On November 23, 2020, the Ministry of Justice presented a new judicial map. According to the Minister of Justice, Maria Kolikova, the primary objectives of the new judicial map are the specialization of judges according to individual legal areas, improvement in the quality of court decisions, and to root out corrupt ties in the judiciary.

The specialization of courts is planned for criminal, civil, family and commercial law matters in general courts, and for administrative matters in separate administrative judiciary.

The Ministry stated, “We propose to divide the map of general courts into thirty districts of first instance courts (including two municipal courts in Bratislava and Kosice) and three districts of appellate courts. The seats of general appellate courts should be established in the current seats of regional courts: in Presov for the Eastern Slovak district, in Banska Bystrica for the Central Slovak district and in Trnava for the Western Slovak district.

We propose that complex commercial law matters fall within causal jurisdiction of three general first instance courts in the seats of appellate courts: in Presov, Banska Bystrica, and Trnava. For part of commercial law matters (disputes), we propose to establish a fourth district in the territory of the Bratislava Municipal Court, considering the importance of the capital and the scope of matters. We propose that the Commercial Register [be administered by one single court] in Slovakia (in Zilina) only.”

The organization of administrative courts is to be dealt with separately from the general judiciary in three districts. The seats of the first instance administrative courts should be in the towns of Nitra, Zilina, and Kosice. The Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic should be established in Bratislava.