Tour of the Horizon with the Justice Minister

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SUBJECT: Tour of the Horizon with the Justice Minister


Summary
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1. (SBU) In a February 6 meeting with Charge d'Affaires (CDA)
Maryruth Coleman, Justice Minister Lovro Sturm outlined judicial
reforms over the last two years including new buildings and
increased staffing. He also previewed forthcoming legislative
proposals that will give high courts new authority to settle cases,
create new arbitration and mediation channels to resolve disputes,
and completely rewrite the criminal code. The CDA raised property
denationalization issues of concern to U.S. citizens, and Sturm
responded that his legislative attempts to bring the property
denationalization process to a close have been stymied by the
political opposition. Sturm reported that the Government of
Slovenia (GOS)-funded study into pre-WWII Jewish-owned property
would be completed by February 15. End summary.

Judicial Reform
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2. (SBU) Sturm noted considerable progress in the last two years to
address the dilapidated physical infrastructure of Slovenia's
judiciary, highlighting that some buildings were over 300 years old
and that none had any security systems. He said the Ministry of
Justice (MOJ) had built brand-new alarm-equipped facilities for the
courts and prosecutors in Celje and Maribor, acquired a building
from the Ministry of Education for judicial use in Ljubljana, and
hoped to break ground in 2008 on a large new courthouse complex in
Ljubljana. He also said the MOJ had hired ten percent more judges
at all levels of the judiciary, which he emphasized was new staff,
not a re-shuffling of existing personnel.


3. (SBU) Sturm stated that in the coming week he intended to
propose to the Government several significant new draft laws to
reform the judiciary even further. The first law would grant
authority to higher courts to settle cases, instead of just sending
them back to lower courts for reconsideration. (Comment: Currently,
Slovenia's higher courts can only uphold lower-court rulings or
remand cases back down, but they cannot overturn lower court
decisions. Sturm's proposal would address a significant cause of
current backlogs as cases ping-pong back and forth for years. End
Comment.) Sturm said he had his work cut out for him to convince
higher-court judges to take full responsibility for their decisions,
including at the level of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme
Court. Sturm noted, however, that he would address the problem of
judicial buy-in after getting the Government's approval of the draft
law.


4. (SBU) Another law would enact a legal basis for arbitration and
mediation of legal disputes, and Sturm said the Ministry will
propose separate regulatory changes that would encourage attorneys
to use these new methods by guaranteeing them 75 or 80 percent of
their fee if they use them. Sturm hoped this would discourage
attorneys from the lengthy and costly court process, if they would
not gain much more income from it.


5. (SBU) Sturm also reported on a separate project within the
Ministry to completely revise the Slovene criminal code. He said
that in the last year and a half, about 50 percent of the work had
been completed, with the goal of having the rest completed within
the next two years. Using Germany as a model, Sturm said he was
considering phasing in the new criminal code over a period of five
years. The changes would include entirely new roles for public
prosecutors and investigative judges.

Property Denationalization
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6. (SBU) The CDA asked about the fate of the law Sturm introduced
to Parliament in July 2007 to bring about a speedy end to the
painful 15-year-old property denationalization process. Sturm said
opposition in Parliament was strong, and largely ideological, with
detractors calling property claimants "exploitators." Extreme
opponents had stalled the bill, claiming that the entire property
denationalization process only served to set a precedent that would
lead to returning all property to the Catholic Church. (Comment: at
one time, the church owned most of the land in the country. Enc
comment.) Nevertheless, Sturm said the law would help bring this
period of Slovenia's history to a close, once the opposition calmed
down a bit.


7. (SBU) The CDA raised in particular the case of the American
claiming the kindergarten immediately next door to the Embassy, and
the case of the American claiming Radenska, the largest source of
spring water in Slovenia and now owned by Lasko Brewery. She noted
that these cases and others have languished for years and that the
delays are hurting claimants who are growing older while waiting for
justice. Sturm claimed that the Government's hands were tied by
Supreme Court decisions, and that now the claimants and the
Government could do nothing but await the next court rulings. The

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CDA pushed back on the Radenska case, saying that it appeared that
the Ministry of Interior had injected itself into the matter by
retroactively changing the legal definitions of adults and minors,
effectively post-facto cancelling the American's key legal argument.
Sturm's reply was vague, saying only that the case was in the hands
of the courts.

Jewish Property Restitution
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8. (SBU) The CDA welcomed Sturm's statement that the MOJ-funded
study of pre-war Jewish properties was expected to be completed
within one week. Noting that the separate World Jewish Restitution
(WJRO)-funded study into the same question was also nearing
completion, the CDA pressed Sturm to proceed with restitution
settlement negotiations as soon as feasible, even during the busy EU
Presidency period.

Comment
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9. (SBU) Sturm's judicial reforms to date have modestly reduced
court backlogs, and it remains to be seen if he can convince
Parliament to enact his forthcoming legislative proposals, but any
effort in this area - especially the hiring of new judges --
is a welcome improvement over the previous neglect. While he
extolled the virtues of his proposed law to end property
denationalization, it has now been stuck in Parliament for over six
months without a single full hearing, and movement on this
controversial topic seems unlikely before Slovenia's fall 2008
elections.


10. (SBU) Sturm's claim that the Government must wait for court
rulings to resolve the two property denationalization cases raised
by the CDA is not consistent with our understanding of local law and
procedure. In the kindergarten case, the City of Ljubljana nearly
signed an out-of-court settlement with the American claimant two
years ago, but reneged when the high court unexpectedly ruled in the
City's favor and handed the case back to the lower court for
reconsideration. And in the Radenska spring water case, which
hinges on whether or not the claimant was a Yugoslav citizen in
1945, the Slovene Ministry of Interior can reverse its previous
denials of the man's citizenship at any time, opening the way for
his claim to that valuable property to proceed. The City of
Ljubljana and the Ministry of Interior are hiding behind the
severely backlogged courts as a convenient excuse and delaying
tactic. The CDA urged Sturm to do whatever possible to hasten a
resolution of these and other long-standing cases. She noted that
the U.S. Government would be focusing more intently on Slovenia in
the run-up to the US-EU summit, and that it would be in Slovenia's
interest to demonstrate real progress on these issues of deep
concern to U.S. citizens.

COLEMAN