After more than 20 years after the fall of the communism several authors agreed that it is the judiciary that appears to be one of the most crucial obstacles for properly functioning democracy in the region. While these studies mainly focused on the most visible problematic cases, such as Russia, Ukraine or Bulgaria (e.g. Schonfelder 2005, White 2010, Uzelac 2010, Popova 2012), it is in Slovakia where as much as 70% of people distrust judiciary (e.g. Global Corruption Barometer 2013). It is also in Slovakia, where ambassadors from USA and EU member states personally attend disciplinary hearings held against judges that publicly expressed their criticism of the current state of Slovak judiciary. And finally, it is in Slovakia where the watchdog NGO Aliancia Fair-Play has to write minute-by-minute reports from The Judicial Council in order to provide an independent picture of what is really going on during its meetings that decide on selection and promotion of justices.
The paper addresses the politics of judicial selection and turnover in Slovakia by focusing on the measures in the judiciary that have been implemented in Slovakia in order to redress the legacies of communist regime; the influence of EU conditionality on formal and informal rules that govern personal politics in judiciary, and finally, the evaluation of the current system in the light of available data on the selection and promotion of judges.
