High Qualification Commission of Judges eases the methodology of qualifications assessment

On February 13 the High Qualification Commission of Judges amended the Methodology of qualifications assessment. Clause 46 envisages that the information that was provided in the opinion [of the Public Integrity Council] is to be taken into account by the HQCJ while deciding on scores for specific criteria. However, it is also mentioned that the HQCJ is not assessing judicial rulings, reported in the opinion, unless there is a reference to the decision of the competent authorities on bringing the judge (candidate) to liability or the fact of violations of the law by the judge (candidate) is ascertained. This means that should there be no decision of the High Council of Justice or the court on violations, the HQCJ won’t consider this information.

This may significantly hamper the selections of anticorruption judges. As an example, having responsibility to bring to justice the judges, who prosecuted Maydan activists, the High Council of Justice failed to do it in ~85% of cases – mostly due to expiry of the limitation period in early 2017.