Students praised the work of the Varna Court of Appeal
The students of Varna Free University "Chernorizets Hrabar" and the University of Economics praised the impartiality and behaviour of the magistrates at the Court of Appeal in Varna. The students completed 112 questionnaires in the framework of the civil monitoring project of the court for one year. They themselves chose the cases they would monitor, and that was not known beforehand to the judges, said Vanuhi Arakelyan, chairperson of the Court of Appeal.
To activate the resource of the academic community in Varna and to create conditions for raising the public awareness of the court proceedings was the purpose of the civil monitoring carried out. The methodology and the monitoring cards were prepared by the judge of the Court of Appeal Rositsa Toncheva. The project became possible after a Memorandum of Cooperation and Partnership between Varna Court of Appeal, the University of Economics and Varna Free University "Chernorizets Hrabar" was signed a year ago. The partnership between the three institutions allows for civil monitoring of all the categories of cases heard at Varna Court of Appeal.
It was carried out by students from both universities through universal monitoring cards. Students from different specialties of the two higher education institutions have observed only the principle of "suddenness". With no preliminary schedule they have entered criminal, civil and commercial cases heard by the Varna Court of Appeal to monitor the work taking into account several indicators. The students chose to attend mostly criminal cases.
High grades were given by the students in the areas of Publicity and Transparency of Judicial Proceedings, Comprehensibility, Ethical Behaviour of the Magistrates and Access to the Judicial Environment. The young people involved in the project made remarks in terms of efficiency of electronic services, acoustics in the courtroom, visibility to judges and outdated facilities.
The participants in the public report on civil monitoring unite around the conclusion that it is imperative for the Court of Appeal to provide for an urgent new, independent building.
Photo: Eli Marinova, Cherno More Information Agency
At the suggestion of Prof. Galya Gercheva, D.Sc. - Rector of VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar", next year law students will be involved in the project because this is important both for their professional development and for the development of their civic behaviour and culture.
The chairperson of the Court of Appeal, Vanuhi Arakelyan, praised the project and expressed her satisfaction with the quality work of the panel of judges.