Draft bill # 10301 of November 29, 2023
Sponsor: Serhii Demchenko, MP from the Servant of the People faction
Status: adopted in the first reading
Who is affected: local general courts, appellate courts, and judges
Summary:
- in local general and appellate courts, there will be a specialization of judges to conduct criminal proceedings in cases regarding military criminal offenses, criminal offenses against peace, security of mankind, and international legal order
- judges handling such cases will be selected from among the judges of the same court at a general meeting based on the proposal of the court chair or another judge if the chair’s proposal is not supported. Such judges will be appointed for a term of no more than five years, but it will be possible to re-elect them after their term ends
- the number of such judges will be determined separately for each court
- a judge assigned to consider cases about military criminal offenses will have to be someone who already has experience working with criminal cases
- judges handling such criminal cases will not be exempt from performing other duties of the corresponding court level. However, their specialization will be considered during the distribution of court cases and have priority significance.
What is right:
- the bill introduces the specialization of judges in the Ukrainian judicial system for cases regarding military criminal offenses, criminal offenses against peace, security of mankind, and international legal order
- specialization of judges in such cases may improve the quality of decisions and enhance the authority of the judiciary.
Additional information:
- due to the large number of cases regarding military criminal offenses, criminal offenses against peace, security of mankind, and international legal order, access to justice may be limited (this will result in longer proceedings in other court cases).