Legal news in Ukraine: candidates to the Supreme Court, competition for the post of the Anti-Corruption Court apparatus’s head, Parliament considers a language bill, supervisory board in the system of free legal aid, study on the state of legal education
The High Council of Justice proposes to appoint 69 candidates to the Supreme Court
The High Council of Justice made a submission to the President of Ukraine on the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court on the recommendations received from the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine.
The Supreme Council of Justice proposes to appoint 21 judges to the Cassation Civil Court – as part of the Supreme Court, 14 judges – to the Cassation Economic Court, 12 judges – to the Cassation Criminal Court and 22 judges – to the Cassation Administrative Court.
The list of judges can be viewed at this link.
At the same time, the High Council of Justice has decided to postpone consideration of materials on the appointment of 7 judges. The High Council of Justice also refused to submit a motion for the appointment of one judge to the Court of Cassation.
It is worth adding, the Supreme Court has 78 vacancies.
The contest for the post of the Anti-Corruption Court’s chief of staff will be held in May
The contest for the post of the Anti-Corruption Court’s chief of staff will be held in May. This decision was made by the Commission on Senior Civil Service in the Justice System.
Candidates will be able to apply from April 10 to April 25, 2019. Testing will take place on May 13, 2019.
Experts of the All-Ukrainian Center for Advanced Studies of Civil Servants and Local Government Officials will check the candidates’ level of foreign language proficiency.
Verkhovna Rada is considering a language bill
On March 19-22, 2019 people’s deputies continued consideration in the second reading of the draft law on ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as a state language (No. 5670-d).
Deputies came to consideration of the 7th section of the bill.
The bill, adopted as a basis in October 2018, has today 2082 amendments.
On February 28, 2018, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine established the unconstitutionality of the Law of Ukraine «On the Fundamentals of the State Language Policy» (the so-called Kivalov-Kolesnichenko Law).
The law established that the Russian language has the status of a regional one in 13 regions of the country and in fact equated it with the state language. After that, a legal vacuum was formed in the language sphere. «We are obliged to adopt a law that would regulate the use of Ukrainian – the state language. The adoption of this bill is our duty», said Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy.
The politician explained that in Ukrainian legislation there is a separate Law on languages of national minorities and a separate Law on the functioning of the state language. The adoption of this bill, in the opinion of Parubiy, will ensure knowledge and use of the Ukrainian language by officials and service providers.
The Chairman of the Parliament noted that «the adoption of this bill will provide at least 90% of the Ukrainian language on national TV channels; at least 50% of the newspapers and magazines’ names in Ukrainian at distribution points; at least 50% of the books’ names in Ukrainian in bookstores and publishing houses; Ukrainian-language education».
From March 25 to March 29, people's deputies will work with voters, and from April 1 to 5 they will work in committees and factions.
The next plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada will be held on Tuesday, April 9.
The work of the free legal assistance system will be monitored by the supervisory board
On March 20, 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine supported the decision on the creation of an independent supervisory board in the system of free legal assistance.
The Supervisory Board will monitor the work of the system, evaluate the efficiency, and make proposals for the budgeting of the system for the coming years.
Board members will be elected in a public competition.
The supervisory board will determine the strategic directions for the development of the legal aid system and oversee its activities. In addition, the Council will adopt annual activity plans and reports of the Coordination Center, and evaluate the activities of its director.
One of its priorities will be the identification and assessment of risks (political, financial and others), recommendations on ways to prevent and resolve them, as well as proposals for minimizing possible negative consequences.
The supervisory board will consist of nine members who will carry out their duties on a voluntary basis. The Ministry of Justice will be approving the order of the competition for the election of the Supervisory Board’s members.
The competition commission will include eight people: four employees of the Ministry of Justice and four people, that will be recommending by international partners.
The competition commission will include eight people. Among them – four employees of the Ministry of Justice. International partners, that are collaborating with the Coordination Center, will recommend four more members.
«The competition committee will be formed from representatives of international organizations. The Supervisory Board will have no political influence and will annually present to the Government an assessment of the work of the system of free legal aid and will submit proposals on budgeting and concentration of resources for those categories of citizens who are most in need of legal aid from the state», – said the Minister of Justice.
The Ministry of Justice presented a study on the state of legal education
The Ministry of Justice presented a statistical study entitled «The State of Legal Education», conducted by the Directorate for Human Rights, Access to Justice and Legal Awareness.
According to the study, as of January 1, 2019 104 565 people are receiving a law degree in the specialty «Law» and «Jurisprudence» on all educational and qualification levels. Another 2,740 people are studying «International law».
Most of the law students are studying in specialized law schools of higher education
At least 7,500 future lawyers are trained in the system of educational institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on contractual terms. At the same time, more than 5 500 students in specialty «Law-enforcement activity» are in different educational institutions.
