Welcome Speech of David Vaughn on International Seminar "Results of the First National Selection of Judicial Candidates"

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear judges, Your Honor! Dear colleagues! Good morning! On behalf of USAID FAIR Project let me greet you at this seminar.

First of all I would like to thank High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine and personally Mr. Samsin, for initiating and organizing this event.

As you know one of the priority areas of our project is to promote increased transparency and standardization of judicial selection and discipline process. That is why cooperation with High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine is at the focus of our project’s attention.

We have joint achievements. We have developed and tested standardized forms of applications and questionnaires for judicial candidates. As a result, the Law on the Judiciary and Status of Judges currently requires both standardized application form and anonymous test.

The project’s specialists and test experts supported the preparation and selection of judicial candidates as well as the first national anonymous test in May 2011. Our experts attended the test, they analyzed the procedure and gave their opinion to the Commission Working Group members.

Specifically, it was suggested to measure in the process of anonymous testing not only legal knowledge but also the ability of the candidate to apply that knowledge in situations the sitting judges typically face. The experts also emphasized the need to identify a clear list of personal and moral qualities judicial candidates should possess and the tools to measure those qualities in the selection process.

At this seminar we shall present the results of joint efforts to develop such a list by our Project, Academy of Legal Sciences, Council of Judges of Ukraine, High Council of Justice, Council of Europe Twinning Project and High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine.

Additionally, international experts from seven countries of the world have been invited to participate in the seminar.  Representatives of Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and Hungary will share their countries’ experience in judicial selection and training. Mary Francis Edwards, former Academic Director of the US National Judicial College, and Daniel Chasles, General Secretary of National School of Magistrates from France, will present the results of the needs assessment for Ukrainian judges. We also invited Steve Bakker, testing specialist from the Netherlands, whom you know very well, and Ukrainian expert Leonid Sereda to present the analysis of legal framework for anonymous test administration process. Judge Emmnuelle Spiteri Doffe from France will share the list of key competences for judicial candidates in France.  

Lastly, I would like to reiterate that our project will continue cooperation with the Commission in improving legal framework for judicial selection. We shall also support initial training of judicial candidates and enhancing the on-going training programs for judges.

You are welcome to speak your mind and provide recommendations. I wish you a very interesting discussion.

Thank you for your attention!

Welcome Speech of David Vaughn on Roundtable discussion regarding the List of court decisions to be included in the Unified Registry of Court Decisions

Ladies and Gentlemen, esteemed judges, Your Honor, colleagues!

On behalf of USAID FAIR Justice Project, I would like to greet all participants of this roundtable.

I would like to thank Mr. Pylypchuk, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the Council of Judges of Ukraine and its Chairman Mr. Romaniuk, State Judicial Administration of Ukraine and its Head Mr. Kyryliuk for organizing this event.

Our project’s priority is to assist in building a more effective, accountable and fair judiciary in Ukraine, improving access to justice and reinforcing public trust and confidence in the judiciary. It is essential that each citizen has timely and effective access to any court decision.

To assist in improving the operation of the Unified Registry of Court Decisions, our project engaged experts who had extensive experience in strengthening court administration in different countries of the world. The US expert, Marcus Zimmer, did legal analysis of the Law of Ukraine on Access to Court Decisions and the Procedure for Maintaining the Unified Registry, while Mr. Scherpenzeel, expert from the Netherlands, did a thorough assessment of the Registry’s functionality. In April 2011 the project helped organize a roundtable where the experts presented the assessment results and provided their recommendations.

Since then the Law «On Access to Court Decisions» has been amended and the need arose to identify a list of decisions to be included into the Registry. Our Project is ready to support the changes which guarantee that the public has timely and effective access to court decisions. To this end, we have asked Mr. Zimmer to take part via skype in the discussion of this issue together with representatives of Ukrainian judiciary.

I hope that this discussion as well as taking into account the best world practices will help reach consensus on the matter among all stakeholders.

Thank you for your attention!