1The vacancy in the judicial civil service shall be filled in the following order:

aInitially, the vacancy shall be offered to a judicial civil servant registered in a list of judicial civil servants, or to those who are entitled to return or be transferred in the sense of the provision on the effects of suspension of the Law “On Civil Servant’ or on the transfer;

bIn case the vacant position cannot be filled under the procedure provided in letter “a”, the vacancy shall be filled under a lateral transfer procedure,

cIn case the vacant position cannot be filled under the procedure provided in letter “a” or “b”, the vacancy shall be filled under a promotion procedure.

2Judicial civil servants of a certain category are entitled to apply by following the procedure of lateral transfer to positions of the same category of another court.

3Judicial civil servants of a certain category, who meet the requirements for a higher category, are entitled to apply by following the procedure of promotion to positions of the higher category of the same court or of another court.

4The chancellor shall inform the High Judicial Council on a vacant position or an upcoming vacant position in the court without delay, in any case not later than two weeks after having received the information.

5The High Judicial Council, without delay, shall inform the Court Council on judicial civil servants registered in a list of judicial civil servants in the sense of paragraph 1 of this Article. The Court Council shall offer the position to the candidate registered in the respective list.

6In case the vacant position cannot be filled by such a procedure, the High Judicial Council shall announce the commencement of lateral transfer and promotion procedures. The High Judicial Council shall notify all judicial civil servants of the same category and judicial civil servants of lower categories who meet the requirements for the respective higher category, on the vacant positions and the opening of the lateral transfer and promotion procedures.

7The notification shall be published at all courts. It shall contain information on the vacant position, the deadline for submission of application, the accompanying documentation, application examination procedure and the place where the application and the documentation have to be submitted. The deadline for submission of application may not be less than two weeks from the date of notification.

8The application shall be submitted to the Court Council that has made the notification on the vacancy.

9The Court Council shall review the applications based on the submitted documentation. In case of a lateral transfer, the Court Council may conduct an interview. In case of a promotion, the conduction of the interview with the candidates by the Court Council is mandatory.

10The Court Council shall, in case of two or more applications for the same position, rank the candidates in the order of the following criteria:

aResults of work performance evaluation, in case of equal grades, the Court Council shall establish a ranking within the group of candidates with the highest grades;

bYears of professional experience in the respective position;

cTotal years of professional experience in the justice sector or other relevant professional experience for the respective position.

11The Court Council shall select and notify the candidate within two weeks from the expiry of the application deadline.

12The Council of the Court where the judicial civil servant is newly recruited shall notify the High Judicial Council on the results of the procedure of lateral transfer or promotion, within five days upon selection of the candidate pursuant to this Article.

13The High Judicial Council shall establish more detailed rules on the lateral transfer and promotion procedure.