Judicial Reform Cannot Be Carried out Without the Participation of Judges - Bohdan Lvov

On September 7, 2021, the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court held a meeting with members of the US House of Representatives, US Congressman from California Juan Vargas and US Congressman from Pennsylvania Brian Fitzpatrick.

The Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court was represented by the Vice-President of the Supreme Court, the President of the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court Bohdan Lvov, Secretaries of Judicial Chambers Tetyana Drobotova and Volodymyr Pohrebniak, Judges Ivan Mishchenko, Viacheslav Pieskov and Yurii Chumak.

The parties discussed a number of issues related to the reform of the judicial system, the strengthening of the rule of law and the protection of United States investment in economic activities in Ukraine, with the assistance of the judicial authorities of Ukraine and others.

Bohdan Lvov acquainted the foreign guests with the structure of the judicial system of Ukraine. He also spoke about the specifics of commercial jurisdiction and stressed that commercial proceedings were characterized by short terms and quality of case consideration, which provided effective judicial protection, had a positive impact on the economy and investment attractiveness of the country.

Given that representatives of the US Congress are studying the effectiveness of the administration of justice and the course of judicial reform in Ukraine, the President of the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court focused on the changes that have taken place in this area. First of all, he noted that the long reform process had its advantages and significant disadvantages. Thus, since 2014, the total number of judges in Ukraine has decreased from more than 8 thousand to 5 thousand. In this context, a positive aspect is the purification of the judiciary, while the dismissal of experienced judges, whose positions remain vacant, negatively affected the time frame for the consideration of cases.

In particular, the reduction in the number of judges in recent years has had a noticeable impact on criminal justice, as there are not enough judges at the appellate level to deal with criminal cases. For example, in the Court of Appeal of Kharkiv in December 2013, the number of judges was 94, now their number has decreased to 15, which has negatively affected the quality of work and the length of court proceedings: “The purification of the judiciary is an important step. The judicial reform should continue, but the constant emotional harassment of judges, inadequate material support, lack of security guarantees for judges and their families lead to the result that we most clearly observe in relation to judges of criminal justice,” stressed Bohdan Lvov.

In his speech, the President of the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court also touched upon problematic issues that are relevant to the entire judicial system of Ukraine, in particular the inadequate funding of court staff.

Another issue of concern is the judge’s personal security. According to Bohdan Lvov, free access to personal data, public criticism, unsubstantiated facts about judges and the lack of proper response to judicial appeals by the Prosecutor's Office and the state lead to a staff shortage, and as a result, to a deterioration in the state of consideration of cases.

Speaking about the creation of the Supreme Court in 2017, Bohdan Lvov noted that for the first time in the history of Ukraine there had been a renewal of professional judges. On the basis of a competitive selection process, the Supreme Court had the best candidates, including members of the scientific and legal community, who had not previously been judges. In his opinion, to a certain extent it had a positive effect on the work of the Supreme Court: "The Supreme Court works with the maximum workload and performs the tasks assigned to it."

Commenting on the state of the current judicial reform, the President of the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court stressed that in a civilized country specialists in the field being reformed were involved in the reform of any field. Likewise, judicial reform should not take place without the direct participation of judges. However, at present their position is not always taken into account. This, according to Bohdan Lvov, is detrimental to the mechanism for ensuring the rule of law, for which the courts are responsible. Therefore, we call on the reformers to listen to the judges and provide a mechanism for implementing this responsibility. After all, if the courts today render judgments aimed at protection, these judgments are very often not enforced in the future. Today, more than 80% of applications to the ECtHR concern non-enforcement of judicial decisions.

In turn, the congressmen noted that large American companies were ready to increase investments in Ukraine every year, but they wanted to be sure that their funds would be protected here, so the efficiency of the judicial system was important. The American guests called their visit a sign of readiness to support our country on the path of development: “Ukraine has the support of both ruling parties in the US Congress, and not all states can boast of that.  From about 200 countries of the world, we are in Ukraine today, because we are really interested in its success."