HIGHER QUALIFICATION COMMISSION OF JUDGES OF UKRAINE IN THE SYSTEM OF JUDICIAL AUTHORITIES IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The role and place of the Higher Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine in the system of judicial authorities have been determined on the basis of the analysis of the current regulatory legal acts regulating the status of the Commission. Taking into account the problems with the formation of the Higher Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine (has not been formed yet) and the impossibility of implementing the entrusted powers, the authors have established that the relevant current problem is to find the ways to ensure the creation of the Higher Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine to resolve issues for selecting judges and forming an independent and professional judicial manpower. One of the options suggested by the officials of the judicial system is to create the Qualification Chamber for Judicial System Human Resourcing instead of this Commission under the jurisdiction of the Higher Council of Justice. The authors have characterized the relationship between the legal status of the Higher Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine and the Higher Council of Justice as judicial authorities, perspectives of their further functioning for the urgent solution of problems in the staffing policy. Analysis of powers of the indicated authorities allows us to conclude that they are mutually consistent and mutually complementary. It has been clarified that international standards in the field of justice require the creation of an agency that would form judicial manpower (whose role is performed by the Higher Council of Justice taking into account these standards and international experience of similar authorities’ functioning), implement the provisions of the Strategy on ensuring the institutional independence and transparency of the Higher Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine and elaborate the issue of its subordination to the Higher Council of Justice as an agency that selects personnel and promotes the career of judges. This allows us to conclude about the expediency of the existence of the Commission as an independent judicial authority.