Our View: More action needed for justice to be served

Nothing contained in the European Commission’s latest report on Rule of Law, regarding Cyprus came as a surprise. It was more of the same with some faint praise for the few small reform steps taken in the last year. The main issues which undermine the rule of law, however, have not been tackled nor does it appear that this will happen any time soon.

The Commission’s report praised the progress made on the appointment of supreme court judges and reform of the composition of the supreme judicial council. It also noted the appointment of judges and the adoption of new procedural rules, supposedly to speed up cases, but also highlighted the shortage of support staff.

The report was not very positive, however, about the lack of progress on asset disclosure for elected officials and suggested the introduction of rules for regular filing and verification of this data. Much noise has been made about this matter, but asset disclosure – what we refer to as the capital statement – remains something of a farce that no politician treats seriously. The establishment of the anti-corruption authority was welcomed, although, so far, it has done nothing.

The non-technocratic reality was highlighted by the EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, who said in an interview with the CyBC this week, that Cyprus ranks last in a number of areas dealing with how justice is served. It was not enough to have qualified and independent judges when the way justice was served was ineffective, he said. The long duration of court cases remained a “negative situation” said Reynders, highlighting the biggest weakness of Cyprus justice.

In this regard, nothing has been achieved, unless the reduction of the average length of a court case, from eight to seven years, can be regarded as progress. It has not helped that the digitisation of justice, which is certain to improve efficiency, has not happened either, despite everyone agreeing it is a necessity. What is preventing digitisation of justice? Is it the fear of the new and unfamiliar in the legal community?

We may be expecting too much from the reforms that have been undertaken. It will take time for the improvements to become evident, especially as the backlog of delayed appeals and court cases, which weighs down the system, remains. We suspect many years will be needed for the backlog to be cleared and for justice to become efficient – even longer if the digitisation which is essential to the speeding up of justice carries on moving at a snail’s pace.

Now that more judges have been appointed, the next step is to invest in digital tools, as Reynder advised, if the duration of court cases is, eventually, to be reduced.