People’s deputies, representatives of the Supreme Court, higher specialized courts, courts of appeals, courts of original jurisdiction, the High Qualification Commission of Judges, the State Court Administration, the National Lawyers Association, scientists and experts participated in the event.
Opening the meeting, the Chairman of the Committee S.Kivalov stated that “the opinion of each participant is very important for each member of the Committee, as they are the embodiment of judicial system of Ukraine.” Thereat, the Chairman of the Committee noted that “the place of the hearings was chosen not accidentally. The National University “Odesa Law Academy” accepted 165 years of law education and science traditions on the South of Ukraine. In 2010, the visiting meeting of the Committee “On Court System and the Status of Judges” took place in this university. Apart from this, S.Kivalov stressed that “opinions and suggestions of each participant will be heard and used during the preparation of recommendations of the committee hearings and in further lawmaking activity.”
Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Koshulynskyi greeted the participants and called them “to look at the Supreme Court as the basis, to examine its current state, functions, obligations and possibilities. Only after that the answer can be found how to develop it further.”
Members of the committee hearings extensively discussed problems and perspectives of legislative regulation of the issue of legal status of the Supreme Court.
The Chairman of the Supreme Court P.Pylypchuk expressed his gratitude for the Committee for choosing such an important topic for the committee hearings and noted that “to implement this one in two function – provision of equal implementation of legislation by all the courts and provision of unity of court system – it is necessary to have efficient tools and mechanisms presupposed by the Law “On Court System and the Status of Judges” and procedural codes. The choice of these tools is a matter of lawmaker.”
First Deputy Chairman of the Committee O.Makhnitskyi stressed on the topicality of the issues under consideration. In particular, he noted that “it is important to grant the authorities to the Supreme Court for creation of one legal practice that follows the Convention on Human Rights and decision of the European Court on Human Rights.”
The Chairman of the High Economic Court V.Tatkov stressed the importance of committee hearings. In particular, he noted that “in view of the theme of current hearings, the principle of institutionality of the court system is of utmost importance”. He noted thereat that “the decision of the Supreme Court should be the guideline for all judges of the state”.
The Chairman of the Higher Administrative Court I,Temkizhev noted that today “the Supreme Court transits from the task of cassation to more important ones, particularly, to ensuring unity of judicial practice”. He believes that all the procedural mechanisms shall be established in order to implement this.
Summing up, participants of the hearings noted that holding of similar events, aw well as open exchange of ideas help refine separate provisions of current legislation and the practice of their implementation.
S.Kivalov believes that constructive and reasoned proposals of the participants of hearings shall acquire the status of a bill, if supported by the people’s deputies. “It is highly probable that that these suggestions will be supported by the Parliament in entirety. Besides, it is necessary to make respective amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine,” stressed S.Kivalov.