National Assembly approves dialogue-backed reform of Supreme Court law

Venezuela’s National Assembly has unanimously approved one of the first legislative measures to emerge from the dialogue between the government and opposition sectors: a partial reform of the Organic Law of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The amendment changes Article 65, which governs the Judicial Nominations Committee, the body responsible for an early stage of choosing new magistrates. Its membership will rise from 21 to 23, with 11 lawmakers and 12 representatives of civil society. That gives civil society a numerical majority in the committee.

The reform also includes a sole transitional provision. Once the law appears in the Official Gazette, the National Assembly will appoint the committee under the revised rules and begin the constitutional and legal process for appointing all principal and alternate Supreme Court magistrates, along with the court’s related bodies.

The renewal of the Supreme Court stands among the central institutional changes discussed during the first dialogue round. Civil society organizations have warned that the process must provide transparency, citizen participation, merit-based selection and judicial independence if replacing the magistrates is to produce meaningful changes in the justice system.

The agreement behind the reform was announced on Aug. 12, at the close of the first cycle of talks. Delegations are preparing for a second phase, tentatively scheduled for mid-September. Other issues still under discussion include institutional changes related to the country’s political and electoral transition and freedom of expression.

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Once this Law is published in the Official Gazette of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the National Assembly will appoint the Judicial Nominations Committee based on the provisions of Article 65 of the Organic Law of the Supreme Court of Justice, for the purpose of initiating the constitutional and legal process for the appointment and designation of all principal and alternate magistrates of the Supreme Court, as well as its corresponding auxiliary bodies.