Notaries We find that the anticipated amendment to the legal arrangements of notaries’ disciplinary responsibility when they work as attorneys has not been implemented (yet) in this field. However, notaries are expecting new tasks to be entrusted to them. The supervision of regularity of notaries’ service is still in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, and direct supervision of notaries’ operations is conducted by the Chamber of Notaries of Slovenia (NZS). In the 2014 annual report, the Ombudsman recommended that the legislator consider the suitability of the arrangement regarding the procedure and role of notaries in matters of electronic applications for the registration of land titles (recommendation no. 53). The Government acted on the recommendation, and informed us that it had examined our concerns regarding the issue, but was of the opinion that the current arrangement of the land register procedure was suitable. The complaints we considered also included a proposal to file a request for a review of the constitutionality of paragraph one of Article 19 of the Notary Act. We did not comply with the proposal because, among other things, a procedure to dismiss the notary in question was underway or had not been completed (yet), which had been instigated by the Ministry on the basis of the NZS’s notification. We added that the relevant ministry had still to determine whether a reason for dismissal was actually given under paragraph one of Article 19 of the Notary Act in the relevant phase of the procedure, and then had to issue a suitable document in this regard and justify its decision accordingly. We also determined that case law or standard legal practice, which would deal with the issue of the correct interpretation and application of indents 2 and 5 of paragraph one of Article 19 of the Notary Act, does not exist. We believe that case law or legal practice should be formed in accordance with suitable explanatory methods of legal rules, which is particularly a matter for the courts when deciding on individuals’ rights and duties. If a constitutional court is to decide on the constitutionality of an individual regulation, preliminary explanations already adopted by courts have a significant impact on the decision making process, including the quality and argumentation of the constitutional court’s decision. The courts are nevertheless (only) bound by the Constitution and the law. As per the above, a court must discuss clients’ objections regarding the unconstitutionality of regulations accordingly and substantiate its rejection. If the court admits the objections and the unconstitutionality of an act is established, then it must suspend the procedure (as per Article 156 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia) and initiate a review of constitutionality. Notaries must be persons of public trust 2.4 JUSTICE 2.4 JUSTICE When considering a complaint, the Ombudsman discovered the disturbing information that a criminal complaint against a notary had been filed with the competent state prosecutor’s office due to the suspicion of committing a criminal offence of the abuse of office or official duties under paragraph five of Article 257 of the KZ-1 and fraud as per paragraph three of Article 211 of the KZ-1 to the detriment of the complainant. A notariat is a public service and notaries are persons of public trust. Notaries must perform their work honestly, with due diligence and in accordance with the regulations in order to gain their clients’ trust with regard to the notaries work as a public service. Thus notaries must enjoy (permanent) public trust to perform their services, since such work requires reputation, integrity and credibility. From replies of the Ministry of Justice and the Chamber of Notaries of Slovenia, we were able to ascertain that measures were taken in the relevant case (at the time of our inquiries), which the Notary Act anticipated in this regard. A criminal complaint filed against a notary, in our opinion, indicates a loss of the trust in which the service must be held, including trust in the credibility and the notion of a notary in general. This example thus points to a need to revise the provisions on the disciplinary responsibility of notaries under the Notary Act in order to ensure the efficient protection of public trust already at the time of instigation of, or during the course of, criminal proceedings against notaries. 78 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 79