It has been widely accepted that in recent years the Ukrainian judicial system has failed to develop practices in line with those that would be considered standard in many Western jurisdictions. The Ukrainian judicial system’s reputation remains poor and, in general, confidence in the ability of Ukrainian courts to provide a fair and cost effective process for the resolution of disputes is low. While the Government has made some efforts to remove a number of the more negative aspects of the system, such as bribery, the progress of reform has been slow. Judicial decisions across the Ukrainian court system remain inconsistent, the motives of a significant number of judges remain questionable, there is limited public access to certain court decisions, and a number of courts are closed to the public. .
The recently adopted Law "On the Access to Court Decisions" dated June 1, 2006 and its associated regulations1 (collectively the "Access Law"), are aimed at addressing some of the issues mentioned above. They do this through the creation of a Unified Register of Court Decisions ("Register"), an electronic database in which every decision of every court in Ukraine is stored and made available to the public. It is hoped that the Access Law will encourage a greater level of transparency in the judicial process, and enable improved scrutiny of judicial decisions.
In practice, the Access Law requires that every judgment of every Ukrainian court, regardless of the court’s level, be forwarded for inclusion in the Register within 15 days from when it is made. This is a stark change, as previously only decisions of certain courts were publicly available. Approximately 665 courts will be covered by the Access Law, and an estimated seven million judgments per year should be included on the Register.
The State Judicial Administration is formally charged with administering the Register. However, it is anticipated that, in practice, the Judicial Information Center (a state-owned company) will administer the Register until the Ukrainian courts are fully computerized.2 The Access Law requires that the administrator include each decision in the Register within three days of receiving it. All personal information by which an individual might be identified (i.e. party names and addresses) must be coded and kept confidential. Only a limited number of people, such as judges and some categories of state officials, will have access to this information. The Register will be accessible 24 hours a day via the Internet on the official website of the judicial branch of government.Preliminarily, paper copies of decisions will also be kept by the courts.
The implementation and administration of the Register will be financed from the state budget. While many government officials have expressed concern that the creation of the Register is wasteful spending, others see it as a significant step forward in creating a more transparent judicial system.
Footnotes
1. Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Regulation, dated May 25, 2006.
2. No solid deadline is set; several decrees have been issued by the parliament with respect to "informatization," though implementation depends on the budget and financing to be approved by the government.
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