Vetting process – the road to integrity for the Republic of Moldova (NIJ trainees at THEMIS competition)

In recent years, there has been a consensus in the public-political sphere of the Republic of Moldova regarding the fact, that institutional reconstruction of the judiciary is the main task and necessary precondition for the successful establishing of the rule of law. In the context of the determination of the Republic of Moldova to join European Union and due to a lack of trust in the justice professionals, the country engaged in an extraordinary evaluation of judges, supported by foreign partners and civil society. One of the major objectives of this reformative measure is to strengthen integrity and accountability of judges and restore confidence in national courts. This study aims to analyze premises of the extraordinary evaluation of judges, the concept of vetting process of Moldova as an institutional measure, take a closer look at the main steps in initiating and adapting the vetting process as a mechanism of verifying the integrity of judges. At the same time, the presented paper reviews international example of ongoing process of judicial vetting in Albania, and the institutional model used there.