European support to justice sector reforms in Ukraine: judicial expertise in the loop
by Iryna Zharonkina, enforcement and Protection of Property Rights Component Lead
Since 2013 European Union is providing systemic support to the rule of law reforms in Ukraine. EU Project “Pravo-Justice” is an initiative funded by the European Union aimed at supporting the rule of law, judicial reform, and the strengthening of the justice sector in Ukraine. Over the years, the EU Project “Pravo-Justice” has become one of the drivers in this area, bringing Ukrainian legislation in compliance with European standards, supporting the development of strategic vision of changes, enhancing judiciary, prosecutors and Ministry of Justice on this way.
“Pravo-Justice” Project is not only facilitating the spreading out of European practices across Ukrainian justice sector by providing continuous expert support, but also has been standing as a catalyst of changes laying the ground for Ukraine integration with the EU. The Shadow report on Chapter 23 “Justice and Fundamental Rights” of the EU Commission’s Report on Ukraine was recently prepared with support of the Project, providing comprehensive analysis of the current state of affairs, progress made by Ukraine and existing problems in justice sector.
The Project is built of four pillars:
- Prosecutorial Reform and Prosecution for International Crimes: experts of Project contribute to the reform of public prosecutors’ offices in Ukraine in accordance with best European standards by increasing the efficiency of their work and bringing the perpetrators to justice for committing international crimes, but also bringing advice on how to work with war-related violence victims and witnesses. The latter includes a set of measures aimed at investigating, prosecuting and adjudicating in respect of those guilty of international crimes, as well as improving the institutional capacities of the Project’s key beneficiaries in the field of criminal justice: prosecutors, lawyers, and judges.
- Judicial Reform: Project provides support to judicial authorities, and also contribute to institutional capacity building of judiciary governance and administration bodies, professional development of judges, improving the operations of Ukrainian judiciary and ensuring its resilience in wartime, as well as creating the necessary conditions for national courts to properly consider war crimes cases. Major Project reports in this field include analysis of the functioning of the judicial system of Ukraine during the war, methodology for calculating the number of judges in courts and weighting judicial cases, notably considering the CEPEJ-SATURN methodology, analysis of European standards of disciplinary proceedings against judges.
- Enforcement of Court Decisions and Protection of Property Rights: Component is focused on protecting citizens’ right to a fair trial by building an effective system of enforcing court decisions, ensuring the protection of property rights by improving procedures for the enforcement of court decisions, improving insolvency and bankruptcy procedures, and creating a reliable system of property rights registration, as well as reforming the systems of carrying out sentences and forensic expert activity. Important number of research has been conducted by Project experts in relation to protection of property rights during the war, implementation of new Bankruptcy code of Ukraine, improvement of enforcement proceeding, overview of judicial expertise in Ukraine.
- Support to the Euro integration in the Justice Sector: focused on facilitation of dialogue between justice sector stakeholders, public diplomacy, monitoring, and communication on EU accession process, assistance regarding the approximation process and EU-adhesion negotiations as well as supporting the legal education reform and providing other thematic support. One of the biggest achievements of the project is the implementation and development of mediation in Ukraine.
The reform of the judicial expertise system is a part of Pravo-Justice Project, given that the effectiveness and reliability of justice depends on the quality, timeliness, and accuracy of judicial expertise.
The Russian invasion has posed a serious challenge to the stable functioning of Ukraine’s judicial expertise system. Destruction and war crimes required the documentation and delivery of numerous forensic examinations. The number of requests for explosive, fire, construction, merchandise, economic, linguistic, and ballistic weapons examinations increased significantly, including the complex, multidisciplinary examinations. These require not only considerable time but also the involvement of a wide range of judicial experts from various fields.
The preparation of cases for the international tribunals is another challenge faced by Ukrainian forensic system.
The agenda of the reform of judicial expertise in Ukraine includes the improvement of regulatory framework, increasing professional capacities and skills of Ukrainian experts, provision of relevant equipment, improving the integrity of the experts.
Today, Ukrainian justice sector stakeholders are looking for extending and enhancing connection with judges, legal practitioners, academics in the EU. Accession negotiations that have been opened by the European Council in June 2024 launched the massive work on harmonization of the Ukrainian legal framework with European legislation, standards, and practices. “Pravo-Justice” Project is actively supporting Ukrainian stakeholders in getting access to the EU best practices. We are looking to organize trainings, workshops, expert exchanges between Ukrainian and European counterparts.
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