Arseniy Yatsenyuk presents a Government bill on judicial system: guaranteed access to justice, the return of powers to the Supreme Court, elimination of special courts

On Monday, October 13, Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk presented a Government bill "On the judicial system and status of judges" during a visiting session of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with the participation of judges of the Supreme Court of Ukraine. The draft law envisages, in particular, the return of powers to the Supreme Court, elimination of economic and administrative courts, guaranteed access to justice and tax criteria of verificaation of judges.

"An independent judiciary branch is the pledge of protection of the rights of a human and a citizen. Elimination of a telephone right and influence on judges, judicial self-governance as a key element of judicial independence are the basic postulates, a truly fair and independent judicial branch should base on," stressed the Head of Government.

The Government is convinced, according to PM, the new Parliament of Ukraine should return to the Supreme Court all the powers of the supreme judicial body and the powers to consider appeal cases, "we believe that the essential element of a real judicial reform in the country should be resuming the powers of the Supreme Court of Ukraine and the right of citizens to have access to the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the right to appeal through the Supreme Court of Ukraine of any relevant decision".

The government views as necessary to return to the Supreme Court of Ukraine the right to consolidate judicial practice and carry out explanatory activity to the courts of inferior jurisdiction regarding the application of certain provisions of the law.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that the draft law of Ukraine "On judicial system and status of judges” envisages a guaranteed access to justice, "to come to court, to submit an application and to have this case considered".

One of the main problems of today, he said, that the application is sued, but it is returned based on the fact that the matter is not within the jurisdiction of this court, "the bill of ours proposes that a court sends the claim to the appropriate court. To help people, so they would not spend money on lawyers and would not waste time".

The draft law also ensures openness and transparency of the very process and suggests the possibility of not only audio but also video record of the process on the obligatory basis.

Moreover, the Government suggests launching an "e-justice", "Today the time is wasted, enormous budgetary funds spent, dynamics of obtaining certain procedural documents lost. That's why we offer in the law to provide for the possibility of electronic sending and receiving of documents and creating of a single registry”.

The legislation contains also a number of conceptual changes into the procedure of election of judges. Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed the need to introduce competitive recruitment principles for judges in courts of various levels, "If the post is vacant, a judge has the right to apply for the competition himself and an independent judicial commission will decide whether to support him or not."

The Head of Government stressed the importance to involve the public, in particular to the selection of judges, "The public organizations have to be attracted to observe and participate in the selection of a particular judge. This will only add credibility and confidence to both judges, and a judicial branch - that here come only honest, fair people who can make decisions on behalf of Ukraine".

Arseniy Yatsenyuk informed that the bill introduces tax criteria to carry the checks of judges. "I am convinced that it would be appropriate, if tomorrow the Parliament adopt an anti-corruption package, submitted by the President and the Government, which provides for the Declaration of incomes and expenses and access for the public to information contained in each Declaration, and if the same procedure will apply to judges. It also gives an additional level of confidence for the judiciary power".

But the key issue, he stressed, is the absence of political component. "Presidents change each other, Governments come and leave. One of the key, stable and unchanging foundations of a democratic government and a democratic state must be an independent and stable legal court. The less the politicians influence the judicial branch, the more rights, law and justice are in the country," said Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

In order to completely deprive the judicial branch of any political influence, the Government insists on transfer of powers to the judicial self-government, "In particular to enable the judicial branch to participate in shaping the law of Ukraine on the state budget, as funding has always been a problem for the courts. The independence of the sources of funding and covering of necessary expenses for the judiciary appear additional elements of independence of the judiciary system as whole."

In the draft law, the Government has envisaged the possibility to set up qualification and disciplinary commissions by the council of judges from among the members of the public by draw.

Meanwhile, Arseniy Yatseniuk informed that, the Government considers commercial courts should be liquidated. The Prime Minister noted that the volumes of financing the economic courts are practically similar to that of general jurisdiction courts and the loading on the economic courts is only 3% of the total cases, "We believe that commercial courts should be abolished, and this function should be transferred to the courts of general jurisdiction".

"As Prime Minister I confess the idea that also through changes in the Constitution to combine economic and administrative courts under the vertical of courts of general jurisdiction, where the Supreme Court of Ukraine would be the higher institution of the judiciary," said Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

The government also advocates the combination of the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission into a single body to fulfill its constitutional function to ensure judges perform their functions, control over judges, their appointment".

Arseniy Yatsenyuk has focused on reducing the burden on the courts, "first and foremost we are talking about the withdrawal of the writ proceedings from the civil process and transfer of appropriate powers to notaries".

Also here required the revision of standards, enabling the authorities to take administrative claims against person. Now according to statistical data, according to the Head of the Government, 60% of cases of administrative courts are proceedings initiated by the authorities against citizens: "the administrative courts should primarily protect citizens".