How to Establish the Rule of Law in Croatia

Natasha Srdoc, Chairman of the Adriatic Institute for Public Policy, Croatia's independent think tank provides principled solutions to establishing the rule of law by creating an independent judiciary in Croatia without having to wait for a generational change or more.
 

(see video at the bottom of transcript)
 

transcript:

I am Natasha Srdoc, Chairman of Adriatic Institute for Public Policy

We believe that the only way to successfully establish the rule of law and independent judiciary in Croatia is to bring visiting judges and prosecutors from the countries with the strong rule of law tradition to work alongside and assist Croatia’s honest judges and prosecutors and creating an independent commission to focus on rampant corruption.

The presence of visiting judges who would preside on cases of political corruption would create an unprecedented principled standard of the rule of law. What would happen is that - corrupt judges would gradually fall out and honest judges within the judiciary (who are neglected in the present system and do not get the “sensitive” cases) would surface and become encouraged and empowered to take greater responsibility. This principled solution has worked in other countries over the past four decades.

Also, there would be an interest from the young law graduates to come into judiciary and see it as an honest and honorable calling (which they do not consider now). In a very short time period, we would be able to establish an independent judiciary and the rule of law without having to wait for a generational change. If this remains unattended, Croatia’s most glaring problems will in due time adversely affect EU member states with the direct flow of crime and corruption in to the union and place a significant cost to EU taxpayers. Croatia’s prolonged economic crisis can be mostly attributed to political corruption and a non-transparent public finances which were the main issues behind the crisis in Greece.

I encourage you to share this video with your professional and social networks.

I Thank you for your time.

Please visit us at adriaticinstitute.org and Adriatic Institute’s facebook page.