Guidelines for the Functioning of the Slovenian Judiciary in 2018

In the article, the President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia highlights some of the results of the Slovenian judiciary in the year 2017. These results demonstrate the continuation of the positive trends of recent years, especially in the reduction of pending cases and the decrease in the time needed to resolve cases. Such results were achieved despite the constant lowering of the number of judges. It is becoming evident that the judiciary is reaching its limit regarding the possible and acceptable lowest number of judges. The article briefly presents some of the priority areas the Slovenian judiciary will focus in 2018. The emphasis is given to the strengthening of the precedent role of the Supreme Court, to measures in the field of criminal justice (in particular cases of specialised departments) and administrative justice. For the last two areas, in the current legislative and human resources framework, the judiciary can no longer guarantee the expected objectives to be able to solve all incoming cases and to reduce the number of pending cases. The fulfilment of the established guidelines of the Slovenian judiciary is therefore the guarantee that (together with all the decisive stakeholders that influence its functioning) the positive trends do not stop or even reverse. 

Key words: Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, judiciary, Slovenia, 2018, backlog of cases