Judicial reform should not be a total destruction – Pavlo Grechkivskyy

The judicial reform in Ukraine is necessary, but it should not be aimed at the complete destruction of the system with the existing effective mechanisms and advantages. This was stated by Mr Pavlo Grechkivskyy, the BCU Secretary, member of the Higher Council of Justice, during a round table at the Gorshenin Institute "Judgement Thursday of the judicial reform: will the amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine be voted?".

“The reform should be conducted, and I spoke about that back in 2002. But do we really need a reform based on the principle of first ruining and then re-building everything? Or, perhaps, it is better to go the following way: we keep what is good and we change what is bad?” - said Mr Grechkivskyy.

In his assessment of a level of confidence in the courts, he urged to tell this indicator from the satisfaction with the adopted court decisions. "10 million people apply to the courts of first instance every year. They apply to these courts, meaning that they trust the judicial system. There is a difference between the confidence, reflected in the fact of applying to courts, and whether the decision adopted by a court meets the expectations. Such expectations are met in respect of half of those who went to a court", - said Mr Grechkivskyy.

The BCU Secretary urged to clarify the criteria for the selection of judges of the Supreme Court, from which a subjective factor of conducting interviews should be excluded and only testing should be left.

"How can we be confident that new people will not be the same? Will not we receive the same thing under the nice names? It is necessary to change the judicial system, it is necessary to select new judges, but I am personally against interviews – this is a corruption component in the selection process. There should only be a testing"- said Mr Grechkivskyy.

Roundtable in Gorshenin Institute was held on the eve of reading in the Parliament of the Draft Law on Judiciary and Status of Judges, which was scheduled for adoption on 2 June.

Watch full video of the event (in Ukrainian)