U-I-292/05

The employment of state prosecutors is not considered to be employment in a certain position, but rather the performance of an office within a professional relation with the Republic of Slovenia, therefore the termination of their office cannot entail an interference with the right to the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of work determined in Article 49 of the Constitution. The comparison with the position of regular higher education professors is for the aforementioned reason and in light of the special position of these professors as regards the constitutionally determined autonomy of universities not an argument that substantiates the alleged inconsistency of the first item of Article 39 of the State Prosecutors Act, which determines that state prosecutors must retire when they reach the age of 70, with the constitutional right to freedom of work.

 

The offices of President of the Republic and President of the Government, as well as the offices of ministers and deputies, are by their nature political offices and are therefore different than the office of state prosecutors. As different situations must be treated differently, the complainant's allegations regarding the inconsistency of the challenged regulation with the principle of equality determined in the second paragraph of Article 14 of the Constitution are not substantiated.