With the promulgation of the last amendment of the Bulgarian Judiciary Act (State Gazette No 62 from 09.08.2016) new obligations of the judicial authorities were introduced.
The legislator has provided for the courts to announce their judicial decisions in a single register immediately after they are issued, following the necessary measures and complying with the rules under the national Personal Data Protection Act and Protection of Classified Information Act.
The Register is to be part of the unified information system for case management of all national courts and is to be managed in way guaranteeing the integrity, accessibility, and security of the information contained.
In relation to the introduced obligations to the courts, Article 360t of the Judiciary Act has provided that the Supreme Judicial Council Plenary and the Minister of Justice are to adopt an ordinance on the keeping, storage, and access to the register.
The Draft Ordinance on the Keeping, Storage, and Access to the Register of Judicial Decisions reflects the need of developing clear and thorough rules on keeping the register, announcing the judicial decisions and removing mistakes and gaps while following the principle of publicity and the respective limitations and exceptions.
The Draft Ordinance provide for concrete actions in terms of the register’s information security. The data will be kept in the register on permanent basis as the Plenary of the Supreme Judicial Council will undertake the necessary security measures, in compliance with common international standards, technical specifications and recommendations, creating the conditions in which data kept and transmitted would not be subject of unlawful or unintentional access, use, alteration, removal, or replication.
Furthermore, the Draft Ordinance provides for the register to be open to public and to provide free access to the judicial decisions.
You could find the Draft Ordinance on the Keeping, Storage, and Access to the Register of Judicial Decisions, as well as its financial justification and impact analysis on the web page for public consultations to the Bulgarian Supreme Judicial Council.
[Official English translation of the documents not available at this point]