Draft bill #9483-2 of July 25, 2023 

Decision-maker: the Parliament 

Status: adopted in the second reading, awaits to be signed by the Speaker of Parliament and the President of Ukraine 

Who is affected: judges (about 5000) and the High Council of Justice (HCJ) 

Summary of the bill: 

  • the work of the disciplinary inspectors’ service of the Higher Council of Justice will be relaunched. The service is supposed to assist the HCJ in making decisions on holding judges disciplinarily liable 
  • competitions for positions in the service will be conducted by a selection committee of 6 members, including 3 representatives of international and foreign organizations that work on judicial reforms and/or anti-corruption. Requirements for the position of inspector will be more liberal 
  • to make a decision, the selection committee will need the majority of votes of which at least 2 will have to be the votes from representatives of international or foreign organizations that work on judicial reforms and/or anti-corruption 
  • the role of the representatives of the service in disciplinary proceedings regarding judges will be defined 
  • salaries for the leadership and inspectors of the service will be set. They will have to submit asset declarations as public officials 
  • a position of assistant to a member of the HCJ will be introduced. 

What is right: 

  • the bill will allow to relaunch the HCJ’s disciplinary service and, as a result, to start the intensive review of the accumulated disciplinary complaints involving judges 
  • the procedure for selecting the leadership and employees of the service has already been tested by other bodies (the HCJ, the High Qualification Commission of Judges) and proved to be relatively safe in the respect of corruption risks. 

What is wrong: 

  • there is a risk that HCJ members will face a conflict of interest: they are allowed to participate both in the preliminary selection of the leadership and employees of the service as part of the selection committee and at the same time they make the final decision on appointments. 

Background information: 

  • In July 2021, the Parliament passed a law that significantly changed the procedure for conducting disciplinary proceedings regarding judges. A competition for the positions of disciplinary inspectors of the High Council of Justice was to be announced no later than August 5, 2022. Since the High Council of Justice was not able to start its work for a long time and the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia on the territory of Ukraine, competitions for the positions of disciplinary inspectors were not started. As a result, during these almost two years, a considerable number of disciplinary complaints was accumulated. The total number of complaints reached almost 10,000. 
  • On September 12, 2023, the President signed a law developed to ensure that cases concerning disciplinary liability of judges would be considered. Also, it was supposed to ensure the functioning and the launch of the disciplinary service of the High Council of Justice. Without this law, consideration of disciplinary complaints will not be launched in full.