiry of cases and conveniently “lost” evidence.
Slovenia’s judiciary thus remains a cancerous wound of our society – an injustice system, where political trials against Janez Janša and the untouchability of the Ljubljana mayor reveal the depth of a captured state. Is there still time for anyone to change anything?