Since the entry into force of Organic Law No. 1/21 of August 3, 2019 governing the Supreme Court, judges of the Supreme Court and magistrates of the Public Prosecution Office of the Republic have encountered some malfunctions related to its application, regretted the Minister of Justice, as to justify the urgency of introducing modifications to the current law, the draft law on which was adopted unanimously by the MPs present at the plenary session, Friday, January 19, 2024.

Mrs Domine Banyankimbona also noted some innovations. In particular, the malfunction of the cassation procedure related to the examination of arguments raised by the parties or not is now resolved by the provision of paragraph 2 of Article 49, which recognizes the judge of cassation the prerogative of raising ex officio the non-application, the misapplication or the misinterpretation of the rule of law applicable to the facts. With the new law, she continued, the procedure before the Higher Council of the Judiciary in case of manifest and persistent misjudgment will only be initiated at the end of the review procedure.

In addition, the problem of annulment proceedings has been resolved by article 56, which shifts jurisdiction from the Cassation Chamber to the Supreme Court, sitting in all chambers and composed of five judges. This jurisdiction is all the more justified in that the appeal has similarities with the revision procedure, but above all offers an opportunity to evoke the judgment or decision when it is annulled. The Chamber of Cassation had no such power to evoke a case on its merits.

However, a lively debate took place around the amendments. An intervener who did not appreciate the step of no recourse, it was demonstrated to him that in this case, one leaves the field of justice to embrace politics, which imposes limits for the interest of the nation; otherwise, justice is infinite.

For the little history, it was the rich who wanted to protect their assets coveted by the less well-off who set laws. This was the birth of justice. In other words, justice draws its essence from politics. Law is not political, but its essence is. It is a kind of mechanism of tool. Politics has entrusted such questions to the legal sector and not to the courts. This is the sense in which the field of justice is spoken.