Marissa In Moldova: Our Day in Court(s)

Today, after a brief tour of ULIM and a meet and greet with our new colleagues, we visited several courts: The Moldovan Supreme Court of Justice, the Constitutional Court, and a District Court. Moldova's justice system is, of course, set up very differently from ours, and touring the courts and learning how they work was very interesting.

Our first stop was the Moldovan Supreme Court of Justice, where we were taken on a tour by the President of the Supreme Court. There are a total of thirty-three justices, down from forty-nine. The additional sixteen justices were cut due to recent reforms, but there are so many cases arriving daily that the cuts have made it hard for the justices to really study a case.

The Supreme Court hears appeals cases based on facts of the case and based on law. For civil cases, a board makes decisions without the interested parties present, but for criminal cases there may be witnesses present. The Supreme Court hears around seven thousand cases per year!

Next, we went to the Constitutional Court, where there are six judges who have been appointed by the Parliament, Government, and the Superior Council of Magistracy. The Constitutional Court is the sole authority on constitutional jurisdiction, is independent of any public authority, and the judgments they issue are binding. Judges at the Constitutional Court serve mandates of six years each and may be renewed twice. A judge may be any professional who has studied law and has at least fifteen years of experience. Constitutional cases check the constitutionality of laws, elections, referendums, and constitutional protections including property rights, discrimination, and the right to justice.

We finished up at a district court, where we met with judges who had been tot he United States to study our courts system and really liked the way it was set up. In Chisinau, there are five district courts which hear all types of cases. Appeals courts can occasionally be a court of first instance, but typically hear only appeals cases. Judges cannot have an active role, they must analyze the cases based on legality, but this does not always happen, and there are recent pushes for reforms, including some help from the United States, to place recording devices in every courtroom to help ensure objectivity.