Very interesting about the judiciary. How about the lawyers coming up through the ranks - how long until there will be a sufficient supply of judicial candidates who can pass the "vetting" process? If there's an anti-corruption court, even more legally-educated people will be needed soon, (quick, before the pro-corruption parties get re-elected.)
Any word on when Moldova will be a Peace Corps site again? I assume it's contingent on the Ukraine war. Glad the staff is still on board.
I think the supply of qualified lawyers is an open and interesting question. But with only 425 judges in the country total we aren't talking about a lot of people even if 50% of them fail vetting.
I think there is an open question though about the vetting itself. There hasn't been a ton of reporting on how the process works but there may be something to the rumbling of some judges that the process is unfair. One judge noted in the meeting that vetting "doesn't take into account the realities of the real estate market in Moldova." Without more information I excluded this from the main article, but it is a reality that it can be very hard to buy property in Moldova legally. Both parties in a transaction have an incentive to deflate the official price to avoid taxes on the sale and ongoing property taxes. Personally I haven't had this issue but I know friends who have. I can say from my own experience buying a car the state official registering the contract not only asked "how much do you want to say it is?" but gave buyer and seller advice on what number to write down that would minimize both taxes and suspicion. The point is that it is not clear if vetting takes into account the reality that all Moldovan property is majorly undervalued and distinguishes that from judges who own 1, 2, or 5 properties of very high value in the names of their grandparents and such. We'll have to see how the vetting process rolls out finally to know how many candidates will really pass.
As to Peace Corps - volunteers are on track to come back this year! Exact timing is not announced but that's good news :)
Very interesting about the judiciary. How about the lawyers coming up through the ranks - how long until there will be a sufficient supply of judicial candidates who can pass the "vetting" process? If there's an anti-corruption court, even more legally-educated people will be needed soon, (quick, before the pro-corruption parties get re-elected.)
Any word on when Moldova will be a Peace Corps site again? I assume it's contingent on the Ukraine war. Glad the staff is still on board.
Hi Connie,
I think the supply of qualified lawyers is an open and interesting question. But with only 425 judges in the country total we aren't talking about a lot of people even if 50% of them fail vetting.
I think there is an open question though about the vetting itself. There hasn't been a ton of reporting on how the process works but there may be something to the rumbling of some judges that the process is unfair. One judge noted in the meeting that vetting "doesn't take into account the realities of the real estate market in Moldova." Without more information I excluded this from the main article, but it is a reality that it can be very hard to buy property in Moldova legally. Both parties in a transaction have an incentive to deflate the official price to avoid taxes on the sale and ongoing property taxes. Personally I haven't had this issue but I know friends who have. I can say from my own experience buying a car the state official registering the contract not only asked "how much do you want to say it is?" but gave buyer and seller advice on what number to write down that would minimize both taxes and suspicion. The point is that it is not clear if vetting takes into account the reality that all Moldovan property is majorly undervalued and distinguishes that from judges who own 1, 2, or 5 properties of very high value in the names of their grandparents and such. We'll have to see how the vetting process rolls out finally to know how many candidates will really pass.
As to Peace Corps - volunteers are on track to come back this year! Exact timing is not announced but that's good news :)