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Developing Mongolia's Legal Framework: A Needs Analysis : The Judicial System
The JudgesMongolia has 357 positions for judges who are appointed for life by the President upon the recommendation of the General Council of Courts. This is in contrast to the previous system in which appointments were for a fixed term. The Supreme Court selects one of its members to be Chief Justice. Appointment for the six year term is made by the President. On the recommendation of the Chief Justice, the President also appoints the two Senior Judges who preside over the Supreme Courtþs civil and criminal chambers. Until recently, the functioning of the judiciary was constrained by the fact that a substantial number of judicial positions were vacant. In early 1994, these amounted to as many as one quarter of the total. One year later, the situation had improved, with most positions being filled. There are no present plans to increase the number of positions for judges. The number of judges sitting at different courts varies between three and five for soum and intersoum courts, and between five and nine for aimag courts. The Capital City Court is the largest in the country and has 83 judges. There are 17 on the Supreme Court bench. All judges must have a law degree, although not necessarily from Mongolia. In the lower courts, judges must be at least 25 years old and have three yearsþ legal experience. Judges of the Supreme Court must be at least 35 years old with ten yearsþ experience. These constitutional requirements came into force in 1992. Approximately one-fifth of the judges at that time did not meet the necessary requirements but were permitted to stay in office as there were no replacements available. Failure to meet the education requirement is being overcome by courses provided by the Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the Institute of Law of the State University of Mongolia. Approximately three-quarters of present graduate judges studied at the former Law Faculty of the State University of Mongolia, the others at Irkutsk and other universities in the former Soviet Union. Mongolian judges are generally young, especially when compared with judges in common law countries. Most are aged between 30 and 35. The average age was even lower before the introduction of the age requirement and it was not unusual to become a judge after graduation from the legal high school at the age of 21.26 Sixty percent of Mongolia's judges are women. The workload of judges has increased substantially over the last few years and the types of case they deal with have changed. Under the socialist system, most of their work was criminal. Now two-thirds of the cases are civil, primarily involving contractual disputes, although criminal matters still make up the bulk of appeals. Under the previous system, judges worked with a limited number of laws and legal publications, but they have now had to adjust to a rapidly changing legislative environment, particularly in the civil area. Although most of the judges have attempted to familiarise themselves with the new legislation, there are still some who base decisons on their old knowledge as they find it difficult to keep up with the changes. Their experience in the application of commercial laws is limited, and many find the unfamiliar situations of a market economy that they are faced with confusing. This has been alleviated with some training in commercial, contract and company law and exposure to market economy concepts, although most of these courses had a general, elementary character and were not specifically designed for the judicial practice. More training is necessary, particularly in the commercial law area. Not all judges, however, need to develop expertise in commercial matters, and it is recommended that, at least initially, training could be given to one judge in each aimag and a greater number from Ulaanbaatarþs courts. The presence of more junior judges, presumably more inclined to embark on a tedious and difficult learning programme in language and new substantive domains could facilitate the emergence of such specialist judges, dealing primarily with business-related cases. All judges meet at least once a year in Ulaanbaatar for a conference or training course. The Chief Judges of the aimag courts, and the Capital City and Supreme Court judges meet more often. Occasionally, judges of neighbouring aimags have regional meetings and judges of the Supreme Court regularly make observation visits to the courts in the aimags. Many judges are fluent in Russian, but few have any knowledge of other languages. Only three Supreme Court judges have any knowledge of English, one of them speaking it reasonably well. Training in English and other European languages, such as German or French, would enable judges to integrate more easily into the international judicial community, and would assist them in broadening their knowledge by reading foreign texts. ____________________ 26 The legal high school has now been abolished.
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