A significant number of judicial offices in Ukraine are vacant. And today the situation with the deficit of staff in the courts approaches already to critical. This was due to several reasons. One of them is the complex procedure for selection for and appointment to judicial office which includes many stages. The implementation of these stages takes long time. Therefore, even such long terms as two or three years are quite optimistic in this case.

The purpose of the article is to define the directions of the improvement of the procedure for selection for and appointment to local court’s judicial office and to formulate the relevant practical recommendations.

The stages within the procedure for selection for and appointment to judicial office are different in their nature and significance. Without some of them the selection is impossible to imagine, other stages are introduced into the procedure for selection for and appointment to judicial office to comply with constitutional requirements. But there are doubts about the validity of the introduction of several stages into the procedure for selection.

Candidates for judicial office take two examinations: the selection examination and the qualification examination. Between these examinations candidates receive also a long-time special training. This approach turns the procedure for appointment to judicial office into obtaining another legal education.

Both examinations are a verification of the same person’s knowledge and the knowledge that are verify may be the same. This knowledge was acquired by the candidate for judicial office not necessarily during the special training; maybe the candidate had acquired it during the studying at a higher education institution or during professional activity in the field of law, or during self-training.

Despite the level of knowledge of candidate for judicial office established by the selection examination the state as if distrusting the person requires that the candidate studies further namely receives special training. But the person may have an academic degree in the field of law and long-time academic experience, may have professional experience as a lawyer during long time and these concrete achievements of the candidate indicate the level of his/her knowledge, and under certain conditions such person can participate in a competition to judicial office in an appellate court, a high specialized court or the Supreme Court.  Despite this the law does not provide for any simplifications of the procedure for appointment to local court’s judicial office for such candidates.

For candidates who have at least three years of experience as judicial assistants the selection shall be carried out with the special provisions determined by a decision of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine [HQCJ of Ukraine]. Such legal regulation puts candidates for judicial office in unequal conditions.

It is expedient to improve the procedure for selection for and appointment to judicial office by abolishing the selection examination and special training and establishing the same rules for participation in the selection for all candidates regardless of the kind of their professional experience in the field of law.

Bibliography

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