The second selection to the High Anti-Corruption Court is underway in Ukraine. This is a positive signal because strengthening the HACC is part of the recommendations of the European Commission’s Report on our progress in European integration, the Ukraine Facility 2024-2027 Plan, and the State Anti-Corruption Program 2023-2025.

Why does Ukraine need the HACC? The HACC deals with criminal proceedings related to corruption offenses. Its creation is one of the most successful reforms in Ukraine. Transparency International notes that during its work, the HACC has demonstrated high efficiency and has largely met public expectations regarding the transparency of its work and the integrity of judges. 

But over the years, the number of cases has been growing, while the court’s staff remains the same. This poses a threat that those accused of corruption will increasingly escape punishment because the time limit for bringing them to justice will simply expire.

That is why, on September 26, 2023, the High Council of Justice decided to increase the number of judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court to 63 positions (previously 39), including 21 positions of judges of the Appeals Chamber (previously 12). On March 1, 2024, the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ) announced the start of accepting documents for the selection of 25 judges to the HACC.

The collection of documents from judicial candidates lasted throughout the month, and on March 15, the HQCJ extended the deadline for submitting documents, as only 56 lawyers submitted the relevant documents in the first two weeks of March. After the deadline was extended, 238 candidates expressed their desire to join the competition. At the end of March 2024, international organizations (the European Union, the European Anti-Fraud Office, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) submitted to the Commission their list of candidates for the Public Council of International Experts (PCIE).

The Center of Policy and Legal Reform has analyzed the second selection of judges to the HACC – here are the key points. The full analysis is available here. 

The start of the second selection of HACC judges is a positive signal in light of Ukraine’s implementation of the recommendations set out in the European Commission’s Report on Ukraine’s Progress towards European Integration (dated 08.11.2023), the Ukraine Facility 2024-2027 Plan (approved by the Government of Ukraine on 18.03.2024), and the State Anti-Corruption Program for 2023-2025. These documents envisage both strengthening the legal status and role of the HACC in combating corruption and “increasing its ability to handle a larger workload without delays and improving the HACC’s performance in handling corruption cases involving high-level officials.”

According to the CPLR experts, achieving these objectives will facilitate Ukraine’s full integration into the EU legal space and increase the level of trust in the judiciary on the part of citizens and international partners. 

At the same time, the risks of holding the second competition to the HACC are both in the short timeframe of this competition and the high current workload of the HQCJ, as well as in the level of compliance of those candidates who have agreed to participate in it with the high requirements for the professional and moral qualities of potential judges.

The new competition for the positions of HACC judges requires updating the test base for the qualification exam for judicial candidates and standards for assessing their personal moral and psychological qualities. Given the enormous workload of the HQCJ, which is currently completing the qualification assessment of general court judges and simultaneously conducting several large-scale competition procedures, timely conduct of the competition to the HACC is a serious challenge for the HQCJ members. 

The success of the competition for HACC judges and the HQCJ’s ability to fill all open vacancies also depends on the level of professional competence and integrity of the candidates who have applied for the positions. The presence of 10 candidates for the first instance position of the HACC and more than 8 candidates for one vacant position in the Appeals Chamber creates an appropriate level of competition and provides the HQCJ with ample opportunities to select the best lawyers. This ratio of persons who applied to participate in the competition to the number of vacant positions is even slightly higher (in particular, in the first instance) than it was during the first competition to the HACC. 

However, whether it will be possible to fill all vacant positions depends on the “effectiveness” of individual stages of the competition. For example, during the first competition to the HACC, 20% of candidates were eliminated at the stage of admission. 

The stage of verification of candidates for HACC judges against the criteria of integrity (morality, honesty, integrity) is no less important, as the first PCIE set high standards for future judges to comply with these criteria, which fully meets the HACC’s tasks in the judicial system. Thus, out of 113 candidates who were admitted to this stage of the first competition to the HACC, 39 candidates were disqualified from participation in the special joint meetings of the HQCJ and the PCIE.

It should be noted that 11 current HACC judges (as first-instance judges) also expressed a desire to participate in the competition to the Appeals Chamber. Their victory in the competition will lead to new vacancies in the HACC and may temporarily negatively affect the work of the HACC as a court of first instance.