Reorganized Ukrainian Supreme Court Starts Operating

The reorganized Supreme Court of Ukraine started operating on December 15, 2017. The Supreme Court was reorganized under the Law on the Judicial System and the Status of Judges, which was adopted by the Ukrainian parliament in June 2016 along with two other laws aimed at reforming Ukraine’s outdated judicial system. This law replaced the previous four-instance system, consisting of:

• courts of first instance;
• courts of appeal;
• cassation courts; and
• the Supreme Court of Ukraine,

with a three-instance system of general, commercial and administrative courts, consisting of:

• district courts of first instance;
• district courts of appeal; and
• the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

While in the four-instance system cases could be referred to the Supreme Court under a limited number of circumstances, in the new system the Supreme Court acts as a cassation court and consists of:

• Major Chamber of the Supreme Court of Ukraine;
• Cassation Administrative Court;
• Cassation Commercial Court;
• Cassation Criminal Court; and
• Cassation Civil Court.

So far 113 of the maximum of 200 judges have been appointed in the reorganized Supreme Court.

Prepared by: Yulia Kropivka

For more information, please contact ukraine@petosevic.com.

Source: Ukrainian news portal ukranews.com