ABSTRACT
During his service as a judge, Justice Zlatan Dežman has been the head of the criminal department for several years, as well as the president of a district court and a member of the Judicial Council of the Republic of Slovenia. In addition to his judicial function, he is currently the head of the Department of Criminal Law at the Maribor Faculty of Law. He opposes the current efforts to make criminal proceeding faster as potentially harmful to other fundamental procedural guarantees. The standards of protection of human rights, in his opinion, are never too high. Justice Dežman is neither an ordinary judge nor an ordinary man—he is a thinker with a considerable personal integrity and courage. In our discussion, he reflected upon the current burning issues within the Slovenian judiciary and addressed some of the fundamental questions of law and criminal justice. His views were expressed in an unconventional, uncompromising, and honest way, rarely seen among lawyers.
