VI International Judicial and Legal Forum is held in Kyiv
On 13 June 2018 the VI International Judicial and Legal Forum, organized by the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine, the “Yuridicheskaya Practika” paper, the OSCE, the High Council of Justice with the assistance of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the National Association of Advocates of Ukraine, commenced its work in Kyiv.
At the event a special report was made by the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, the coordinator of the judicial reform, Mr. Oleksiy Filatov, who said: “Justice is not only a judicial system, it is the unity of three legal professions – judges, lawyers, prosecutors. That is why last year we began to talk about a single legal profession. Representatives of the three legal professions should aim at proper protection of human rights. The judicial system will not work until there is a unity of principles of functioning of the Bar, the court and the Prosecutor’s Office. And ensuring this unity is possible only through the introduction of a single legal profession”.
Mr. Oleksiy Filatov also emphasized: “The demand for justice in society is super-high, but we should ask ourselves, whether we all meet those standards of justice, which we demand from judges; whether we carry out our work at the same high level and meet those high standards, which we demand from the judicial system? But if, say, colleagues in the legal market behave in accordance with those high standards, then we will have high living standards”.
The panel discussion of the first session of the forum was titled “Judicial reform: effective justice - expectation vs. result”.
The discussion was initiated by the Chairman if the High Council of Justice Mr. Igor Benedysiuk, who emphasized: “I am deeply convinced that, in spite of the squall of criticism, we have successfully completed the process of purification of the judiciary. And together with the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine, we have a good result of the judicial reform – the new Supreme Court. We have new solutions and justified expectations for further changes for the better, which will necessarily take place. Currently, an important task for the HCJ is to ensure the independence of the judiciary. To date, there has been no change in the minds of people about the necessity of the independence of the judicial corps.
According to Mr. Igor Benedysiuk, today there are more than 500 appeals from judges of Ukraine concerning interference in judge’s activity on the HCJ’s website: “I believe that the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and Status of Judges” should clearly define the wording of “the pressure on a judge and the court”.
The managing partner of the LFC law firm Ms. Anna Ogrinchuk spoke about a survey among students of one of the law schools, which showed that 14% of them want to become judges: “This indicates an increase in trust in the judiciary”, she said.
The Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Sergii Koziakov, familiarized the participants with the procedures that are currently being held by the HQCJ: “Last year we announced the selection for vacant judicial positions. More than 5000 candidates have applied for 600 vacancies. This indicates an increase in trust to the profession. And these 600 people are already studying. It should be noted that today the National School of Judges has made a breakthrough in the means of education and mastered its modern forms”.
In addition, Mr. Sergii Koziakov stressed that after the Revolution of Dignity, as an alternative to the dismissal of all judges it had been proposed to carry out the so-called qualification evaluation, a procedure analogous to which could be found in Europe. This is a perfectly functioning mechanism that is now being applied.
“Today there are several procedures within which the Commission is carrying out its activities. One of them is the qualification evaluation for the compliance with the occupied position. More than 5000 judges must undergo this procedure. Another procedure is the initial qualification evaluation, which was passed by about 300 judges. And then almost 1500 judges resigned by their own decision. An unprecedented purge of the judicial system took place. This was not the case either in the history of Ukraine or in any country in the world”, the Chairman of the Commission stressed, adding: “Sometimes we are told that there is a question of transparency in the Commission’s procedures, but everything should always be considered in comparison. We are proud of the Supreme Court competition. Such competition was not the case for 50 years in any country in the world. We held the procedures that nobody ever had held before:
- neither lawyers nor scholars could previously have become judges of the Supreme Court;
- thousands of judicial dossiers have never been published before;
- psychological tests were introduced;
- a body formed from public representatives, which has become a normative part of the procedure and may affect the Commission’s decisions, has been introduced;
- interviews with candidates can be viewed both online and in recording on the Commission’s channel on the Youtube.
Compare with the other competitions – there is nothing like this either in our country or abroad. As for our plans for the near future and for the next year, I would like to say that none of the state bodies has had the following volumes of work:
- another competition to the Supreme Court will be announced. We have just over 80 vacancies, by the filling of which we can “tighten up” the Supreme Court;
- competition to the High Court on Intellectual Property;
- competition to the High Anticorruption Court;
- a new selection for occupying vacant judicial positions;
- the qualification evaluation of the entire judicial corps. In relation to 1000 judges, we plan to complete this procedure by mid-August;
- secondment and transfer without competition to other courts, as many courts were eliminated under the Presidential Decree.
At the end of summer there will also be a lot of organizational and legal work.
When asked whether PIC’s withdrawal from the evaluation process influenced the quality of the process, the Chairman of the Commission replied that the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and Status of Judges” did not provide for the possibility of suspending or terminating the participation of the PIC in the evaluation procedure: “In our firm conviction, there are no consequences of suspending the participation of the PIC in the process of the evaluation or for the effectiveness of our work there. We still receive public appeals, and the PIC, even after its withdrawal, continues to publish announcements with some information about judges, which we draw attention to within the evaluation process”.
All news