Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Smyrnov met with members of the Board of Directors and Co-Chairs of the Legal Policy Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.
The participants of the meeting discussed priority steps for further implementation of judicial reform and cooperation to achieve positive changes on the way to creating a favorable investment climate in Ukraine.
Andriy Smyrnov informed about the steps that have been taken in this direction recently. In particular, he noted the reboot of the High Council of Justice, the High Qualification Commission of Judges, the establishment of the Ethics Council and the Advisory Group of Experts to select judges to the Constitutional Court.
The next steps of judicial reform are now on the agenda, which, according to the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, have been discussed with representatives of the G7 and individual G20 members starting from 2022, resulting in an agreed procedure for developing strong independent institutions.
"We are gradually moving towards the implementation of this plan," stated Andriy Smyrnov, noting that one of the goals is to ensure political neutrality and independence of the judiciary, including the High Council of Justice.
The Deputy Head of the President's Office stated the intention to launch two new higher specialized judicial bodies: a new specialized Supreme Administrative Court, which will consider disputes to which one of the parties is a central government body, and the creation and launch of a Supreme Specialized Court, whose mandate would be to consider disputes to which non-residents and foreign capital are parties.
"We have to send a signal to foreign businesses that they have hope and access to fair justice," said Andriy Smyrnov, calling the launch of a court whose mandate would focus on protecting investors' rights and resolving disputes with non-residents a top priority. According to him, all the tools have already been introduced to implement these points.
He also spoke about the audit of the Unified Judicial Information and Telecommunication System conducted by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and USAID in cooperation with key allies. Andriy Smyrnov reminded that the purpose of the system was to create services that give Ukrainian citizens and legal entities access to justice services, including the ability to promptly submit documents, receive feedback from the court, etc. The audit found that over a long period of time, the system had not been brought to a proper state and was unusable. There were malfunctions in its modules due to repeated changes of contractors, etc. So now the ministry's task is to put the system in order.
Andriy Smyrnov is convinced that the launch of the system will not only eliminate the corruption component, but also simplify access to justice for individuals and legal entities and will be another positive signal for investors.
Andriy Smyrnov also mentioned standardization of legal education, creation of the State Judicial Administration Transformation Office with a focus on human capital and resource optimization, its audit, optimization of the Supreme Court, etc. as part of the issues currently being worked on within the judicial reform.