THE ELECTION OF JUDGES OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA AND ITS IN/DEPENDENCE
Keywords:
constitutional, court, judge, election, independenceAbstract
According to Article 108 of the Constitution, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia is an organ of the Republic that protects constitutionality and legality.
In the system of protection of constitutionality and legality, the Constitutional Court occupies the highest place. In its work, it is independent of the Parliament, the President of the Republic, the Government and the regular courts. This elevates the Constitutional Court to the level of the highest authority in the protection of constitutionality and legality.
The Constitutional Court is composed of people – judges. There is no independent constitutional court if the judges are dependent. That is why the Constitution pays special attention to this issue by providing mechanisms for placing judges in an independent position from the holders of power and from the holders of political power in the Republic. These mechanisms are: the incompatibility of the office of judge of the Constitutional Court with the performance of another public office and profession or with membership in a political party, the immunity of a judge of the Constitutional Court and the impossibility of a constitutional judge, without his will, being removed from office before the expiration of the term of office, except in the case of being convicted of a crime to an unconditional prison sentence of at least six months or if he permanently loses the ability to perform his function, which is determined by the Constitutional Court itself. It seems that the position of the Constitutional Court in the constitutional order of the Republic of North Macedonia established by the Constitution of the Republic, provides the Court with functional independence.
However, practice shows that, with regard to the independence of the Constitutional Court, the normative regulation, prescribed by the provisions of the Constitution, is not always in accordance with the factual. Functional independence of the Constitutional Court is not possible without its personal and financial (budgetary) independence. The paper reviews the problem of the functional independence of Court from the aspect of the election of its judges.
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