The Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada sighed the Law of Ukraine “On Amending the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges’ and Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Activities of the Supreme Court of Ukraine and Judicial Self-Government Bodies”
05 July 2021, 17:34
Chairperson of The Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov sighed the Law of Ukraine “On Amending the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges’ and Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Activities of the Supreme Court of Ukraine and Judicial Self-Government Bodies”.
The purpose of the Law is to bring the provisions of the legislation of Ukraine in line with the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine of February 18, 2020 No. 2-r/2020 and March 11, 2020 No. 4-r/2020, resumption of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine, improvement of its formation and activities.
According to the Law No. 3711-d “On Amending the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges’ and Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Activities of the Supreme Court of Ukraine and Judicial Self-Government Bodies”:
- the number of judges will be determined by the High Council of Justice: in a court – with due regard for the opinion of the SJA, in the Supreme Court, for the opinion of the Plenum of the Supreme Court, but no more than 200;
- the HQCJ will be deemed competent if at least 11 of its 16 members were appointed based on the results of a competition with 2 stages of testing:
1. for integrity – the test will be conducted by the Competition Commission on Integrity which will act on the basis of its Regulations, to be approved by the HCJ (the candidates to the Commission will be proposed by the Council of Judges – 3 members will be chosen from among judges and retired judges and 3 persons from the community of international judges with whom Ukraine cooperates under international agreements in the sphere of preventing and combating corruption. All of them will work on a voluntary basis, but their salary at the main workplace will be retained, while the international judges’ accommodation and travel costs will be reimbursed from the budget;
2. for competence – the test will be conducted by the HCJ. The Commission on Integrity will propose 2 candidates for one position of a HQCJ member by at least 4 votes (that is, the international judges will actually have the power of veto); as to candidates supported by the votes of at least 4 members of the Competition Commission, the HCJ will perform further selection based on professional competence criteria.
According to the Speaker of the Parliament, there is a high probability that the President will veto this Law on technical issues and it will be returned with a veto to the Verkhovna Rada.