Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) carried out a research project Slovak Judiciary as Seen by the Public, Experts, and Judges. The aim of the project is to map opinions of the general public, experts and judges about problems of the Slovak justice system, their causes and potential solutions. Within the project a number of opinion surveys of citizens on a representative sample of the population and opinion surveys of experts and judges in two specially designed panels, are realized.

In April 2012, a survey on the possible prospective changes in Slovak judiciary after the parliamentary elections 2012 (focusing on the government change and the settlement of a new minister of justice, Dr. Borec) and other current issues in judiciary, was conducted. Institute for Public Affairs also formed a panel of experts and panel of judges, who were answered the same questions as general public.

Results of the third survey (spring 2012)

The results were published in the Press release (PDF, in Slovak).

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The Slovak Spectator published an article on the topic:

Poll surveys general public about judicial reforms

Robert Fico's government will continue the reforms made in the judiciary initiated by former justice minister Lucia Žitňanská from the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) with certain modifications, said 37 percent of the respondents surveyed by the Institute for Public Affairs Institute (IVO), the TASR newswire reported.

Only 9 percent said that they believe that the new government will continue Žitňanská's reforms without modification and 22 percent thought the reforms will be scrapped entirely while 8 percent had the opinion the government will do nothing. Almost one-quarter of those surveyed could not or did not answer the question, TASR wrote.

IVO also asked judges and legal experts about their opinions and they almost unanimously said that they do not believe the Žitňanská reforms would continue without major changes.

The survey found that most supporters of Smer party expect the government to continue the reforms with some changes while supporters of opposition parties think the reforms will be scrapped. 

 Source: TASR

 3 May 2012, Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports

 The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings. 

http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/46246/10/