Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky plans to restart judicial reform. This was reported on the eve of the presidential administration.

The team of the head of state is unhappy with how the previous leadership of the country restructured the judicial branch of government. Ukrainian courts pass rulings that are not based on the requirements of the constitution and the law, said the deputy head of the presidential administration Ruslan Ryaboshapka.

"We believe that the presence of a number of such court decisions is an obvious evidence of the failure of judicial reform, which was held under the control of the administration of the former president of Ukraine," - said in a statement published on the website of the head of state.

In this regard, Zelensky decided to create an expert group to assess the results of the judicial reform carried out and prepare legislative and practical steps to solve the problems of the functioning of the judicial branch of government.

Recall the need to revise the reform, initiated by the administration of Petro Poroshenko, surrounded by the president stated earlier. In April, ex-Finance Minister Alexander Danyluk, who joined Zelensky’s election team, said that the judicial system would be “turned on its head” and will affect the Supreme and Appeal Courts.

In early June, Ryaboshapka declared that only Poroshenko’s leadership of the organs of the judicial branch of government, which had begun to receive high wages, had won the Poroshenko reform.

“But judges of lower instances, district courts, business and citizens were just as dissatisfied with the work of the judicial branch of government as they were five years ago,” the deputy head of administration emphasized.

The Zelensky team explained that the reform needs a serious correction, and the Council on judicial reform needs to be updated.

  • Vladimir Zelensky
  • RIA News

"One of the priorities"

Recall, the reform of the judicial system was one of the requirements put forward by the participants of the “euromaidan” in the winter of 2014. After the coup d'état, the new authorities initiated this process. In the summer of 2014, Poroshenko announced the creation of a profile working group.

“Judicial reform today is one of the priorities,” said the head of state. The work on the draft document was carried out with the support of international structures, the Ukrainian Union of Non-Governmental Organizations “Reanimation Package of Reforms” and the Council for Judicial Reform, established under the presidential administration. The goals of the reforms were to bring the legal proceedings in the country to European standards, reduce corruption, update the judiciary. Ultimately, the judicial branch had to restore trust in the eyes of citizens.

  • Building of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine
  • © Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters

Some of the planned changes contradicted the basic law of the country, therefore in 2016 the constitution was amended - the immunity of judges was limited, the institute of constitutional complaint was introduced, a lawyer monopoly was established to represent and protect the rights and interests of individuals and legal entities in courts.

Before the reform, not only lawyers, but also lawyers who did not have a lawyer's certificate, could represent the interests of citizens in the courts of non-criminal jurisdiction. With regard to the introduction of the institute of constitutional complaint, the innovation gave citizens the right to appeal directly to the Constitutional Court. After the Verkhovna Rada approved the constitutional amendments, the law “On the judicial system and the status of judges” was adopted by a majority vote.

Beginning in 2017, the High Qualifications Commission of Judges began to evaluate all judges for compliance with the criteria of professionalism. In addition, the courts of first and second instance, as well as the Supreme Court were updated.

However, Ukrainian citizens and representatives of the professional legal community negatively evaluated the interim results of the reform. Thus, a survey conducted in September 2018 by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology among residents of the country showed that 78.5% of respondents do not trust the judicial system. At the same time, 31.3% of respondents said that their attitude towards the courts has only deteriorated in recent years, and only 2.7% reported an improvement in the image of the judicial branch of government. At the same time, less than 1% of research participants called the reform successful.

In November and December 2018, the Social Monitoring Center and the Oleksandr Yaremenko Ukrainian Institute for Social Research conducted a survey among lawyers, judges, scientists and other representatives of the professional community. 72.6% of respondents gave a negative answer to the question “Should the judicial reform be considered successfully implemented?”. Only 1% of those surveyed said they were positive about the transformation.

Among the problems that have not yet been resolved, experts highlighted the persistence of corruption in the judicial system and the low level of personnel skills.

“The system is corrupt”

Against this background, the conclusions presented in a special report of the Council of Europe look contradictory. The document on the assessment of judicial reform in Ukraine for the period from 2014 to 2018, dated April 10, but was published on May 10, that is, after the presidential election. Ukrainian media paid attention to him only a month later.

In the document, European experts assess the measures taken by the Ukrainian authorities to reform the judicial reform. The authors of the report concluded that Kiev’s strategy helped bring the Ukrainian justice system closer to European standards, only “minor problems” remain.

  • Council of Europe Building
  • © OLIVIER MORIN / AFP

“Today, the results show a positive trend in increasing the level of professionalism, improving the efficiency and quality of the judicial system, as well as reducing the level of widespread corruption,” the document says.

Meanwhile, the RT source in the Popular Front party declared that the positive ratings given in the report do not correspond to reality.

“On the whole, the system is corrupt, and we see it by decision. Not a single top official is held accountable, the perpetrators of high-profile crimes are avoiding punishment. Unfortunately, Ukraine remains a country where any problem can be solved with money, ”the source notes.

In turn, the source RT from Poroshenko’s entourage said that today only members of the Supreme Court can be called completely independent.

“They are compromised by the team of the new president. Some people from the Poroshenko administration wanted to leave the courts loyal to them, so the reform was not completed, ”said the source.

The RT source from Zelensky’s entourage said that the head of state intends to attract investments and improve the standard of living of the population through reforming the judicial system.

“Otherwise, he will very quickly lose his rating. The problem is that there is no money for a substantial increase in salaries for judges in the budget. And without it, they will continue to take bribes, ”the source suggested.

According to a member of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of Russia, Bogdan Bezpalko, there are many problems in the judicial system of Ukraine and it is difficult to call it independent.

“This can be seen from the way the decision of the judges was influenced by activists or radicals who came to the courthouses, or by the effect of kinship and commercial ties. I am convinced that it is necessary to reform the judicial system, and Zelensky is right in this. But I doubt that the president will succeed, because his real goal is to control this branch of power, ”the expert believes.

A similar point of view is shared by the president of the Center for Systems Analysis and Forecasting Rostislav Ischenko. According to the expert, in the modern Ukrainian realities, reforming the judicial system means seizing power over the courts by regular politicians.

“The forerunners of the former president and Poroshenko himself carried out judicial reform, but the effectiveness of the courts did not improve. Zelensky will also reformat the judicial system and eventually gain control over it, ”the expert concluded.