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Illustration photo – President of the Constitutional Court Pavel Rychetský.
Prague – The President of the Constitutional Court, Pavel Rychetský, spoke with the newly elected President Petr Pavel today about the change of judges of his institution. After an hour-long meeting in Prague's Hrzánský palác, he told journalists that it was necessary to ensure the continuity of the court's values and to replace departing judges in time. “We listened to each other and clearly understood each other,” he said.
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The president of the SC is appointed by the president from among the existing judges of the institution. Not only Rychetský's mandate ends this year, but also six of his colleagues. “It is very important that it (the appointment of new judges) be done – the procedure is not easy, it can take three weeks, a month,” said the head of the Ús at the beginning of February, expressing concern about the court's remaining quorum in plenary.
According to Rychetský, it is important to remember when nominating constitutional judges to preserve the value continuity of the court. He would like the opportunity to repeat the mandate given to one of the colleagues who will end this spring. However, according to him, some are headed for the academic field.
Judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate for a period of ten years, while the Constitution of the Czech Republic does not prohibit the repetition of the mandate. On May 3, the mandate of the trio Milada Tomková, Jaroslav Fenyk and Jan Filip will end. Subsequently, Vladimír Sládeček ends on June 4, Rychetský on August 6, Ludvík David a day later and Radovan Suchánek on November 26.
According to the outgoing chairman, the ÚS is expecting a big rush of work. Over 4,000 complaints and motions arrive at the court every year. When one or two judges retired in the past, they no longer accepted new work cases in the last quarter of a year before leaving, in order to leave with a clean slate. Currently, according to Rychetský, this will not be possible, and for departing judges, the interval for not accepting new cases will be cut in half, i.e. to 1.5 months before leaving.
