Draft Law on High Council of Justice ‘To Leave Judicial System as It Is’

The current draft law on the High Council of Justice (HCJ) contains provisions that will prevent any reform of the judicial system for many years, experts of the Reanimation Package of Reform (RPR) [Ed.: one of the major Ukrainian think tanks] stress.

"In particular, it is about a requirement for the candidates to the High Council of Justice to have 10-year experience of being a judge. This will prevent new judges from becoming HCJ members. Thus, the majority of them will be  representatives of the ‘old’ judicial system," the RPR statement reads.

Moreover, the draft law also jeopardizes the transparency of the HCJ and efficient consideration of disciplinary proceedings against judges, thus allowing them to escape from responsibility for their wrongdoing, the RPR underlines.

Therefore, the RPR experts urged the President to implement judicial reform in line with the publicly declared goals – namely, to provide independence and integrity of judges, to make sure that new judges are appointed. The RPR requests the President to introduce the respective amendments to the draft law before it is tabled with the Parliament.

The detailed proposals of the think-tank are available at its website.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda