Yesterday, the acceptance of documents from candidates for one vacant position of a member of the HCJ, which the Congress of Legal Scholars will appoint, ended. Now we have the final list of 16 candidates.
The Ministry of Education has scheduled the Congress of Legal Scholars for December 16 in Kyiv. As practice shows, selecting candidates for the HCJ lasts much longer than predicted, so there is a high probability that the Ethics Council will not have enough time to analyse the candidates by December 16, and another congress will be held later.
However, the decision to hold the Congress in Kyiv, where the public and the media will be able to monitor the transparency of the process better, is a positive signal. There were several problems with the previous Congress of Legal Scholars held in Poltava on August 19.
Then Dmytro Lukyanov, an associate member of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, was elected. There were reasonable doubts about his integrity.
In particular, he made decisions in conflict of interest and supported candidates of low integrity in the competition for the Constitutional Court.
In any case, DEJURE Foundation will be keeping a close eye on the Congress of Legal Scholars in December. We hope that he will be transparent and elect a decent candidate.