Pavel Simon: The candidate for constitutional judge was rejected by the parliamentary committees

2023-10-11 12:42:00

Simon thus became President Petr Pavel’s first candidate for constitutional judge, who was not recommended by any of the senate committees. The upper parliamentary chamber will decide on his candidacy in a week.

Senators from the constitutional-legal committee criticized Simon for his attitude to compensation for damages caused by the exercise of public authority. They also criticized his wife’s former shareholdings in companies. Simon defended himself by saying that he only worked as a yoga instructor in the companies, but according to critics, he also promoted the companies.

“It’s like a pot sale,” the deputy chairperson of the committee, Hana Kordová Marvanová (ODS), stated that the Supreme Administrative Court should deal with Simon’s business on the basis of a disciplinary action. “You performed a gainful activity,” vice-chairman of the committee Michael Canov (SLK) also reproached the judge.

Kordová Marvanová also pointed out that In materials related to teaching yoga, Simon only goes by the initials “Dr.”, not his full legal title, by which the interested party may be mistaken that he is a doctor. The judge explained this by saying that he did not want clients to turn to him with legal problems. He also stated that he had recently transferred his shares in the companies to his wife.

The senator also criticized Simon’s position on compensation, which, according to her, contradicts the approach of the Constitutional Court, according to which the state must bear objective responsibility for the actions of its authorities. The judge stated that in interviews with the media he drew attention to the absence of a political debate on the level of compensation and that in the original EU states the state compensates according to the degree of fault. “I am by no means a formalist judge, I believe in a fair trial,” he said.

Simon also faced criticism from some senators for the fact that some of the decisions he participated in did not stand up to the Constitutional Court in the past. The judge stated that the Constitutional Court did not cancel any decision that it was preparing. Václav Láska (SEN 21) paused over Simon’s claim that all damage cannot be compensated. He called it a relativization of the basic rule that justice should be negotiated at any cost.

Simon is the chairman of the Supreme Court panel specializing in state liability for damage and non-pecuniary damage. He told the senators that, in addition to his specialization, he could also benefit the Constitutional Court with knowledge of the appeal procedure in civil cases or experience in the application of EU law. He pointed out that he is a substitute judge of the European Court of Human Rights.