Lovro Šturm
Lovro Šturm is a Slovenian jurist and politician. Between 2004 and 2008, he served as the Minister of Justice of Slovenia. He was succeeded by Aleš Zalar.Biography
Šturm was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia. After completing grammar school in Ljubljana he enrolled at the Faculty of Law at Ljubljana University. He completed his degree in 1961. After completing additional studies in Trieste and Strasbourg, he was awarded a diploma by the International Faculty of Comparative Law in 1963.
He headed the Public Administration Institute of the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. Lovro Šturm was the President of the Council of the Public Administration Institute. Between 1976 and 1976, he worked as a legal advisor of the OECD, and between 1977 and 1988 at the United Nations.
He is the author of twelve books and two hundred publications and is an expert in the field of administrative–legal sciences. His work has been part of twenty-two group research projects. His scientific contributions examine the operation of administration, constitutional and judiciary protection of human rights.
During the first democratic elections in Slovenia in 1990, he was a member of the National Electoral Commission. Later that year he was elected a member of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, serving as its president between 1997–1998. In 2000, he was appointed as Minister of Education in the short-lived conservative government of Andrej Bajuk. Between 2004 and 2008, he served as Minister of Justice in the center right government of Janez Janša. During this period, he initiated several reforms of the judicial system, including a simplification of the judiciary administrative procedures, a radical reduction of notary fees, and a reform aimed at shortening the legal procedures in the courts. He also formed and headed a bilateral commission for the restitution of Jewish property confiscated during the Nazi occupation of Slovenia and never returned to the owners by the Yugoslav Communist regime.
Šturm is not a member of any political party, but he is considered close to the New Slovenia party, and has also run for Parliament on the party's list in the 2000 elections. He is a member of the Slovenian liberal conservative civic platform Rally for the Republic. In November 2011, he became its president, replacing Gregor Virant who had resigned previously that year.
Šturm is a practicing Roman Catholic and a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
