ELI-Mount Scopus European Standards of Judicial Independence Project Team Discussed Judicial Removal and Discipline

09.06.2021

On 9 June, the Project Reporters and members of the Project Team and the Advisory Committee had a further discussion of the necessary revisions to the Mt Scopus Principles, with a focus on Section 5 on Judicial removal and discipline.

It was agreed that this Section would be developed by considering the various aspects of disciplinary proceedings, from the initiation of a complaint against a judge to the investigation and the disciplinary decision taken. The desirability and role of a citizen’s complaint procedure was also discussed. Important issues were further highlighted, such as deciding who appoints the members of the disciplinary panel or tribunal, and what procedural guarantees of independence and impartiality might be appropriate. The importance of well-established and clear grounds for disciplinary proceedings was recognised, and, in this respect, a distinction was made between disciplinary rules and deontological principles, in line with the Consultative Council of European Judges' (CCJE) Magna Carta of European Judges. References were duly made to the European Court of Human Rights' (ECtHR) and the Court of Justice of the European Union's (CJEU) case law on disciplinary proceedings.

You can read more about this project here.