Constitutional Court

KI 107/17 and KI 129/17, Constitutional review of Decisions KGJK no. 218/2017 and KGJK no. 217/2017 of the Kosovo Judicial Council, of 23 June 2017

KI 107/17 and KI 129/17, Applicants: Shahadin Destani and Bekim Kryeziu

Resolution on Inadmissibility, of 10 January 2018

Key words: individual referral, premature, non-exhaustion of legal remedies, Kosovo Judicial Council, appointment of judges.

The Applicants were candidates for a judge in regular court system in Kosovo. They were not included in the final list of candidates to be recommended to the Kosovo Judicial Council for voting and thus they were not recommended for appointment as judges.

Through two identical decisions, the Kosovo Judicial Council (Decision no. 217/2017 & Decision no. 218/2017, both of 23 June 2017) decided that the Applicants shall not be proposed to the President of the Republic of Kosovo to be appointed as judges.

The Applicants challenged those decisions before the Constitutional Court without exhausting any of the available legal remedies before the regular courts.  They claimed a violation of their rights guaranteed by Articles 24, 31 and 45 of the Constitution.  The Court declared the Referral inadmissible. It found that the Applicants have not exhausted all available legal remedies nor they have not demonstrated that the existing legal remedy was not effective. Instead of filling a Referral directly with the Court, the Applicants could have initiated administrative proceedings against the Decisions of the Kosovo Judicial Council.