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Nicaragua The Judiciary
Under the 1987 constitution, the Supreme Court is an
independent branch of government, whose members are
selected for
six-year terms by the National Assembly from lists
submitted by
the president. From among those members, the president
selects
the head of the Supreme Court. The constitution also
provides
that the Supreme Court justices appoint judges to the
lower
courts. Supreme Court justices can only be removed
constitutionally "for reasons determined by law."
In National Assembly-approved 1990 reforms to the
Organic Law
of Tribunals, the Chamorro government enlarged the Supreme
Court's membership from the constitutionally mandated
seven
justices to nine, as a way of breaking what was perceived
as
Sandinista domination of the court. Those seven members
had been
appointed to their six-year terms in December 1987, and
their
terms were to expire in 1993. In 1990 President Chamorro
also
dismissed the court's Sandinista-appointed head and
replaced him
with one of her own choosing. The evaluation of this act
depended
on one's political point of view. According to Nicaraguan
analysts, the nine-member court decided that it would take
decisions only on the basis of consensus, a procedure some
saw as
guaranteeing Sandinista influence on the court, others saw
as
neutralizing Sandinista influence, and still others saw as
effectively paralyzing the operations of the court.
Data as of December 1993
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