One of the key bodies of the Ukrainian judicial reform, the High Council of justice (CSJ), recently turned a month. So far, the authority vested with tremendous authority, not decided tasks assigned to it, and even called his actions a wave of indignation in society. On the other hand, a month is too short period of time. “Today,” found that VSP has done in that time and how experts appreciate his work.
NEW LIFE JUDGES. The law on the Council of justice entered into force on 5 January. “This is the body that will remove the political component of the judicial branch of government. First and foremost, of the mechanisms of appointment, transfer and dismissal of judges. Will also apply to this consent to detention or arrest of a judge,” said during the signing of the document Poroshenko.
Indeed, the question of appointment of judges is now being decided not by Parliament, as it was before, namely the VSP. The same situation — layoffs and resignations. The Council also passed the right to carry out changes in the judicial case and to send its employees on vacation. Despite the fact that all decisions of the new body in the end must be certified by the signature of the President, a member of the Public Council of integrity (the body that prepares the evaluation of judges) Roman Maselko calls this feature the guarantor rather declarative.
In General, over the past month, VSP dismissed 22 judges, which ended a five-year service life, and also submitted to the President for signature, the petition for appointment of 61 judges. In addition, the justice Council last week reported on the establishment of disciplinary chambers, which will consider the case of the guilty judges.
COLL. However, it is not without its difficulties. Thus, the legal conflict is found, the Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko: according to the Constitution, a person without charges can be detained only 72 hours, but the law “On the www” allows you to leave in custody the judge for five days. According to Lutsenko, this can lead to the fact that the detainee will need to release in three days, even if GSP would be against it. In the end, the Council and the Prosecutor General’s office agreed to conduct joint consultations and resolve the issue.
Also, 10 days after its establishment, the Council of justice made a public statement in which he said: to take custody of the magistrates for any offence except by order of the Board impossible. The GPU has agreed with this state of Affairs, however, the head of the Center of counteraction of corruption Vitaly Shabunin believes that this court’s decision killed the main achievement of the anti-corruption amendments to the Constitution.
“The head of state, presenting these changes, saying that now it will be possible to break the untouchable caste of judges and to arrest them for serious offences without additional solutions. It is written in the draft of the constitutional changes,” he says.
Maselko confirms that now to arrest even caught bribing a judge without the permission of the www will not work. “So, we turned around 180 degrees. And I note that this has already resulted in the release of two judges (one of them is the judge of Solomensky court of Kiev detained on podozreniyu of taking bribes of $22 thousand. — a Bus). Plus, treatment is done in a form that can be viewed as pressure on the judges. That the Council has not explained the situation and gave the order,” — said a member of the Public Council.
In the VSP not comment on the situation — the only phone number on their website is not responding.
PLANS. Dissatisfied while the experts and the performance of their duties by the Council. Roman Maselko, insists the Council is more than 250 disciplinary proceedings for judges who had handed down rulings during Euromaidan. He stressed that most of them in the next two months will expire on the prosecution.
“That is, they cannot be fired, even if the Supreme court to give its verdict that they violated the law and the oath. Need very quickly to start with that,” says Maselko.
In turn, the political scientist Ruslan Bortnik recalls that today there is a real shortage of judges that may decide the Council: “Only a hundred ships is not enough half of the workers. In General, the country lacks nearly thousands of judges. They should assign”.
Finally, the Council of justice still lacks the six members to complete the work (it should consist of 21 persons, appointed by the President, Parliament and Congress of advocates). They promise to get in the middle of March at the Congress of the Council of judges.
The progress of reform. Judicial reform was launched on 2 June last year. The authorities want to finish it until 2020. This year, the judiciary will find a number of important innovations. Until March 30, needs to be created, the Supreme court and the High qualification Commission of judges needs to develop a mechanism for filing for relatives of judges. By the end of March should also be established requirements to the jury. And September 30 must be created by the Supreme court on intellectual property matters.
