Court resilience in times of war: Supreme Court judges take part in discussion dedicated to Ukraine

Judges of the Supreme Court Olena Kibenko, Ivan Mishchenko, Kostiantyn Pilkov and Oleksii Sluch took part in a special panel discussion on Ukraine, ‘Court Resilience in Conflict Zones: The War in Ukraine’, which took place in Washington, DC (USA).

The event was part of the Judicial Fellowship Programme 2024, administered by the American Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the Presidential Precinct. This is a pilot programme for judges and 20 leading judges from around the world were selected on a competitive basis to share their experiences in addressing the challenges facing the judiciary in the current environment.

Representatives of the Supreme Court noted that the workload of the Ukrainian courts had hardly decreased during the war, but that the judicial system had quickly adapted to the new realities, in particular due to the high level of digitalisation, which allowed remote participation of the parties in the proceedings. The war has had little impact on the timeframe for considering cases, and Ukrainian judges continue to consider cases much faster than their counterparts abroad, even during the war.

The judges answered the audience's burning questions on high-profile corruption scandals and the need to introduce cassation filters to reduce the number of cases reviewed by the Supreme Court.

During their stay in Washington, DC, the SC judges also met with US Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, Ambassador of Ukraine to the US Oksana Markarova, and visited the US Chamber of Commerce's Litigation Centre and the National Center for State Courts.

In addition, representatives of the Supreme Court attended the launch of the World Bank Group's new B-Ready report, which replaces Doing Business (with a discussion of the performance indicators of the judicial system that affect the country's place in this ranking).