A regular meeting of representatives of international technical assistance projects on strengthening the Rule of Law took place
On November 4, 2020, within the online mode, a regular meeting of representatives of international assistance projects on strengthening the Rule of Law dedicated to the topic “Jury trial: improving citizens’ participation in justice delivery process” and organized by the USAID New Justice Program took place.
The representatives of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Secretariat of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine, the National School of Judges of Ukraine, the Supreme Court, as well as international organizations, diplomatic missions and international technical assistance projects participated in the event.
Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Oleksandr Banchuk and Deputy Director of the Directorate of Justice and Criminal Justice of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine Uliana Stefaniuk addressed the participants of the event.
Uliana Stefaniuk presented three draft laws on the functioning of the jury trial in Ukraine, developed by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine to implement the Action Plan for Implementation of the National Human Rights Strategy for the period till 2020. The draft laws are designed to improve the procedure for engaging citizens of Ukraine to participate in the administration of justice and formation of jury lists, to amend the list of requirements to jurors, as well as to establish the administrative and criminal responsibility for the provision of intentionally inaccurate information by a person included to the list of jurors.
Besides, according to the draft law, jurors are excluded from the list of individuals who are obliged to submit the declaration of the person authorized to perform functions of the state or local self-government.
John Engstrom, Resident Legal Advisor of the United States Department of Justice and Thomas Flanagan, Senior Adviser on Legal Reform of the European Union Advisory Mission Ukraine presented the US and Irish experience.
John Engstrom spoke about the benefits of a jury trial and the issues that arise in its work. The lawyer assured that the participation of citizens promotes democratic ideals and public confidence in the judicial system. At the same time, he stressed that jurors can be externally influenced and exposed to corruption risks and often cannot understand the legislation and reach sound decisions.
In turn, Thomas Flanagan said that a jury trial can be very effective because it provides a better representation of society than judges. However, such a system requires comprehensive training and a significant amount of funding. He also noted that the Ukrainian draft law stipulates that it is necessary to prove a person’s guilt by 5 out of 7 jurors, while in Ireland it is by 12 unanimously, except as provided by law.
The speech was accompanied by a question and answer session. Participants also talked about current and planned activities aimed at strengthening the Rule of Law.
Reference:
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) New Justice Program has been operating in Ukraine since October 2016.
The Program is aimed to support the judiciary, Government, Parliament, Civil Society and the people of Ukraine in the implementation of judicial reform.
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