Work on the settlement of urgent issues of financing the judiciary under martial law continues
Members of the High Council of Justice Oksana Blazhivska, Roman Maselko, Mykola Moroz and Inna Plakhtii took part in a regular meeting of the working group on appropriate financing of the judiciary in Ukraine at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Legal Policy.
Participants:
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figured out the current state of financing of the judiciary and listened to information about the budgetary requests of the main administrators of the judiciary`s funds;
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discussed the draft State Budget of Ukraine for 2023 in terms of financing the judiciary;
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proposals for the recovery plan of Ukraine in terms of financing the judiciary;
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possibility of adopting a draft law on amending the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” regarding the settlement of the issue of remuneration of court employees (No. 6311) under martial law.
This was emphasized by the HCJ member Oksana Blazivska when addressing the participants of the online marathon “Business under martial law. Providing proper and admissible evidence of the procedure for compensation for damage caused by military aggression of the Russian Federation”, that was organized by the Ukrainian Advocates’ Association.
She noted that under such conditions, the matter of inviolability of the judge’s oath of loyalty to the Ukrainian people arose, which is a significant factor, in particular, for maintaining confidence in the judicial branch of power. Oksana Blazhivska noted that the HCJ is deeply concerned about the impossibility of exercising its legal powers due to forced inaction in view of the lack of a constitutional quorum, in particular, removal of a judge from administering justice and giving consent to detain him/her, which is expressly provided for in Article 131 of the Constitution.
The HCJ member recalled that there are currently seven plenipotentiary members in the HCJ. “We, like the entire judicial system as a whole, await the appointment/election of the rest of members of the Council to vacant positions in order to promptly resume the functioning of the HCJ or resolve the issue by granting powers to the current composition of the Council after making appropriate changes to the legislation,” said Oksana Blazhivska.
During the event, Oksana Blazhivska noted that the HCJ emphasized the support for the initiative of the Office of the President to create a special international tribunal to investigate war crimes.
The second meeting of the working group on the development of the Practical Guide for conducting remote court hearings took place with the participation of international experts and representatives of the judiciary of Ukraine. The working group was created within the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Support for judicial institutions and processes to strengthen access to justice in Ukraine” in cooperation with the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ).
During the meeting, experts Marek Swierczynski (Poland), Aleksandre Palanko (France) and Giulio Borsari (Italy) presented developments in the draft guide on remote court hearings as part of expert support.
Acting Chairman of the HCJ Vitalii Salikhov noted that the HCJ supports the concept of the proposed guide, considers it expedient to create and apply it in practice of judges. He supported the proposal to create a final draft of the guide by experts with its further discussion.
On August 26, 2022, it was held a meeting at the Office of the Prosecutor General with the participation of representatives of the judiciary, during which participants discussed coordination of the actions of the judicial branch of government and law enforcement bodies for the most effective investigation and prosecution of war crimes, crimes against national security – high treason, aiding and abetting aggressor, collaborative activity.
Based on the results of the working meeting, the HCJ received materials on topical issues of interaction between law enforcement bodies and prosecutor’s offices with the judiciary under conditions of the legal regime of martial law to be used in their work.
In order to build more effective interaction between law enforcement bodies and the judicial system, the HCJ applied to heads of courts of appeal with the initiative to make proposals or urgent issues that need to be resolved and to consider these materials within the respective appellate district (taking into account the actual territorial jurisdiction).
Members of the HCJ discussed new approaches to the formation of the composition of the CCU
Acting Chairman of the HCJ Vitalii Salikhov, members of the Council Oksana Blazhivska, Inna Plakhtii, Roman Maselko, Mykola Moroz took part in discussion during the meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Legal Policy of draft laws on improving the procedure for selecting candidates for the position of a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (No. 7662, No. 7663).
Draft Law No. 7662 proposes to involve in the competitive selection of candidates for the position of a judge of the Constitutional Court a new special body – the Advisory Group of Experts, which will assist subjects of appointment of judges of the Constitutional Court in assessing the candidates’ moral qualities and level of competence in the field of law. It is proposed to form an advisory group consisting of six people. The draft establishes the rules and procedures for determining persons in the Advisory Group by each subject of its formation, determines the general provisions on the status and activities of the Advisory Group.
Draft Law No. 7663 “On making amendments of Article 129 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” regarding ascertaining the powers of the Congress of Judges of Ukraine” proposes to grant the Congress of Judges of Ukraine the authority to determine a person to be a member of the Advisory Group of Experts.
The Committee considers it possible, when finalizing the draft between the first and second readings, to take into account the comments of the HCJ members.
Acting Chairman of the HCJ Vitalii Salikhov, the HCJ members Oksana Blazhivska, Dmytro Lukianov, Roman Maselko, Mykola Moroz and Inna Plakhtii took part in a regular meeting of representatives of international aid projects working in the field of strengthening the rule of law.
The participants discussed the status and further steps of the competition for the position of members of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine.
Updated list of candidates for the position of a member of the HQCJU
The Selection Commission for the selection of candidates for the positions of members of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine provided an updated list of candidates to be published on the official website of the High Council of Justice. The list includes 302 candidates.