COURTS, CREDIT AND DEBT COLLECTION IN POST-COMMUNIST SLOVAKIA. NOTES ABOUT SOME UNDERSTUDIED INGREDIENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION

Abstract

In economic terms Slovakia has been one of the most successful transition countries, but its advance towards the rule of law has been uneven and beset with numerous difficulties. While in the 1990s the judiciary increased its reputation considerably by standing up in the defence of democracy, it lost face only shortly later because of its apparent inability to prevent court corruption from spreading. Only quite recently government managed to take effective measures against it. Nevertheless debt collection has become much less of a problem than it used to be in the 1990s and liquidity constraints have been greatly relieved. This change seems only to a minor part due to increasing judicial efficiency, which has made slow pro-gress only. Thus, Slovak experience has reconfirmed the conjecture that erecting the rule of law takes much more time than transforming the economic system.