Venezuelan Parliament reforms the Organic Law of the Supreme Court: What changed?

The Venezuelan parliament unanimously approved the reform to the Organic Law of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), an amendment that sought among its objectives to reduce the number of magistrates that currently make up the institution, which would mean better management of the courtroom process .

The proposal was presented to the National Assembly (AN) of Venezuela in mid-December by the president of the Judiciary, Judge Maikel Moreno, as reported at the time by the head of the Legislative Power, Deputy Jorge Rodríguez.

On that occasion, Rodríguez stressed that if the reform was approved, the next step would be to initiate «the necessary procedures» to choose the new directors of the TSJ, as established by the Constitution, explains RT.

In this way, the Legislature must now designate the Nominations Committee that will be in charge of appointing the new main and alternate magistrates of the Judicial Power, chosen for the last time in December 2015.

In this way, a total of 20 magistrates will be elected, whereas before 32 were chosen. The Constitutional Chamber, which previously had seven members, will now be made up of five. The other five remaining chambers: Political Administrative, Electoral, Civil Cassation, Social Cassation and Criminal Cassation, which had five judges, will henceforth be made up of three each.

What has changed?

In addition to reducing the number of magistrates that make up the different chambers that make up the Judiciary, established in article 8 of the regulations, other modifications were also made, explained Deputy Julio García Zerpa.

One of the changes corresponds to the restructuring of article 25, which addresses the powers of the Constitutional Chamber. At this point, its ability to legislate has been limited in the event of deciding on any modification to a rule, a procedure that will now be the responsibility of Parliament.

Another article is 36, which details the powers of the TSJ. With the reform, now the judges must be appointed in accordance with the provisions of article 255 of the Constitution, referring to public tenders examinations.

Likewise, article 81 of the law, referring to the General Inspectorate of Courts, was modified. Now, the inspector will be appointed by the AN, under the same procedure that defines the magistrates and for a period of 7 years. In addition, this position may not be assumed by an official who is already a magistrate of the TSJ.

The fifth amended article is number 83, referring to the National School of the Judiciary and which indicates that the appointment to the position of director of that institution will be made by the AN, under the same conditions for the position of the Inspectorate.

And now what will parliament do?

From now on, the responsibility for making the appointments of the new directors of the TSJ remains in the hands of the AN. Once the parliament decides who are the members of the Nominating Committee, active judges and even magistrates whose term of office has not expired – 12 years, according to the Constitution – will be able to apply.

The appointments of the magistrates, with their respective substitutes, may be approved by two thirds of the total number of deputies of the parliament, which currently comprises 277 deputies, with which it will eliminate the rule that allowed the Legislature to execute the appointments by simple majority after several attempts without reaching two thirds.

Meanwhile, the AN also highlights that the reform to the Organic Law of the TSJ will strengthen the autonomy and appointment procedure of the Judicial Nominations Committee, by increasing the number of its members to 15 members: 10 people nominated by different sectors of society and five parliamentarians.