EBA representatives learned about the changes which the judiciary reform is expected to bring along for domestic businesses
On Monday, April 3, 2017, the Chairman of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine Mr. Sergii Koziakov and the member of the Commission Mr. Andrii Kozlov participated in a meeting with the representatives of the European Business Association member companies. The participants of the event discussed the process of Ukrainian judiciary reform and the progress of the competition to the new Supreme Court, as well as shared their views on the changes which domestics businesses should expect as the result of the judicial reform.
Mr. Sergii Koziakov, the Chairman of the Commission, told the participants in detail about the constitutional amendments on the Judiciary, the peculiarities of competitive procedures to the new Supreme Court, as well as the specifics of the HQCJU's current activities. In particular, the Chairman of the Commission emphasized that such competition is unprecedented for our country and that the Commission and its members bear the immense responsibility to the Ukrainian society.
Mr. Koziakov also summarized the first stage of the qualification assessment of the candidates to the Supreme Court and told the participants about the tests to be taken by the candidates during the second stage. Thus, 382 candidates completed the first stage, among them 73% are working judges of different levels, 10% are lawyers and academics who were granted the opportunity to apply for judicial positions for the first time in the history of Ukraine, while 7% are candidates with the consolidated experience in the area of law. According to the Chairman of the Commission, currently the number of so-called “out-of-the-box candidates” exceeds by far the number of lawyers and academics in law in higher courts of many European countries.
“We are pretty well aware that as the competition to the highest judicial instance is approaching its final stage, more and more criticism will get the Commission and its individual members. However, we are determined to hold the contest transparently and at the highest level”, the Chairman of the HQCJU stressed.
In his turn, Mr. Andrii Kozlov provided a detailed overview of the testing system for candidates for the positions of judges to the Supreme Court at the second stage of qualification assessment. He also noted that the key objective of the competition is to select professional, intelligent and honest people as judges of the Supreme Court.
According to Mr. Kozlov, the classical Western tests, including the General Skills Test and the MMPI-2psychological test, provide an opportunity to accurately evaluate candidate's competency, moral, psychological and ethical characteristics. Moreover, the test design prevents falsification of results.
Furthermore, Mr. Andrii Kozlov outlined the changes which the creation of the new Supreme Court would bring along for domestic businesses. “The current situation in any business sector in Ukraine is highly volatile. Taking a matter to the court, people are unable to predict the outcome of a case, and “2 + 2” is not always equal to “4”. As we are promoting a qualitative overhaul of courts, we anticipate that decisions in similar cases become predictable so that the business will understand and trust the Ukrainian courts”, Mr. Andrii Kozlov said.
The meeting concluded with active discussion. Among other things, representatives of the business were eager to know about quantitative composition and peculiarities of the operations of the future Supreme Court, anti-corruption controls envisaged by the judicial reform and the sequence of the country's judiciary reform stages. In particular, the Association representatives emphasized the need to address the urgent problems of first instance courts, namely, the issue of the selection of new judges and a thorough improvement of legal proceedings quality.
The same day the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine announced the selection of candidates for the positions of local court judges to fill 600 forecasted judicial vacancies in local courts.
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