A judge published a selfie with a pro-government message. Another spoke of doing “patriarchal following” on TikTok. These are two of the several cases that shake the desks of the Supreme Court of Justice, which is responsible for carrying out disciplinary procedures on judges. How are the magistrates who day by day impart Justice in Uruguay trained? The Center for Judicial Studies (CEJU) – an institution dependent on the Judiciary – is in charge of educating lawyers who want to become judges.
In recent years, Approximately 100 applicants have applied, but only between 25 and 30 are accepted per generation. The admission process consists of several stages that evaluate both knowledge and psychological profile. In the first instance, there is an opposition test in three different legal areas that vary from year to year. There, the team in charge of formulating the questions anticipates to the applicants which thematic units will be evaluated.
This test is exclusive and is followed by an evaluation of the psychological profile. There, a professional in an interview with the applicant determines if she has the necessary profile to impart Justice. The source consulted by The Observer He stressed that the negative result in this test does not mean that that person does not have the necessary skills to work in other areas of law, in which they can stand out. Finally, the candidate must hold a personal interview with two ministers of the court of appeals.
As a result of all this material, plus the merits and education of the applicant, a priority list is drawn up to begin the training of a judge. The largest number of eliminations occur in the knowledge test and the profile test.
Last year no call was made because there were still received judges who had not been able to assume.
Flexibility?
During most of the history of the Judiciary, it was not possible to enter the career of judge if the applicant had lost any subject in the law career. A few years ago that requirement was relaxed to two subjects and some time later that condition was eliminated. Although when evaluating income, university education must be presented and it is a value, the application of applicants is no longer prohibited due to their academic records.
A source that participated in the change noted that if that requirement had been maintained, “there would be no judges,” although a CEJU official pointed out that the reasons for the change are not clear.
At that time, the Supreme Court of Justice received a report that established that, on average, law students failed about five subjects.
The last cases that put the judges in the crosshairs
The Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) added Judge Florencia Ferreyra, who currently works at Treinta y Tres, for her publications on social networks in favor of the government and the Police, reported Info Capital (Tv Ciudad) and confirmed from the Judiciary .
The magistrate had published selfies accompanied by captions such as “You don’t like the president’s decisions? Nobody asked you. Fuck you and start for the court“. He also shared an image of the Police shield that added: “Call me stupid, but I was moved to see the parade of the National Police School. It will be because working with them one sees that they do what they can and more… and the same things happen to them as to us. THANKS FOR EVERYTHING ‘THERE IS ORDER NOT TO LOOSEN’… they say out there”.
The judge had already been denounced previously for workplace harassment, abuse of authority and abuse at the administrative level, by six judicial officials who said they had been threatened to “throw them down the stairs,” according to El Observador had reported in 2019but it was not until these episodes were reported that it was decided to sum her up with removal from office.
Lto judge specialized in gender violence of Panda, Ada Siré, uploaded videos that later went viral to the social network TikTok, in which he refers to the “macho stereotypes” that they observe in the “men’s meetings”. Days later, they changed her shift so that she would stop dealing with cases of violence against women and start dealing with family cases..
The SCJ made a request for information that the magistrate had to respond to in 72 hours, but it was certified due to a health problem, which is why the term is suspended.
After studying their statements, and in an effort to gain an in-depth understanding of the matter, the hierarchs can decide to investigate the judge to determine her responsibility. Otherwise, the case will be archived.
The alternate judge Alejandro Leiva He has been under house arrest since July 2021 after being charged with the rape of a 17-year-old teenager.
