Ukraine completes creation of Ethics Council of judges

The Ethics Council of judges has been formed based on
the respective legislation, President Volodymyr Zelensky reported on Nov. 9.
The Council will consist of six members, including three representatives of
Ukrainian judges (including a judge of the Supreme Court, and current and
former judges of appellate courts) and three international lawyers (a former
judge of Massachusetts Supreme Court, a former judge of appellate court of
England and Wales and a former prosecutor general of Estonia). The
international representatives were appointed in September, while local
representatives were appointed automatically, based on local law (which
stipulates that, if the Council members are not appointed explicitly by Nov. 8,
the next day the first three persons from the long list are considered to be
appointed).

The Ethics Council will evaluate the integrity of all
candidates for members of the High Council of Justice (HCJ), the highest
judiciary body in Ukraine. Those not passing the integrity evaluation won’t be
appointed to the HCJ. Also, the Ethics Council can initiate the dismissal of
any of the current members of the HCJ if they do not pass the integrity test,
the Anti-Corruption Action Center NGO reported the same day. The Centers’
chairman Vitaliy Shabunin expressed his expectation that the renewed HCJ will
start cleaning the judiciary system next autumn. According to Shabunin, the key
risk for this process is Ukraine’s Constitutional Court, which may recognize
the legislation on cleaning the judiciary system as non-constitutional. He
stressed that the future of the judiciary reform will depend on the will of
Zelensky.

Alexander Paraschiy: Judiciary
reform (cleaning of courts) is one of the most important reforms that Zelensky
can make. Naturally, there will be fierce resistance from judges of all levels,
and the risk remains that this reform will be blocked on the highest level (by
the Constitutional Court, or any other top court), or even technically in the
way of its implementation. In any case, the start of the Ethics Council is a
very good event, while a lot is yet to be done on the way to restoring rule of
law and trust to the courts in Ukraine.