Justice reform in sight?

Justice remains a top concern for the Portuguese people, but it appears to have been absent from political party agendas, much less from the political priorities of governments in recent years, regardless of the political affiliation of those elected. However, this week, the first of the judicial year, the Socialist Party—now in opposition as the third-largest political force—expressed interest in a possible pact with the Democratic Alliance (AD) for reform.

The party led by José Luís Carneiro presented 15 proposals, based on three pillars, in what it called a 'Commitment to Justice.' "The necessary reforms can, and must, be carried out with a national consensus, especially among political forces defending the Democratic Rule of Law," the document reads.

António Cluny, retired deputy attorney general, and Rui Patrício, a lawyer with over thirty years of experience, while identifying "relevant" and "positive" points in the Socialist Party document, both consider the proposals to be too generic. "In general, and given their generality, the proposals formulated—or rather, advanced areas of work—all seem relevant," the judge told Nascer do SOL . Rui Patrício echoes this sentiment, but expresses even greater skepticism. For the lawyer, the "vague and well-intentioned" way in which many of the measures are formulated makes it difficult "to know exactly what they will translate into ." He adds: "Although I must say that 31 years of experience in the justice system means I've seen so many reforms, reform ideas, and reform promises, that one more doesn't excite me particularly."

The Socialist initiative proposes reforms based on three pillars: organization of the judicial system, qualifications of the judicial administration, and procedural changes. One of the proposals involves revising the model for evaluating the professional merit of judges and magistrates. The Socialist Party justifies this idea as a "way to enable effective differentiation of performance, based on objective criteria, such as the average length of proceedings or the rate of decisions upheld on appeal."

When asked about this specific measure, António Cluny, who insists on the generality of the proposal's formulation, advocates the use of objective data, which, "if done well," can "facilitate work comparisons." However, he also emphasizes that this objective data cannot be separated from "an analysis of each judge's working conditions and an assessment of the documents analyzed from a qualitative perspective," citing criteria such as complexity or innovation in the subject matter.

For the magistrate, the proposal to reform the inspection criteria authored by Deputy Attorney General Maximiano Rodrigues, made many years ago, “should serve as a basis for any reform in this matter” .

Regarding the accountability of the Public Prosecutor's Office, Cluny believes that there should be "co-accountability of the immediate superior of the person in charge of an investigation in proposing to the Criminal Pre-Trial Chamber more severe forms of coercive measures and more aggressive measures in terms of freedoms and guarantees." Regarding the organization of the Public Prosecutor's Office, he argues that, in the case of the formation of teams of prosecutors for an investigation and inquiry, there should be regulation of "who is responsible for the decisions taken within them." He also highlights as a priority a profound reform of the Center for Judicial Studies (CEJ), "both at the technical procedural level—the CEJ currently resembles a technical school of criminal and civil procedure—and in terms of furthering the fundamental rights established in the Constitution and in European and international charters and treaties." In his opinion, it would also be important to deepen the knowledge of judges and prosecutors in the area of ​​international judicial and judicial cooperation, and to prepare and install "as soon as possible" computer equipment for the direct digital transmission of procedural documents between European Union countries.

Speeding up processes to combat the most common criticism of the justice system – its slowness – is also taken into account in the socialist initiative, but once again, according to Rui Patrício, the measures do not go beyond "the level of generalities" .

For the lawyer, who hopes that the measures relating to this point will not be "more of the same" , that is, "patching the procedural laws" , the system, in general, "is not unbearably slow, and the whole cannot be confused with some parts" , considering that the points of "flagrant slowness" require concrete measures, "which are not transversal to the system" .

Rui Patrício clarifies that he's referring to administrative and tax justice, but also to massive cases, whether criminal or misdemeanor. "As long as they exist, they don't allow for any speed. Let's not be fooled, unless the need for legal proceedings in these cases is completely eliminated under the guise of excessive guarantees," he warns.

Still on the subject of the PS initiative, Rui Patrício criticizes what he calls the usual talk about combining speed with guarantees: "We already know what that means: cutting guarantees a bit more and everything remaining the same in terms of speed."

As priorities for a potential justice reform, the lawyer believes it's necessary, first, to "stop reforming legislation every six months" and, second, to "have the awareness and the expertise to make changes to the system where necessary, which is in careers and resources." Finally, Rui Patrício argues that it would be necessary to "make some adjustments to the mindset of each and every one, reducing tension and distrust, improving accountability for all (which requires democratic humility), and reducing corporatism, while being more demanding and tough."

In short, the PS initiative, despite its generic and intentionally consensual tone, served to bring the issue of reform in the Justice system back, as has happened cyclically in recent years, onto the agenda, if not politically, at least in the media.