- an overall reboot of the highly corrupted system through an open competition creonducted by the High Qualification Council of Judges (HQCJ) with the involvement of the general public represented by the Public Integrity Council (PIC).
- the dismantling of the four-element system set up by Yanukovych with the creation of the High Specialized Courts which practically replaced the Supreme Court.

The judicial system was quite balanced, professional, and practically uncorrupted till 1998. However, when the majoritarian system of the Verkhovna Rada elections was introduced [today, elections in Ukraine are held according to a mixed majoritarian-proportional electoral system - Ed.], the oligarchs became People’s Deputies (MPs) and they tried to buy everything, including court decisions. There were a few attempts aiming at reforming the judicial system at the beginning of 2000. The last one was conducted successfully in 2010, but in favor of President Yanukovych. The Supreme Court of Ukraine was considerably weakened by his initiative. Then, the High Specialized Courts of Ukraine were created as an additional element in the judicial system. These courts were given practically the authority of the Supreme Court. In result, the judicial system started to consist of four elements.The complicated and corrupted four-element court system will be a part of history. Due to the reforms at the judicial system, the President and the Verkhovna Rada will have no real influence on the judges’ appointments.
- the local courts;
- the Court of Appeals;
- the Court of Cassation, or the High Specialized Court
- the second level of Cassation – the Supreme Court.

- a written exam which has two parts – an anonymous test and a case study. The anonymous test has 120 questions checked by the computer. The case study is written by hand. All the tests are depersonalized. There were candidates with a huge experience who got upset that they did not pass the tests.
- an interview with a candidate based on the careful examination of his/her file. For the first time, all the stages of the competition could be viewed at the HQCJ YouTube channel. The candidates should pass psychological tests by four methodologies and an interview with a psychologist. The tests were developed by the international organization which previously made them for the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), the police, and Prosecutor’s Office. The candidates’ files have been uploaded to the HQCJ web site. The file includes a lot of documents, in particular, the declaration of assets available to everyone, the declaration of integrity, family ties. Nobody in this country has presented such a quantity of needed files. There are a lot of documents regarding the career of the candidate, files from NABU, Secret Service of Ukraine (SSU), Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Education. The minimum amount is 200-250 pages, the record is 1800 pages. All these documents were scanned and uploaded to the HQCJ’s web site.

The PIC gave 146 negative conclusions, this is about 40% of the overall number of the candidates. The HQCJ accepted the conclusions which were reasonable - 40% out of the total number.




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