By: C. R.
At an administrative session today, the Constitutional Court elected the current Vice President, Rok Čeferin, as the next President of the Constitutional Court.
,Rok Čeferin who is the brother of UEFA President and well-known lawyer Aleksander Čeferin, will assume the role of Constitutional Court President on December 16th, according to the Court. This date marks the end of Matej Accetto’s three-year term in the role.
Čeferin began his position as a Constitutional Court judge on September 28th, 2019, and became Vice President of the Court on December 16th, 2021. The Constitutional Court President is elected by fellow judges for a term of three years in a secret ballot that requires a majority of all judges’ votes.
Conflict of interest
Rok Čeferin was previously reported to the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC) by Peter Gregorčič over a conflict of interest, though the CPC found no misconduct. In his complaint this spring, Gregorčič claimed that Čeferin violated the Integrity and Corruption Prevention Act by failing to avoid a conflict of interest when he assumed the role of rapporteur judge in a case proposed by the National Council, effectively guiding the case’s proceedings. “As a rapporteur judge, Čeferin is deciding on combining the National Council’s request with a case in which he should not judge due to a conflict of interest,” argued Gregorčič in his submission. “This undeniably shows the presence of conflict-of-interest circumstances.”
CPC declares itself out of jurisdiction
CPC noted that Čeferin filed a motion for recusal on April 19th in a case concerning the constitutionality of amendments to the RTVS Act, which was initiated by the National Council. Čeferin had already been recused from another related case concerning the same law. The recusal motion was scheduled for the next Court session on April 25th, and on May 9th, the Constitutional Court decided to recuse Čeferin from this case, according to CPC’s statement.
In cases involving conflict of interest circumstances among Constitutional Court judges, the Integrity and Corruption Prevention Act does not apply, as CPC’s jurisdiction is limited. The recusal of Constitutional Court judges is governed by the Constitutional Court Act and detailed in the Court’s Rules of Procedure. The Integrity and Corruption Prevention Act only applies if another law does not address conflict-of-interest issues differently, as clarified by CPC. Therefore, KPK recently declared itself out of jurisdiction to rule on Čeferin’s case.
The constitutional crisis and crisis of constitutional democracy are thus deepening.