09:56 12.10.2021

Supreme Court's head: If there is political will, Rada can amend law on HCJ

2 min read
Supreme Court's head: If there is political will, Rada can amend law on HCJ

The judiciary proposes a number of legislative changes to ensure the uninterrupted work of the High Council of Justice (HCJ), if there is political will, these amendments can be adopted by parliament, Head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine Valentyna Danishevska has said.

"For the stability of the HCJ's operation, we propose, in the provision about the Ethics Council's right to stop the powers of the HCJ members, indicate the sequence of actions: that the Ethics Council first appoints new members, and then proposes the current HCJ members to undergo a check, which must either pass the check, or resign," Danishevska told Interfax-Ukraine in an exclusive interview.

According to her, the HCJ acting judges-members, who previously passed the test for integrity, should not pass it again, since this is contrary to the Constitution.

In addition, the judiciary proposes to change the approach to "dismissal by law," as this provision does not comply with the Basic Law.

"In other words, we are asking to establish safeguards in the law [on the procedure for appointing HCJ members] against unconstitutional actions in order to ensure the continuity of the HCJ's activities," the Supreme Court's head said.

She said it is also proposed to introduce a procedure for voting in the Ethics Council by a majority vote. Danishevska said that now the law provides for the advantage of the votes of foreign experts in case of a split of votes.

"This undermines the confidence of the judiciary in this reform, but everything can be corrected by introducing amendments to the law," the Supreme Court's head said.

Answering a question whether it is possible to count on the fact that the Verkhovna Rada, after the change of the chairman, will be able to support these amendments, the court's head said: "If there is political will, I believe there is no problem to carry out these amendments."

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