Venezuela's Supreme Court: civil society gains seats, the PSUV keeps both filters

The National Assembly takes credentials from October 2 to 9, at the Federal Legislative Palace, from people seeking one of the twelve civil-society seats on the committee that shortlists justices for the Supreme Court of Justice. They are assessed by a commission of eleven deputies installed on September 30, which will present its list to the plenary on October 15. It is chaired by Giuseppe Alessandrello, of the PSUV, who chaired the equivalent commission in April, and eight of the eleven are listed as deputies of that party in the legislature's official directory.

With the reform of the Supreme Court law published on September 15, civil society gained the majority of the committee that shortlists candidates: twelve of twenty-three seats.

That majority exists on paper.

To take it up, each of the twelve has to get through two filters. Neither changed.

What changed and what did not

A single article, Article 65, changed with the reform passed on September 1 and published in Official Gazette 7,074. The committee went from 21 to 23 members. The two new seats went to other sectors of society, which rise from ten to twelve. Deputies remain at eleven, and the call will also be publicized on social media.

A transitional provision completes the change: it orders the process to begin for appointing every justice, principal and alternate.

Everything else stayed the same, according to the comparison published by Acceso a la Justicia, the organization that tracks the judiciary’s record. The commission of deputies still receives and shortlists society nominees. The plenary still approves the 23 by two thirds. And the committee still lasts two years.

It is the second reform of the year to the same law. In May, another one changed the article that sets the size of each chamber: the court has 32 justices, seven in the Constitutional Chamber and five in each of the other five. The process that began in April covered 22 seats; in August, the dialogue table agreed that the renewal would be total.

The two filters

The eleven-deputy commission, which takes credentials until October 9, filters first. The law tasks it with calling for society nominees, receiving them, shortlisting them and sending the list to the plenary.

Then the plenary filters, approving the 23 by two thirds of its members. Of the 288 deputies in the official directory, 227 are from the PSUV. It has votes to spare without counting a single ally.

Once past both filters, the commission's eleven deputies stay on as members of the committee, which sits for two years.

Under the Constitution, the committee should be something else. Its Article 270 defines it as "made up of representatives of the different sectors of society." That is why Acceso a la Justicia argues that the reform does not conform to the Constitution: there should be no deputies on it.

A candidate’s path

Inside the committee, the civil-society majority decides what is voted by simple majority: which names make the long list.

For the scoring grid that is not enough. It needs two thirds of the members, 16 of 23 votes, and the PSUV's eight deputies are enough to block it. And the final choice is made in the plenary, where that party holds more than two thirds. If it ever fell short, the fourth session asks only for a simple majority.

A council outside the law

Reviewing nominees' credentials and requirements is the task of the seven-jurist council that the dialogue table between the government and the Assembly elected in 2015 created on September 25. It was born of the same August agreement that opened the total renewal, which we analyzed when it was signed.

The amended law does not mention it, so its conclusions have no effect provided for in the procedure. Its weight will be measured by what it publishes: a written review of each nominee leaves a record against which the final list can be checked.

Two chambers that matter to investors

Seven justices make up the Constitutional Chamber, the only one that rules on whether laws are constitutional. It is also the one that must rule on the reform of the Law Against Hatred that the acting president requested on September 28, before the Assembly can debate it. Five make up the Political-Administrative Chamber. It hears claims against the Republic and against companies in which the state holds a decisive stake, when they exceed seventy thousand times the official exchange rate of the highest-value currency. At the euro rate for September 30, the threshold is around $79,000.

Under OFAC's General Licenses 48D and 50C, contracts covered by them with the Venezuelan government or PDVSA must take their disputes to the United States, the United Kingdom, France or Singapore. Those contracts have their court outside the country.

What gets decided in Caracas is the constitutionality of the laws that frame them, and any dispute without that forum.

The calendar still to come

The timetable the commission announced on being installed covers only the first stretch: credentials from October 2 to 9, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the list of those selected before the plenary on October 15. The Assembly said the committee is expected to be sworn in the following day, although the note on its website does not include that date.

The committee will set the rest. According to Alessandrello, the second timetable, the one that includes the scoring grid, is drawn up once all 23 members are in place. Nor is it settled what happens to those who applied in the April process: Alessandrello said he thinks it appropriate to consider the documents they submitted, which are being kept on file.

The law sets the pace of what follows. Once the committee closes applications, which can stay open for up to 30 calendar days, it publishes the list the next business day and a fixed 15-calendar-day window for challenges opens. Then come up to eight days to rule on objections, the shortlisting with the scoring grid, up to ten days for the Citizen Power and up to five for the Assembly. If the committee used the full 30 days from its swearing-in, the challenge window would close in early December, and the appointments would come after that.

Three milestones will test that calendar. The October 15 list will show who got through the first filter. The committee's notice in three newspapers will show how many days it gives applicants. And the vote on the scoring grid, the committee's first that requires two thirds, will show whether the PSUV's eight deputies vote as a bloc.