Deputy Chairperson of the High Council of Justice Oksana Kvasha addressed the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Constitutional Foundations of Due Legal Procedure: Challenges of European Integration”, held at Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University on 13–14 June 2025.
The speaker focused on the topic of “Disciplinary liability of judges: due legal process as a guarantee of judicial independence”.
Oksana Kvasha drew attention to the problems of legislative regulation of proper disciplinary proceedings, which require a scientific solution. Proper legal procedure is a system of elements that are universal in nature and serve as the ideological basis of any legal process.
“The unclear wording in the law regarding the grounds for disciplinary liability of judges and the shortcomings of legal norms lead to their different interpretations and, as a result, a failure to apply a unified approach, uniform and consistent practice in decision-making on disciplinary liability of judges,” the speaker noted.
Without the independence of a judge, there can be no justice per se, at the same time judicial independence is closely related to judicial liability. Finally, judicial independence and liability ensure the administration of justice and, therefore, the achievement of fairness.
Oksana Kvasha drew attention to the fact that the Opinion of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE) No. 27 (2024) on the disciplinary liability of judges notes that if the liability of judges is not clearly and adequately regulated, judicial independence is undermined. The HCJ, in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine, ensures the administration of disciplinary proceedings with regard to a judge by the disciplinary body.
In 2024, the Service of Disciplinary Inspectors was established. The HCJ appointed the Head, the Deputy Head, and 21 disciplinary inspectors for a term of five years.
Disciplinary inspectors received approximately 11000 disciplinary proceedings (complaints) for which, as of the day the Service began its work, the Disciplinary Chamber had not made decisions to open a disciplinary cases. In addition, disciplinary inspectors are distributed new disciplinary complaints received by the HCJ for consideration: in 2025, on average, up to 800 disciplinary complaints is received per month.
In total, as of June 1, 2025, consideration of more than 4100 disciplinary complaints has been completed with the participation of disciplinary inspectors.
The Disciplinary Chambers of the High Council of Justice adopted decisions to bring judges to disciplinary liability and impose disciplinary sanctions in the form of submissions on dismissal of judges from office for committing significant disciplinary offences, which, in particular, included the following actions of judges: out-of-court communication between a judge and litigants in the case; operation of transport under the influence of alcohol intoxicating, ignoring offer to undergo test on the state of alcohol level intoxication; collaboration of a judge with representatives of the rf, support for the occupying authorities; commission by a judge of corruption offense.
Oksana Kvasha noted that the framework of legal procedure has become universal due to the decisions of the ECHR and applies to both procedural justice and legal procedures that should be followed by public authorities while adopting relevant legal acts concerning human rights, freedoms, and legitimate interests of a person. Due legal process is organically linked to civil society and the rule of law. It is inherent in any civilized judicial system and includes both procedural guarantees for the protection of civil rights and legal mechanisms for limiting the arbitrariness of the state.
The Deputy Chairperson of the HCJ reported that two draft laws “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” and certain legislative acts of Ukraine on improving disciplinary and other procedures” (registration numbers No. 13137 and No. 13137-1) have been registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Given all, in the context of the need to improve disciplinary proceedings, there should be a clearer legislative definition of the grounds for disciplinary liability of judges. The aforementioned draft laws, in particular, propose to more clearly define the grounds for disciplinary liability of judges and to specify the types of disciplinary sanctions that may be applied to judges. These draft laws are currently being reviewed by the High Council of Justice to provide an appropriate advisory opinion. In order to ensure the authority of justice, the independence of judges and the judiciary, the HCJ decided to ask the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) to provide an opinion on the compliance of the norms proposed by these draft laws with European standards (Decision of the Council dated May 22, 2025 № 1110/0/15-25).
In conclusion of her address, Oksana Kvasha noted: “Ukrainians are a European nation. We have proven this, especially in wartimes. We need to improve further. We need to raise the level of legal culture, legal awareness, and responsible attitude toward the enforcement of laws.”
Photo credit: Constitutional Court of Ukraine