Ukraine's corrupt courts system has been a long-time obstacle for business development, human rights, justice for crimes committed and settling many other conflicts. Experts from the international organizations have been highlighting these problems for years.
Oleksiy Filatov, 38, a former lawyer with Vasil Kisil & Partners law firm, was appointed deputy head of Presidential Administration on July 22 to take charge of the judicial reform. “I can’t say I have achieved everything I wanted in advocacy,” he said during an interview with the Kyiv Post. “I had a strong impression that only qualitative changes in Ukrainian legal system would enable further accomplishments.”
The Council on Judicial Reform, involving representatives of various sectors of legal community, coordinated by Filatov advanced a bill on judicial reform that Verkhovna Rada passed in the first reading on Jan. 13. This was rather a controversial move, since parliament also passed a competing version.
Filatov’s approach drew a lot of criticism as it retains the right of the resident to appoint judges as well as to liquidate or reorganize courts, which critics saw as perpetuating political influence over the courts. The competing version favored by civic activists doesn’t allow for this direct political interference.
In 2011, under President Viktor Yanukovych, the Constitutional Court ruled that the president is authorized to liquidate courts. Since the ruling had a clear pro-Yanukovych taste, many doubted its legitimacy.
Changing the right of the president to liquidate, create, reorganize courts and appoint judges is possible but requires amendments to the Constitution, according to Filatov.
“The bill (passed on Jan. 13) covers the issues which need to be resolved urgently,” he says. “The constitutional process of amendments is protracted, burdensome and subject to a political pressure. Thus, if we’d wait until autumn for the amendment of the Constitution to make changes in judicial system, we would waste a lot of time for nothing.”
But this is not the only issue that fueled concerns.
Commercial courts, widely criticized for corruption, keep their power over resolving the business affairs, while experts, for instance of the Reanimation Package of Reforms, admit it would be better to pass their power to the general courts. This would also reduce the public spending. Filatov didn’t like this idea.
Commercial courts are a source for 40 percent, of the country’s court fees, he argues. The budget revenue from court fees is estimated at more than 900 million ($56 million) in 2014. Cancelling commercial courts won’t help to overcome the corruption problem, Filatov adds. “This corruption money will just move over to (other courts) where the cases generating this money will be transferred. Corruption is the issue common for judicial system in general.” Specialization of courts is important, since commercial courts hear economic disputes, which are much more complicated than cases considered by general courts, he says.
Filatov thinks a more competitive procedure of hiring and preparing the judges would help much more. His bill requires all the judges to pass the qualification exam, submit an income declaration for them and their families.When asked about Rodion Kireyev, a Yanukovych-era judge that sentenced former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for seven years due to signing an unprofitable contract with Russia’s Gazprom, and other judges who passed illegitimate rulings against the EuroMaidan protesters, Filatov says: “The judge who intentionally made illegal verdict should bear criminal responsibility.”
If this was a minor offense, then disciplinary punishment should be enough. The new law on judicial system offers good mechanisms for making judges accountable for any wrongdoing, he adds.Now, as the discussion over judicial reform is under way and parliament’s justice committee is expected to develop a new version of the bill, Filatov hopes for compromise. “It’s important to choose the ideas which can bring a better result and take best proposals from each of the bills,” he says.
Kyiv Post staff writer Anastasia Forina can be reached at [email protected]. Kyiv Post legal affairs reporter Mariana Antonovych can be reached at [email protected].
