The Committee on Legal Policy recommended adopting the bill in the first reading 12331-2 on amendments to the final provisions of the law on the judicial system regarding the general term of a judge's business trip.
It is proposed to provide for a temporary rule that the restrictions on the total duration of a judge's business trip, provided for in paragraph 2 of part 2 of Article 55 of the Law "On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges", do not apply:
- regarding seconded judges of courts of appeal – until the day of completion by the High Qualification Commission of Judges of the competition for filling vacant positions of judges of courts of appeal, announced by the decision of the HQCJ dated September 14, 2023;
- regarding seconded judges of local courts - during the selection for the position of a local court judge, announced by the decision of the HQCJ dated December 11, 2024 No. 366/zp-24, and six months from the date of its completion.
As of January 29, 2025, according to the HQCJ, the total number of seconded judges is 446, of which 350 judges were seconded by the decision of the then Chairman of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Knyazev without specifying the end date of the secondment, and 96 judges - with an established date of secondment. At the same time, as the HQCJ notes, the Chairman of the Supreme Court at one time seconded 217 judges to courts whose workload does not exceed the average level.
The Ministry of Finance did not support this bill.
As the Ministry of Finance notes in its conclusion, a judge's business trip to another court is accompanied by corresponding expenses: daily expenses (300 UAH) and expenses for renting a living space (up to 900 UAH per day). Therefore, business trip expenses per judge per year can amount to almost 438 thousand UAH.
According to the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, since the beginning of martial law, 412 judges have been temporarily seconded to other courts of the same level and specialization. Therefore, the total expenses for paying for travel of such judges per year may amount to 180,5 million hryvnias. Thus, the abolition of the limitation on the total period of a judge's travel to another court will require additional expenses from the State Budget for the relevant year for travel expenses.
In turn, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets notes in his opinion that if the proposed amendments are adopted, there is a fear that individual judges may be seconded repeatedly. At the same time, the understanding of the bill does not imply the need to obtain the judge's consent to another extension of the term of such a secondment.
"I believe that filling vacancies in courts by sending a judge is a temporary solution to the issue. The lack of a sufficient number of judges should be resolved through competitive selection of judicial personnel.", he noted.
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