E/CN.4/1999/63/Add.2 page 7 Constitution, this Council is unconstitutional. Five of the seven members of the Constitutional Court were of this opinion, but the required constitutional majority to overturn legislation is six. 28. The reform has positive aspects in terms of administration, decentralization, judicial rosters (turnos), operations, and a significant increase in judges' salaries. It is a major achievement to have freed judges from administrative tasks, which are now carried out by “corporate” support services. Good results have been achieved in areas where the system has been operating on an experimental basis, i.e. Lima and Lambayegue, but the backlog has not yet been dealt with in Lima. Computerization appears to have been successful. New courts and services have been created, facilitating notification procedures, rogatory commissions, communications and archives. One hundred fifty provisional courts have been set up to deal with the backlog. 29. Other administrative measures include the distribution of cases to different competent courts, a common court office, the holding of hearings and judicial proceedings in the prisons for reasons of security and economy (which the lawyers interviewed appear to have accepted). The Working Group visited the courtrooms in Castro Castro prison and saw that the facilities were comfortable and that since 1997 equipment that had been used to protect the anonymity of judges had been removed. Separate courts try persons who are imprisoned and persons who are at liberty. “Itinerant” judges and courtrooms have been set up in places where trials are held, thus avoiding the need to transfer case files, accused persons and witnesses. “Permanent courts” operate 24 hours a day, thereby reducing the number of persons held in police custody. Previously, 80 per cent of the persons arrested by the police remained in detention, whereas now, only 20 per cent do. The Supreme Court is considering setting up provisional courts. 30. It was ordered that, in the event of conflicting precedents, the full court must establish which jurisprudence is compulsory. 31. A major effort is being made by the Academy of the Judiciary to train judges. 32. The main criticisms of the reform which have been brought to the Working Group's attention and which threaten its credibility are: neither the legal community nor the general public perceive, as is generally held to be the case, that the reforms are politically neutral; according to many critics, the reform does not deal with important issues such as the independence of the judiciary and, in particular, it does not tackle the thorny problem of the competence of military courts to try civilians or members of the army when the victims are civilians or society as a whole. Another criticism relates to political interference, such as the transfer or dismissal of judges who are critical of the Government. One example is Administrative Decision No. 399 of 14 October 1997, which provides that habeas corpus cases can be heard only by the only two judges specializing in public law, thereby ruling out the participation of judges who have proven their independence (formerly, any criminal judge could hear cases of this kind). Another criticism was directed at the arbitrary change in the composition of the divisions of the Lima High Court, normally done at the start of the judicial year. Moreover, judges and