990 judges from all the regions of Ukraine have started passing the position compliance examination
From 14 February to 15 March 2018, 990 judges from all the regions of Ukraine will pass the two-level examination in the framework of judges’ qualification assessment. This group includes 442 first instance judges and 548 second instance judges. The first 57 out of 990 judges will pass the exam on 14 February.
The qualification assessment procedure introduced in the framework of the judicial reform shall be mandatory for all 5700 local and appellate court judges. As Mr. Sergii Koziakov noted, during the initial qualification assessment in 2016 and the competition to the Supreme Court in 2017, 500 judges had already passed the qualification assessment, and therefore, another 5,200 judges must pass it.
The procedure is intended to define the judge’s ability to administer justice in the relevant court. Anyone who will not pass it will be dismissed from his office.
Out of the 990 judges being evaluated there are:
judges of the local general courts – 320 (32%);
judges of the district administrative courts – 63 (6%);
judges of the commercial courts – 59 (6%);
judges of the appellate courts – 395 (40%);
judges of the appellate administrative courts – 116 (12%);
judges of the appellate commercial courts – 37 (4%).
The assessment takes place through passing by a judge the two-level examination – anonymous testing and practical task, the verification of the judge’s dossier and the interview with the HQCJ members.
“During the anonymous testing a judge should demonstrate the level of knowledge in the field of law, his knowledge of Ukrainian material and procedural law, international legal acts, legal positions of the Supreme Court, the ECHR, etc. The judges must demonstrate their ability to clearly and comprehensively formulate and present the legal determination in the court judgment, to draw up logical, clear and substantiated judgments during the practical task. For this, they are given two and five hours respectively”, – explained the Chairman of the HQCJ Mr. Sergii Koziakov.
The activities and behaviour of the local and appellate court judges shall be assessed according to the criteria of competence (professional, personal, social), integrity and professional ethics.
The professional competence shall be established through the examination, which is compiled taking into account the principles of instance and specialization of the court. Thus, among 990 judges, 396 judges shall take the exam in civilian specialization, 319 – in criminal, 179 – in administrative, 96 – in commercial.
The indicators of the personal and social competence of a judge shall be established by testing personal moral and psychological qualities and general abilities. This type of testing was passed by the group of judges in the international OS-Ukraine company from 30 October to 9 November 2017. It was performed through four methods: MMPI-2 – for evaluation of pathophysiological risks and determination of stress resistance; the “Big Five” questionnaire, which is the key to making a personality profile (about 11 indicators), HCS IntegrityCheck – integrity assessment, Psymetrics – the test that evaluates abstract, logical and verbal thinking, and the interviews with psychologists.
The judge’s compliance with the integrity criteria shall be assessed through the indicators of compliance of the expenses, property and lifestyle of the judge and his family members with his declared income, as well as the compliance of the judge’s conduct with the other requirements of the legislation in the field of prevention of corruption and the presence of facts of bringing the judge to justice for his having committed offenses. These indicators shall be established on the basis of the interview results and the information in the dossier, which is included given the responses of the specially authorized bodies, as well as the information from the Public Council of Integrity.
The total amount of points in the assessment shall be 1000, which shall be distributed according to the criteria: professional competence – 300 points, personal competence – 100 points, social competence – 100 points; professional ethics – 250 points, integrity – 250 points.
The judge’s refusal to be assessed or the negative result shall be the ground for his dismissal.
The Chairman of the HQCJ also noted that on 22 February 2018, the following group of judges, which includes 1790 judges, will start passing the qualification assessment. “With regard to the examination of the first 111 of them, the schedule has already been drawn up, while the schedule for the other judges continues to being drawn up,” said Mr. Sergii Koziakov.
