Side effects of haste

In the extra time the government gave itself by pushing the snap election to July 7, it managed to pass a monumental law that had been in the works for years. Now that it’s nearly time for the country’s new criminal code to come into effect, the shortcomings of rushing through important legislation are becoming increasingly clear.

The Union of Prosecutors has issued an SOS outlining the dangers. These range from a wave of prison releases and crimes being written off to the risk of the justice system becoming log-jammed because the groundwork has not been done for it to deal with a barrage of new laws and decisions, such as certain out-of-court settlements and alternative to prison time.

The next Parliament will have to hit the ground running to quickly contain the damage, but this may not be enough, as it seems it will have a huge job on its hands in this field, among so many others.