Further to the previous discussions of the draft law of the President of Ukraine “On amendments to the Commercial Procedural Code of Ukraine, the Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine, the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine and other legislation”, the round table “Independence and efficiency of the Ukrainian judiciary in the context of recent amendments to the codes of procedure” took place on 24 April 2017 in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

The event was jointly organized by the Judicial Reform Council, the All-Ukrainian non-governmental organisation “Ukrainian Bar Association” and by the Council of Europe project “Support to the implementation of the judicial reform in Ukraine”.

Judges, practicing lawyers, academia and civil society discussed suggested amendments to civil, commercial, administrative proceedings. In the course of the event,
Mr Victor Korolenko, Head of the Division of the Administration of the President of Ukraine, presented a general concept of reforming of the procedural legislation of Ukraine. Ms Hanne Juncher, Head of the Justice and Legal Co-operation Department of the Council of Europe, spoke about the role of the Supreme Court as the court of cassation and about the uniformity of judicial practice. Mr George Papuashvili, an international expert of the Council of Europe, delivered a presentation on Council of Europe standards of court proceedings and functioning of a court system. The programme of the event in Ukrainian is available at the link.

The amendments to the procedural codes were drafted by the Judicial Reform Council and they involve changes to the main institutes of legal proceedings in Ukraine, including the system and stages of legal proceedings, and, among other things, they regulate the powers of the new Supreme Court as a cassation court. Infographic materials about the main changes introduced by the draft codes are available at the link.

The Council of Europe project “Support to the implementation of the judicial reform in Ukraine” aims at ensuring further compliance of the Ukrainian system of judiciary with the standards and recommendations of the Council of Europe.

WEB LINKS TO THE EXPERT DISCUSSION EVENT

http://jrc.org.ua/events/event/14  – Judicial reform council

http://hr.arbitr.gov.ua/sud5023/344473/ - official website «Judiciary of Ukraine»