Lawyers and scholars have shown more willingness to fight corruption

Oct 01, 2018 | Judiciary

All candidates to the Higher Anti-Corruption Court have submitted their applications. Among them, there are representatives of local authorities and experienced specialists. Based on the previous selection to the Supreme Court, we can say that some part will not even pass “the competition of documents”.

Original in Ukrainian: Zakon i Biznes, Sofia Kondratyuk

Forecasts for positions

The Japanese proverb says: “The victory will go to the one who will stand up half an hour longer than the opponent.” Mathematics-based approach makes it evident that out of 846 candidates who submitted their documents to the High Qualification Commission of Judges, some 200 were eliminated immediately. And the winners were chosen out of only 320 persons who had reached the finish line. The same formula being applied to the “anti-corruptionists” selection, it turns out that out of 200 statements of intent (to both HACC and its appeal chamber), about a quarter will be not admitted to the competition. Thus, some 160 legal professionals will qualify for the competition, and after the test stage, half of them will remain.

It turns out that one judicial chair – there are only 39 judicial positions there, as one may remember, will be competed for by two candidates only. While over the previous competition, after having completed all the stages, there were 3 candidates per position. The additional selection to the SC which is happening alongside the HACC, does not display any particular rush either. 406 candidates are willing to compete to fill 78 positions in the highest judicial institution. Thus, we can assume that after the beginning of the competition, their number will decrease to approximately 240, and one winner will be selected out of two candidates – bearing in mind 4 separate competitions to the cassation courts.

However, since 2016, not only the number of applicant has changed. Less judges are willing to switch from one court to another, while more and more representatives of other legal professions get interested in becoming judges.

Another school and the second attempt

While over the first round of the competition, the total number of lawyers and scholars with mixed experience hardly reached 200 people, which means that some five hundred of the judges sought to get promoted, now the situation changed dramatically, especially, for the anti-corruption court. According to the preliminary review of candidates, almost half of them have never administered justice before.

The bar proved to be willing to join the judicial corps: over 60 lawyers are going to try themselves in judicial offices. As promised, Yevhen Hrushovets, partner of Ario Law Firm, has submitted his package of documents to the HQCJ. There are also presidents of law firms, who are ready to leave their businesses for the new career. Thus, Oleksii Shevchuk, Managing Partner of the LF “Barristers” declared his determination to fight corruption.

HACC’s schedule

Again, making parallels with how much time the Commission needed to elect the SC judges, one can assume that it is unlikely that the competition to the anti-corruption institution will be completed next February, as planned by the HQCJ Chairman.

The total number of participants in both competitions is hardly less than over the previous selection. Then, it took to the HQCJ almost 8 months to handle all dossiers. Although the process may be speeded up by the presence of two bodies watching for the (lack of) integrity. In addition, the PIC is already experienced in the evaluation of the SC candidates, while the PCIE will not be overloaded, even though it will have to deal with the translation issues.

The fact that the names of the applicants to the PCIE have not been published yet, even though the deadline was set for the last week, proves that the competition will run behind the schedule.

Completing practical tasks does not take much time, which is not the case when it comes to their verification. After all, potential judges draft decisions that need to be analyzed in detail, as opposed to tests.

At the end of the day, the issue of time is not that critical. The main concern is to have honest legal professionals become part of the bodies vested with so many hopes. Even if the formation of the judicial corps will be completed after the presidential election.