ADC conducts round table on transparency of Magistracy Council

On April 14, the Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) coordinated the round table titled Council of the Magistracy: towards a more transparent judiciary? in order to debate the challenges of rethinking, strengthening, and making the procedures of the body in charge of judge selection more transparent.

The meeting, which took place at the Torcuato Di Tella University, was moderated by ADC project officer, Luis García Balcarce, and welcomed the participation of our head of Strategic Litigation, Alejandro Segarra, project leaders Eduardo Ferreyra and Marianela Milanes, as well as experts in the field such as Sebastián Guidi, Camila Perochena, Pedro Caminos, Gustavo Arballo, Maricel Asar, and Hernán Bouvier.

During the event, which lasted four hours, the participants discussed ADC’s findings in our recent report titled The Problem of Judge Selection in Argentina.

The first of the two topics addressed was the problems currently faced by the Council, such as the formulation of jury lists and the requirements for their composition, as well as the selection processes and evaluation scores. This was followed by a debate on the access of new members to the Judiciary and the mechanisms for their promotion, as well as the role of the Selection Committee and the personal interviews with candidates.

In addition, there was a discussion on aspects related to the professional practice and the administration of justice, essential features of the Argentinian Justice System.

«The meeting proved useful to transcend the habitual arguments over the balance of the Council, a topic which is essential but has been given much attention, and dwell on other structural issues, often underemphasized, such as the problems occurring in judge selection processes,» concluded García Balcarce.