Judges of the Supreme Court and Representatives of the Council of Europe Discussed the Priority Tasks of the Judiciary in the Context of War

Judges of the Supreme Court held an online meeting with representatives of the Council of Europe to discuss ways for further cooperation in the light of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and the implementation of the Priority Adjustments of the CoE-UA Action Plan for 2018-2022 as well as in the priorities for the justice system defined by the National Council for the Restoration of Ukraine.

The discussion focused on four main areas: the introduction of an online system for the administration of justice (remote justice), the earliest possible resumption of the work of judicial authorities - the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges, the mechanism for the prompt filling of vacant positions in the judicial system, the further development of alternative dispute resolution methods after the adoption of the Law of Ukraine On Mediation.

The Supreme Court was represented by Secretary of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court Larysa Rohach, Judge of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court Tetiana Antsupova, Judge of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, Head of the Ethics Council Lev Kyshakevych and Head of the Division of International and Legal Cooperation of the Supreme Court Lina Hubar.

The Council of Europe was represented by Head of the Division of Co-operation Programmes of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law Lilja Grétarsdóttir, Project Coordinator of the Division Andrii Kavakin, a representative of the Division Mariana Chicu, Deputy Secretary of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) Clemence Bouquemont, Manager of the Council of Europe Project “Support for Judicial Institutions and Processes to Strengthen Access to Justice in Ukraine” Iryna Kushnir.

Lilja Grétarsdóttir, on behalf of all Europeans, thanked her Ukrainian colleagues for everything they are doing in these extremely difficult circumstances and confirmed the unequivocal support and full solidarity of the Council of Europe with the people of Ukraine. They appreciate everything that Ukraine does, because it protects not only its own country, but the whole of Europe. According to her, the role of the judiciary of Ukraine is decisive in many processes, and the leadership of the Supreme Court today is more noticeable than ever. For their part, the judges of the Supreme Court thanked their European colleagues for their assistance and expressed hope for further fruitful cooperation.

Discussing the first area of ​​cooperation - remote justice, Larysa Rohach informed her European colleagues that the possibility to conduct court hearings online via video communication had appeared in 2017, and this opportunity had been used quite widely, especially in cassation proceedings. According to the speaker, under the current circumstances, the possibilities of the electronic court are used even more widely: from February 24 to June 6, 2022, about 34 thousand court sessions were held via videoconferencing, more than 6 thousand new users were registered in the Unified Judiciary Information and Telecommunication System (UJITS).

Larysa Rohach noted that since the beginning of a full-scale war in Ukraine, there were no safe regions left. In this regard, the issue of providing a videoconferencing regime for court secretaries has become relevant. She stressed the importance of the safety of the court staff, without whom the administration of justice would be impossible.

The issue of ensuring the possibility of online participation in the meeting for judges also became acute. Under the conditions of martial law, unprecedented security measures, the introduction of curfews, to ensure the quorum of such a collegial body as, for example, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, has become a real challenge. The introduction of remote justice is important for all judges in Ukraine. Larysa Rohach said that the working group had developed a draft law on remote justice, but during its preliminary discussion the Ukrainian deputies did not agree on the expediency and possibilities of technical support for signing the court decision, transferring case files, ensuring the secrecy of the deliberation room, etc.

European colleagues reported that they could involve their experts from the CEPEJ in improving the prepared text of the draft law on remote justice. With their advice, the experts could help overcome risks and security concerns.

Another issue dealt with by the Council of Europe is support for the early resumption of the judicial authorities and the simplification of human resources procedures in Ukraine.

Lev Kyshakevych informed the audience that the Ethics Council was working to resume the work of the High Council of Justice. According to him, the Ethics Council continued the process of assessing the compliance of candidates for the position of a member of the HCJ with the criteria of professional ethics and integrity, and also completed the assessment of all current members of the HCJ in accordance with the law. The speaker said that the dynamics of all processes was positive, therefore, if the will of the appointing entities was implemented, the HCJ could start its work in the fall.

The Head of the Ethics Council supports the idea of ​​simplifying the procedures for selecting and appointing judges. Only through such measures will it be possible to quickly overcome human resources shortage.

“Now more than ever, the judiciary needs the judicial authorities to work and protect the interests of the judiciary and make human resources decisions on the appointment, transfer, and prosecution of judges,” Tetiana Antsupova stated. She stressed that in the context of the HQCJ, it was vital to maintain the composition of the Competition Committee for the selection of members of the HQCJ which had begun to work before the full-scale invasion. The resumption of the work of this Commission is, of course, timely.

According to the speaker, one of the options for simplifying the procedures for selecting judges for the courts of first instance could be to reduce the competitive stages and leave those related to writing a practical task and assessing the integrity and ethics of candidates by members of the Public Integrity Council and the HQCJ.

Tetiana Antsupova expressed her hope that the Council of Europe would continue to provide expert support for these issues. The CoE representatives confirmed that the project, which is operating in Ukraine, was already working on it.

The issues of developing ways of alternative dispute resolution were also discussed. The Council of Europe can support the development of mechanisms for alternative dispute resolution, given that Ukraine has adopted the Law on Mediation.

The Supreme Court judges attested to their willingness to popularize the ideas of pre-trial mediation. In particular, Tetiana Antsupova noted that the adoption of the specialized law was a big advance, and now it was necessary to take a lot of systematic organizational steps for the internal organization of the community of mediators, the creation of a register of mediators, etc.