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It is important for judges that court decisions are enforced and that any entity whose actions are deemed illegal or criminal, especially a terrorist state, is fully accountable, said acting President of the Supreme Court Mykhailo Smokovych during the presentation of the 2022 Monitoring Report on the Effectiveness of Regulatory Acts in Ukraine. The event, which took place on February 6, 2023, was organized by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine with the support of the EU Project Pravo-Justice.
Mykhailo Smokovych said that the report focused on the quality of legislative regulation of relations in the field of justice, execution of court decisions and those of other public authorities and officials, free legal aid in mediation, bankruptcy, international legal and national mechanisms for bringing the Russian state to legal responsibility, procedural rules for court proceedings against the aggressor country and the procedure for compensation for damage caused by Russian aggression to Ukraine.
The analysis of the 2022 Monitoring Report showed that the authors not only systematically and consistently emphasized the urgent challenges in the field of justice related to the war, but also outlined the steps that the legislator should take to address them effectively, the acting President of the Supreme Court underlined.
He noted that the Supreme Court was always open to professional communication with all branches of government, including the Ministry of Justice, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in particular the parliamentary committees on legal policy and law enforcement. For example, in 2021, the Court received 68 draft laws, 45 of which received substantive proposals and comments. In 2022, 107 draft laws were submitted (52 on the judiciary and judicial proceedings; 25 on criminal justice) on their feasibility and proposed content. The Supreme Court provided its observations and suggestions on most of these draft laws.
The most significant for the judicial system are the draft laws on:
- ensuring the administration of justice under martial law, including through remote justice;
- ensuring the administration of justice with the participation of a jury during martial law, as well as to protect information posted on the official website of the judiciary of Ukraine during martial law or a state of emergency;
- the introduction of mandatory registration and use of official e-mail addresses in the Unified Judiciary Information and Telecommunication System (UJITS) by representatives of legal professions, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs;
- bringing the provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in line with international law and ensuring criminal prosecution for international crimes (genocide, crimes of aggression, crimes against humanity and war crimes);
- the regulation of mechanisms for international legal cooperation in criminal cases during the provision of international legal assistance, extradition, execution of sentences and transfer of convicted persons, based on the practical application of international treaties of Ukraine;
- the court fee, in particular, on changing the maximum rate of the court fee for submitting certain procedural documents to the court in order to fill the special fund of the state budget, which is used to support bodies and institutions in the justice system;
- limiting the immunity of foreign states and their officials and employees from filing claims and recovering damages caused by death or injury to health on the territory of Ukraine, as well as damage to property as a result of armed aggression, temporary occupation of the territory of Ukraine, other actions or inaction;
- tightening the requirements for the form and content of the cassation appeal, in particular, making it mandatory to indicate in the petition the justification for the incorrect application of substantive law or violation of procedural law, etc.
A number of these draft laws are still under consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has already adopted certain legal acts, in the initiative development of which the Supreme Court took part, including the Laws of Ukraine: No. 2112-IX of March 3, 2022 "On Amendments to Part Seven of Article 147 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges" regarding the determination of the territorial jurisdiction of court cases", No. 2751-IX of November 16, 2022 "On Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine to Clarify the Provisions on the Recovery of Lost Criminal Proceedings, Cancellation of a Restrictive Measure for Military Service under Martial Law", No. 2125-IX of March 15, 2022 "On Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine on the Procedure for Cancellation of a Restrictive Measure for Military Service during Mobilization, for a Special Period or its Change on Other Grounds".
"By overcoming all the current troubles and obstacles, our country will certainly achieve peaceful and stable political and economic development. We sincerely believe that in the near future Ukraine will change its status of an EU candidate to EU membership, and the national legal system will adopt the best legal traditions and mechanisms, one of which, by the way, is systematic monitoring of the quality of legislation," said Mykhailo Smokovych.
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