Stages of Qualifications Evaluation

1. Qualifications evaluation consists of the following stages:

1) taking examination; and

2) review of the judicial dossier and interview.

Decision on the sequence of the stages of qualifications evaluation is approved by the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine.

2. The examination is the primary means to determine the compliance of a judge (judicial candidate) with the criterion of professional competence and shall be conducted by way of sitting for a written anonymous test and doing a case study\practical task to identify the level of knowledge and practical skills in application of law, and ability to administer justice in a relevant court with relevant specialization.

The procedure of administering examination and methodology of determining its results shall be approved by the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine.

Test items and case study\practical tasks for the examination shall be developed taking into account the principles of instance hierarchy and specialization.

The High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine shall ensure the transparency of the examination. Any interested persons may be present at any stage of the examination and in the course of evaluation of the results.

3. For the purposes of compiling a judicial dossier (dossier of judicial candidate) the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine may adopt a decision on introducing and conducting other tests in order to check personal moral and psychological qualities, general abilities and on using other means to identify the compliance of a judge (judicial candidate) with the criteria of qualifications evaluation.

Decision of the Commission on introducing and conducting other tests may not be made with regard to an individual judge or a group of judges.

4. A dossier of a judge must contain the following:

1) copies of all applications\statements of the judge related to his/her carrier and any documents attached thereto;

2) copies of all decisions regarding the judge adopted by the High Qualifications Commission of Judges, High Council of Justice [new], High Council of Justice [old], judicial self-government bodies, President of Ukraine, or other bodies which made relevant decisions;

3) information about the judge’s participation in competitions for filling any vacant judge’s positions;

4) information about the results of initial training of candidate judges or judge’s on-going training at the National School of Judges of Ukraine while holding the office;

5) information about the results of qualification evaluation of the judge and regular evaluation of the judge during his/her term in the office;

6) information about teaching/ lecturing activity;

7) information about any administrative positions held by the judge, including copies of relevant decisions;

8) information about the judge’s election (appointment) to bodies of judicial self-governance, High Qualifications Commission of Judges, High Council of Justice [new], and High Council of Justice [old];

9) information about the efficiency of the justice administration by the judge, in particular:

a) total number of cases considered;

b) number of cancelled court decisions and the reasons for their cancellation;

c) number of decisions that gave grounds for issuance of decisions by international judicial institutions and other international organizations that established violation by Ukraine of its international legal obligations;

d) number of modified court decisions and reasons for their modification;

e) observance of time limits for consideration of cases;

f) average duration of the preparation of the text of substantiated decision;

g) judicial workload compared with other judges in the respective court and region, with account to the instance hierarchy, specialization of the court and specialization of the judge;

10) information about the disciplinary responsibility of the judge, in particular:

a) number of complaints against judge’s actions;

b) number of disciplinary proceedings and their results;

11) information about the judge's compliance with the rules of professional ethics:

a) whether the expenditures and property of the judge and members of his/her family, as well as any affiliated persons correspond to the declared income, including copies of relevant declarations submitted by the judge under the anti-corruption laws;

b) other information related to judge’s compliance with the requirements of anti-corruption laws;

c) information stating whether the judge's behavior is in line with the judicial ethics rules;

12) information on the compliance of a judge with the criterion of integrity, in particular whether the expenditures and property of the judge and members of his/her family correspond to the declared income, including copies of relevant declarations submitted by the judge under this Law and anti-corruption legislation; 13) declaration of family relations of a judge and declaration of judicial

integrity;

14) results of tests regarding the compliance of a judge with the criteria of qualifications evaluation (if it was conducted);

15) results of applying other means of establishing the compliance of a judge with the criteria of qualifications evaluation (if they were applied);

16) opinion of the Public Council for Integrity (if any); and

17) other information and data based on which the compliance of a judge with criteria of qualifications evaluation may be established and any other information regarding the judge which is deemed by decisions of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine as such which is subject to including into judicial dossier.

5. The dossier of judicial candidate must contain:

1) documents submitted by judicial candidate in line with part four of Article 81 of this Law;

2) information on the compliance of judicial candidate with the criterion of professional ethics;

3) materials of the background check and other information on the compliance of judicial candidate with the criterion of integrity, in particular, whether the expenditures and property of the judge and members of his/her family correspond to the declared income, including copies of relevant declarations submitted by the judge under this Law and anti-corruption legislation; and

4) other information and materials set forth in points 6, 13-17 of part four of this Article.

6. Judicial dossier (dossier of judicial candidate) shall be created and maintained in an automated system. Originals of certain documents may be additionally stored in hard copies upon the decision of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine.

Judicial dossier (dossier of judicial candidate) shall be created and maintained under the procedure established by the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine upon consultation with the Council of Judges of Ukraine.

7. Judicial dossier (dossier of judicial candidate) shall be accessible for the public on the official website of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine, with the exception of:

1) information about place of residence or stay, date of birth of physical persons, their addresses, telephone numbers or other means of communication, e-mails, registration numbers of tax payers registration forms , serial numbers and numbers of passports, military service cards, location of property (except oblast, raion, settlement where the property is located), and registration numbers of vehicles;

2) information about the results of tests aimed at checking personal moral and psychological qualities of a judge (judicial candidate), general abilities of a judge (judicial candidate) and medical data;

3) any information and data on minors, except information about property, proprietary rights, assets and other objects of declaration which are in their ownership

according to the declaration of a person authorized to perform the functions of the state and local self-governance, which is submitted by a judge (judicial candidate); and

4) information which contains state secret.

Access to materials of judicial dossier (except those mentioned above in paragraph seven of this Article) as public information shall be allowed exclusively through the website of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine.

8. Members and authorized employees of secretariats of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine and High Council of Justice [new] as well as authorized employees of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine shall have full and direct access to judicial dossier (dossier of judicial candidate).

Judges (judicial candidates) shall have access to view their dossier in full.

9. The interview consists of the discussion of the results of the review of the dossier

10. Based on results of one round of qualifications evaluation of a judge, the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine shall adopt a decision on admitting a judge to another round of qualifications evaluation.