The Most Important Principles of Judicial Power Existence Are Represented by Its Independence and Civil Society Accountability

The Secretary of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Kniaziev has told about this today, on 21 June, at the expert discussion of the Annual Report of the High Council of Justice on Ensuring Independence of Judges in Ukraine.

The discussion participants exchanged their opinions regarding strengthening the protection of judges’ independence in Ukraine in the context of Council of Europe standards and recommendations. Mårten Ehnberg, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, remarked that ensuring judges’ independence was the key element of functioning of the judicial power. The Council of Europe would continue to support Ukraine in this regard.

Vsevolod Kniaziev thanked European partners for the support in reforming the judicial power in Ukraine. He remarked that the independence of judges was characterized by a special procedure of bringing them to disciplinary and criminal liability – by the participation of judicial self-government bodies at all stages of brining a judge to liability, and special procedure of appointment of judges – on a competitive basis.

The judge emphasized that the final judicial control over all those processes held by the Supreme Court was a really great achievement. That corresponded to the highest European standards. In his opinion, it is important that the President of the Supreme Court was a member of the High Council of Justice (HCJ) according to her position. Vsevolod Kniaziev underlined that this fact promoted the communication between the Supreme Court and the HCJ, as well as ensured the possibility of understanding common legal positions.

The SC GC Secretary informed that the part of cancellation of the HCJ decisions as for disciplinary liability of judges was at the rate of 10 % of the whole amount of cases of this category considered by the Grand Chamber.

Volodymyr Hovorukha, the Chairperson of the High Council of Justice, told about ensuring judges’ independence in Ukraine. He remarked that ensuring real independence of judges was the interest of each representative of business, all public authorities and bodies of local self-government, since the establishment of legal state in Ukraine would not occur without appropriate court and impartial judges. The Consultative Council of European Judges in its opinions puts emphasis on the importance of the existence of a special body liable for the protection and independence of judges. Since January 2017 this body is represented by the High Council of Justice. This very body at this moment deals with the issue of the independence of judges.

The HCJ Chairperson told about issues influencing on judges’ independence. Primarily, this is the lack of staff in local courts, passing qualification assessment by judges (presently, a bit more than a half of judges have passed the qualification of assessment, and this fact has considerable impact on judicial remuneration) and the issue of ensuring appropriate judicial security.

Within the event, the CoE expert Diana Kovatcheva remarked that she has been closely followed the reform of the judicial power in Ukraine for many years. The CoE expert considers that during last years Ukraine made significant efforts to implement comprehensive reform of judiciary aimed at strengthening its independence, impartiality and effectiveness. The reform was performed and it, indeed, it should be positively assessed, since serious legislative changes were seen.

The event was organized jointly by the High Council of Justice and the Council of Europe projects “Support to the implementation of the judicial reform in Ukraine” and “Supporting Ukraine in the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights”. Members of the High Council of Justice, judges of the Supreme Court, representatives of the Council of Judges of Ukraine, the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine and international experts participate at the discussion.

We are grateful to Legal Practice (Yuridicheskaia Praktika) newspaper for the photos.