23 травня, 2023
On Tuesday, May 23, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at the public part of the plenary session in the form of oral proceedings continued the consideration of the case upon the constitutional petition of the Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of the paragraph 23-1.13 of Section III “Final and Transitional Provisions” of the Law of Ukraine “On the High Council of Justice” of December 21, 2016 No. 1798-VIII, sub-paragraphs one, six, eleven of paragraph 4 of Section II “Final and Transitional Provisions” of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on the Procedure for Election (Appointment) to the Positions of Members of the High Council of Justice and Activities of Disciplinary Inspectors of the High Council of Justice” of July 14, 2021 No. 1635-IX.
It should be reminded that the Supreme Court filed a petition with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the compliance of the impugned provisions of the aforesaid laws with Articles 8, 19, 126, 131 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which stipulate the procedure for the Ethics Council to make decisions based on the results of voting, its assessment of compliance of the members of the High Council of Justice with the criteria of professional ethics and integrity, etc.
During the previous hearing of the case, which was held on May 11, the Judge-Rapporteur Viktor Kychun outlined the content of the constitutional petition and the grounds for initiating constitutional proceedings in the case.
He also informed that the Constitutional Court had received answers from public authorities, higher education institutions, and members of the Research Advisory Council of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to letters of inquiry on the issues raised in the constitutional petition. The Judge-Rapporteur emphasized that the case file included a joint amicus curiae brief from the Venice Commission and the Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law (Opinion No. 1091/2022 of October 24, 2022), amicus curiae from the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, the Embassies of the United States, Great Britain, and Canada in Ukraine, the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, the NGO “DEJURE Foundation”, Center for Political and Legal Reforms, etc.
At the public part of the plenary session, the Court heard the explanations of the participants of the constitutional proceedings, namely: the representative of the subject of the right to a constitutional petition, the Head of the Department of Analytical and Law Work of the Supreme Court Rasim Babanly, the Permanent Representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Maksym Dyrdin, the Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Serhii Dembovskyi.
Representative of the High Council of Justice, Head of the Law Department of the Secretariat of the High Council of Justice Mykhailo Shumylo, representatives of the Center for Political and Legal Reforms Yuliia Kyrychenko and NGO “DEJURE Foundation” Stepan Berko, Chairman of the Council of Judges of Ukraine Bohdan Monych, Doctor of Law, Professor, Vice-Rector for scientific and pedagogical work and international cooperation of Ivan Franko Lviv National University Serhii Riznyk as the participants involved in the constitutional proceedings also delivered their opinions.
During the session on May 23, the involved participants in the constitutional proceedings provided replies to the clarifying questions of the judges. The Court also heard the closing speeches of the participants in the constitutional proceedings.
After examining the case files in the public part, the Court proceeded to the in-camera part of the plenary session for a decision.
The public part of the plenary session is available at the link: https://ccu.gov.ua/kategoriya/2023.
