The Ukrainian Court System

The Ukrainian court system, unlike its economic system, has seen little
restructuring since Ukraine achieved independence in 1991. Just prior to
independence, the court system was redefined, it remains for the most part structured
as it was under the Soviet Union, with the centrally important difference that all
authority now lies in Kyiv. The Verkhovna Rada has put a review of Ukraine’s
Criminal Code and Civil Code on its 1997 agenda.
Today Ukraine’s jurisprudence system is organized into 3 major court systems: the
Constitutional Court, which is responsible for issues involving the Constitution; the
General Court of Competence (the Court of General Jurisdiction), which deals with
civil and criminal matters, and at the top of which stands the Supreme Court of
Ukraine; and the Court of Specialization (commonly known as the arbitration court
(after 21.06.2001 – commercial court)), which basically handles contractual conflicts
and is overseen by the High Court of Arbitration.
The Court of General Jurisdiction (General Court).The Court of General
Jurisdiction (General Court), at the top of which stands the Supreme Court, handles
criminal, civil and administrative matters in Ukraine. It consists of more than 800
raion (city and district) courts and 27 oblast courts (which include separate courts for
Kyiv and for Sevastopol). Although Ukraine’s VerkhovnaRada has passed many laws
on judicial reform, few have been implemented, particularly with regard to the
General Court.
Ukraine’s General Court now will give criminals accused of major crimes the
choice of a jury trial by a judicial tribunal. The jury system will be modeled after the
French system. A judge will preside over the trial with 6 jurors present. The judge
and the jurors will then render judgment after discussion of the case and a simple
majority vote behind closed doors. In the future the General Court also will accept
guilty pleas by the defendant.
However, the courts will not be allowed to accept plea bargains, as it is widely
done in the United States, where the defense counsel, on behalf of the defendant, can
make deals to plead guilty to lessen offenses to get lenient sentences.
Today the Supreme Court consists of the civil, criminal and military collegiums.
Each collegium of the Supreme Court has judges who specialize in the area of the
law. The civil collegium has 30 members, the criminal 43 and the military 10. In all,
the Supreme Court consists of 85 judges, all of whom are members of the Supreme
Court Plenary Assembly.
The Plenary Assembly is the highest judicial ruling body in the land on civil,
criminal and military law. It reviews only those cases handed up from the collegium,
and decisions are made by a majority vote after debate by the full body. Cases that
are to be handled by the Plenary Assembly are first re-investigated and considered by
two or three judges assigned to investigate the matter by the chairman. Collegiums
receive cases from the oblast courts after recommendation for review by either the
Procurator General’s Office or the chairman of the Supreme Court.
The Court that handles the brunt of civil and criminal complaints is the raion court.
Raion courts are found in all administrative centers of Ukraine. Judges are
responsible for their own dockets, which are assigned by a geographic division of the
raion among the judges. Judges hear civil, administrative and most criminal cases.
 A criminal matter comes before a judge after it has been investigated by the
Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Procurator’s Office must be present at a trial. The
defendant has the option of having defense counsel, which occurs in about half the
cases.
There are cases when defense counsel is mandatory and assigned by the court:
when the accused is underage; or does not understand the language; or has a
disability; or if one of the defendants has already obtained legal counsel.
When serious criminal charges (where a sentence of 10 years or more could be
handed out) are leveled at a defendant, he is tried by the oblast court and assigned
defense counsel. Currently the defendant is still tried by a three judge tribunal and
two people’s assessors, although soon the option of a jury will be available.
The raion courts handle civil matters, with certain exceptions, including inter-
confessional religious disagreements, which fall under the jurisdiction of the oblast
court.
Generally lawyers need not be present at civil affairs and judges encourage that
issues be settled out of court. Courts hold consultation hours when the public is
allowed access to judges to confer and consult on civil issues. Although a judge is not
allowed to give his opinion of the outcome of a case, he can review documents and
give procedural advice.
The raion court handles administrative complaints also. These are lesser legal
matters in which there is no harm done to another person: prostitution, public
drunkenness, minor hooliganism, unruly behavior, etc.
Parties in criminal and civil matters have the ability to file appeals on judgment
rendered by the raion courts to the oblast court. In civil matters, the appealing party
has 7 days to submit all relevant documents; in criminal matters 10 days are allowed.
The oblast court’s responsibility is to review matters on appeal from the raion
courts for their legal and procedural soundness. Oblast judges can abandon the
verdict of the lower court and return the case for retrial, they can uphold the verdict,
or they can change the verdict. The court cannot, however, hand out a harsher ruling.
Decisions are not often changed (there have to be unusual circumstances). The oblast
court hears criminal complaints of the first instance in serious crimes as well, which
includes murder, burglary, rape and treason, among other charges. Decisions by
oblast judges are subject to review by an oblast court oversight review board. The
Oblast Procurator’s Office or the chairman of the oblast court can ask that a matter
goes to the board for review, which puts much authority in the hands of the two
bodies.
The Supreme Court is considering a change in the appeals process away from the
system of cassation to give oblast level judges the ability to do more than simply
review procedural and legal matters. Cases reach the Supreme Court only on
recommendation of either the Procurator General’s Office or the chairman of the
Supreme Court.
The Arbitration Court.The arbitration court of Ukraine is a court of contracts. Its
function is to settle disputes between parties over disagreements on contractual
responsibilities, payment of debts for products, services or properties. It consists of
25 oblast arbitration courts, and separate courts of the Crimea, and the cities of
Sevastopol and Kyiv. Under them fall municipal courts (both city and raion). All
answer to the High Court of Arbitration. The system involves 1,057 arbitration
judges.
The court is an independent body responsible for reviewing and settling contractual
disputes among legal entities, government bodies and other official organs.
Essentially, its job is to determine whether terms exist for breaking the contract and
what are they; to decide whether a contract exists and what are the promises offered
by the parties. In an arbitration proceeding the court does not dole out punishment, it
upholds the remedy offered by the winning party.
The court also rules on disputes between government administrative bodies and
legal individuals. An oblast or raion arbitration courts may issue a decree that a legal
individual, whether a business or a person, believes is contrary to or not in
compliance with a law of Ukraine. The issue can be brought before an arbitration
judge to settle the matter.
Not every one has access to the arbitration court. The court will only review
applications by legal persons that is, entities that have a registered status as such with
the Ukrainian government. They can be individuals, organizations, business or
government administrative bodies. They must fulfill government requirements as
specified by the laws of Ukraine and must report their dealing in Ukraine, which
includes financial reports, on a regular basis. If one of the parties to a dispute is not a
registered legal person, the matter can be referred only to the Court of General
Competence, which handles criminal and civil matters.
The judges are guided by two laws in handing down their decision: the law on
arbitration courts and the law on procedure of the arbitration process. The former
defines the responsibility of the judge and the court; the latter explains the procedures
for resolving disputes.
The decision can be appealed to the High Court of Arbitration, whose presidium is
the highest court in the arbitration system, but suits are rarely accepted unless they
involve unusual circumstances or government interests.