As reported on Tuesday by the
president's press service, Poroshenko signed the law during a meeting with
Chairman of the High Council of Justice Ihor Benedysiuk and Presidential
Administration Deputy Head Oleksiy Filatov.
"The body, which will
remove the political element from the judicial system, will assume the function
of appointing judges from the Verkhovna Rada. It [the High Council of Justice]
will be responsible for disciplining and dismissing judges," Poroshenko
was quoted as saying.
The president said the law,
titled "On the High Council of Justice," received positive reviews
from the European Union's Venice Commission and partners from the U.S. and the
EU.
"I think the bill
provides Ukrainian citizens with key rights – to justice and a fair
trial," Poroshenko said.
The head of state thanked the
Rada for supporting the law and adopting it in a timely fashion, allowing the
High Council of Justice to begin work already in 2017.
In addition, Poroshenko signed
the law on introducing changes to Ukraine's Budget Code, which, regulate the
issue of financing the High Council of Justice.
Lawmakers on December 21, 2016
passed the law on the High Council of Justice.
The bill sets the status,
power, the basis of organization and operation of the High Council of Justice.
The council is an independent constitutional body of judicial self-government
permanently operating to ensure independence of judicial power. Its functioning
is based on responsibility to society.
According to the document, the
High Council of Justice will make decisions to dismiss judges from their posts
and permit detention or arrest of judges. At present, Ukrainian parliament
gives consent to detain or arrest judges.
The council would have powers
to submit proposals to appoint judges, create bodies to hear cases on
disciplinary responsibility of judges, make decisions to transfer judges from
one court to another, agree the number of judges in court, participate in
determining expenses of the national budget for maintaining courts and justice
agencies, approve the requirements for staff, financial and material provision
of courts under a proposal of the State Court Administration of Ukraine.
The High Council of Justice
consists of 21 members. Some 10 members are elected by the congress of judges,
the president appoints two of them, parliament two more, the congress of
lawyers two more, the Ukrainian conference of prosecutors two more and the
congress of representatives of law educational and scientific institutions two
more.
The chairman of the Supreme
Court is a member of the council by virtue of his position.
Council members' tenure is
four years. The same person cannot be a member of the High Council of Justice
two tenures in a row. The law provides the procedure for electing members of
the council, their rights and the procedure for dismissal.
A member of the council must
be a Ukrainian citizen not younger than 35 years with a higher legal education
and professional work record in the field not less than 15 years. He or she
must be politically neutral. Members of political parties, or individuals who
work for political parties or for other organizations with political goals or
that takes part in political activities cannot become council members. Elected
government officials are also ineligible, as are individuals who take part in
the organization or funding of political campaigns and other activities.
Members of the High Council of
Justice, apart from the Chairman of the Supreme Court, fulfill their permanent
mandates.
The structure and activity
arrangement for the High Council of Justice is described in the document. The
council creates disciplinary panels consisting primarily of former judges and
at least four council members, to hear disciplinary cases.
No comments:
Post a Comment