Draft bill #12206-1 of November 22, 2024 

Cosponsors: Cabinet of Ministers 

Status: sent for review to the Committee on Legal Policy 

Who is affected: courts, judges, the Cabinet of Ministers and ministries, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the Antimonopoly Committee, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the Council of Judges of Ukraine, and the High Qualification Commission of Judges 

Summary: 

  • the High Specialized Administrative Court will be established. It will consider: 
    • complaints regarding the actions or inaction of high-ranking officials and nation-level state institutions 
    • complaints regarding decisions made by the Antimonopoly Committee regarding public procurement and state aid to enterprises 
    • complaints regarding decisions of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention on political party funding (rejection or termination of state funding) 
    • cases of annulment of a political party’s registration 
    • complaints regarding the decisions of selection committees in anti-corruption bodies concerning the appointment of heads of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anticorruption Bureau, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, and external assessments of the activities of these bodies 
    • complaints regarding acts, actions, or inaction of disciplinary bodies against prosecutors 
  • the appellate review of court decisions of the High Specialized Administrative Court will be conducted by its internal appellate chamber as a court of appeal 
  • the High Qualification Commission of Judges will establish an expert council, an advisory body for evaluating candidates for the position of judges of the High Specialized Administrative Court 
  • the expert council will operate for six years and will consist of three members nominated by the Council of Judges of Ukraine, and three members nominated by international and foreign organizations that have provided international technical assistance to Ukraine to support the judicial and/or anti-corruption reform in the past five years. 

What is right: the bill is supposed to reduce the workload of the existing courts by transferring a portion of administrative cases to a specialized court. This will ensure better and quicker case resolution. 

What is wrong: it is unclear why a separate selection procedure for judges should be introduced and what is the justification for the establishment of the expert council. For example, the law on the High Anti-Corruption Court includes provisions for involving an entity called the Public Council of International Experts in the selection process for judges. Constant changes to specific procedures across different courts create additional obstacles to the effective functioning of the judicial system and complicate public understanding of how it operates. 

Alternative solution: to use the selection procedure for judges of higher specialized courts to select judges of the High Specialized Administrative Court. 

How to help the legislator: proposals concerning the draft bill can be sent to the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on Legal Policy. 

Why this is important: by signing the Memorandum on Economic and Financial Policy, Ukraine has committed to adopt a law on the establishment of a higher specialized court (with trial and appellate chambers) that will review administrative cases against national state bodies (the National Bank, National Anti-Corruption Bureau, National Agency on Corruption Prevention). This court will also consider cases that fell under the exclusive jurisdiction of the dissolved District Administrative Court of Kyiv City. It is supposed to consider appeals against the actions of nation-level state bodies and cases contesting procedures of selection and external audit committees, which include independent experts (e.g., the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office). The establishment of such a court was also included in the Ukraine Facility Plan for 2024-2027.