More than six years after the new judicial structure resulting from the reform in 2014 it is time to take a look at the course of these years and the practical results of the changes then introduced.
José Lúcio
Judge
In a brief and superficial observation, it occurs to me to say that the difficulties and problems that exist in the administration of justice are not a consequence of the reform., but the ability to face them successfully is undoubtedly due to the organic changes then entered into force.
Indeed, material needs, in equipment and human resources, are the most recurrent complaints – but these are issues that came from behind, and are common to many other areas of administration.. What emerged again was the possibility of successfully facing these constraints and being able to overcome them on a day-to-day basis.
It has been possible to do a lot with little.
Sim, because it is impossible not to recognize that the results of Justice in this period are frankly positive - I would even say surprisingly positive. If we use any of the available sources, be it in the Directorate General for Justice Policy or in the Directorate General for the Administration of Justice or in the IGFEJ or in the various observatories and other data processing centers depending or not on the Superior Councils and Universities, we always come to the conclusion that the procedural disputes have fallen from a remarkable shape, in proportions that in many areas and instances surround the 50% or exceed them.
However, it is in the resolution of cases that the fundamental vocation of the judiciary system is realized, and in the ability to solve them, which is the measure of their efficiency..
No other area or sector of activity among us can present better performance indicators in the same period., whatever perceptions spread. However, arrived here, it must be said that the reform is not over and complete, and on the contrary, its dynamic calls for its continuation.
I'm not just referring to the consolidation and deepening of the district management model, most visible aspect of the reform and which has, after all, been the key to the efficiency gains and economies of scale that have actually occurred.. This model, from time to time the target of atavistic mistrust, must really be consolidated and deepened, emphasizing the responsibilities of the presiding judge, the coordinating magistrate of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the judiciary administrator and in practice strengthening their functions of system management at local level.
But that was not the point I was thinking about when I said that the very dynamics of the reform impelled its continuation.. In several articles on the subject, two unsuspected personalities were made public, João LuÃs Mota Campos and João Miguel Barros, point out the logical path for the development of the judicial reform in the path of the changes that have already been implemented.
The first was the Secretary of State responsible for the current design of the administrative and tax courts, the second was the Minister's Chief of Staff who coordinated the entire process of reforming the judicial courts. Both are experts in the system.. The two converge in advocating a solution that is obviously in the spirit of the reform of 2014.
quite simply, it is about the extinction of the administrative and tax courts. Judicial courts are divided into specialized courts, and have civil courts, criminal judgments, work judgments, trade judgments, family and minor judgments, etc. Nothing prevents them from also having administrative and tax judgments.
Of course, the extinction of the administrative and tax jurisdiction is very complicated, and raises numerous practical problems.. But this we already know. What seems certain is that a lot was gained from rationalizing the entire system, and at the same time the constitutional guidance that alludes to judges as a single body was complied with.. And we can even admit the possibility that this path will finally be moving towards solving the chronic difficulties that everyone recognizes in administrative and tax justice.
The extinction of administrative and tax courts and the integration of these matters into the organic of judicial courts, the extinction of the Superior Council of the Administrative and Fiscal Courts and the consequent creation of a single Superior Council, the extinction of the Supreme Administrative Court and the transfer of its powers to the Supreme Court of Justice, the extinction of the other superior administrative and tax courts and the inherent expansion of the Courts of Appeal - here is a whole program.
They'll tell me it's too much extinction, and that this is unfeasible. I don't think so - usually cutting makes blood, and just thinking about it a lot of people get goosebumps. Even so, I stay in mine - it's a beautiful program. It would be of all convenience, nothing prevents you and everything advises you.
Better than that only the extinction of the Constitutional Court at the same time., strange organ that turns our legal system into a two-headed monster. However, I recognize that this point is still more difficult to achieve than the other programmatic points I mentioned.. The Constitutional Court is where our politicians like to be judged, after having chosen and appointed the respective judges.. It is a very dear Court precisely among those who are responsible for deciding these things.. There will hardly be a way to end it.
I acknowledge all objections, and I grant you are right. Even so, I can't resist putting forward some ideas and making some suggestions. If only for the pleasure of thinking.
(Text written under the previous rule to spell AO1990, by the author's option)
