Verkhovna Rada elects two members of High Council of Justice. Who are they?

The Ukrainian Parliament has elected two new members of the High Council of Justice (HCJ) according to its quota. These are lawyer Roman Maselko and Mykola Moroz, reported MPs Oleksiy Honcharenko and Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

Roman Maselko is a lawyer in Euromaidan cases, and in different years was the head of the Civil Oversight Council of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, as well as the Public Council of Integrity.

He is a member of the public organization "Avtomaidan" and the chairman of the board of the DEJURE foundation, the purpose of which is to implement reforms in the field of justice.

Mykola Moroz is a candidate of legal sciences. Associate professor who worked at the Department of Civil Law of the Yaroslav the Wise National Law Academy.

Background

The HCJ should consist of 21 members. Ten of them are elected at the congress of judges of Ukraine from among judges or retired judges, two members are appointed by the president, the Verkhovna Rada, the congress of lawyers of Ukraine, the All-Ukrainian conference of prosecutors and the congress of representatives of legal institutions of higher education and scientific institutions.

At the end of 2021, the Ethics Council became operational, which should check whether a candidate for the position of a member of the HCJ meets the criteria of professional ethics and integrity.

At the beginning of February, the Ethics Council sent a notice of its intention to evaluate 8 members of the HCJ. After that, on February 22, 10 members resigned from the High Council of Justice. Due to the lack of a quorum, the body ceased to exercise its powers.

On June 23, the Ethics Council announced the results of the competition for two vacancies in the HCJ under the parliamentary quota. It recommended four candidates for appointment: Vyacheslav Talko, Olena Zaichko, Mykola Moroz, and Roman Maselko. The Anti-Corruption Action Center noted that Talko and Zaichko cannot be considered to be of integrity.

Why is the HCJ important?

The High Council of Justice will appoint members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQJC), who will be elected for a term of four years based on the results of the competition. The High Court of Appeals, for its part, will be engaged in the selection of new and re-certification of current judges. The law stipulates that the HQJC should consist of 16 members, eight of whom will be elected from among judges or retired judges.