Procedural rules of proceedings should be unified, fee introduced for speedy review of case - draft agreement

Kyiv, October 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The procedural rules of civil, economic and administrative proceedings should be unified to the extent possible, and a fee for an expedited review of the case should be introduced.

This is stated in the Judicial Reform section of a draft coalition agreement, which was published on the website of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko early on Wednesday.

In particular, the draft coalition agreement foresees the introduction of practical mechanisms to ensure the adversarial process when a judge will act as an arbitrator, rather than an investigator, ensuring the principle of legal certainty, while restricting the use of the institution of review of decisions under new circumstances and the sending of the case for new consideration.

The document also envisages the practical introduction of the principle of publicity/openness of trials except for state and commercial secrets, moral considerations, privacy of information, with clear and transparent criteria for the application of these exceptions, in particular, taking into account the status of "public person" and the existence of an overriding public interest, which justifies the disclosure of information.