A draft law No. 13048 has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada, which provides for the restoration of military courts. The authors of the initiative believe that the current judicial system is not always capable of promptly and professionally considering military cases, which reduces the effectiveness of justice, especially in wartime. This is stated in the explanatory note of the draft law, reports UNN.
Details
According to the explanatory note of the draft law, until 2010, Ukraine already had a system of military courts that effectively handled cases related to military crimes.
The liquidation of military courts in 2010, according to then-President of Ukraine Yanukovych, was due to the economic impracticality of maintaining them, as the reduction in the number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine significantly decreased the number of cases subject to them, as well as the desire to bring the Ukrainian justice system closer to the European one, which requires the independence of judges from military command.
In addition, it is reported that the existing judicial system is not always capable of promptly and professionally considering such categories of cases, which reduces the effectiveness of justice, and therefore it is advisable to restore the functioning of military courts.
In this regard, it is advisable for the effective functioning of the judicial system under martial law to provide for the rapid formation of military courts through a special procedure for conducting a competition that will ensure their qualified personnel without compromising the quality of justice
In particular, the purpose of the draft law is to ensure effective and prompt judicial proceedings in the military sphere, protecting the rights of servicemen by restoring the functioning of military courts, namely, including military garrison courts into the system of local general courts and regulating that the appellate courts that review judicial decisions made by military garrison courts are military appellate courts established in appellate districts.
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The draft law provides, in particular:
- to include military garrison courts in the system of local general courts;
- military garrison courts consider cases regarding military criminal offenses, violations of the rules and customs of warfare, violations of legislation on state secrets in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and military formations, administrative cases in which a serviceman or a military administration body is a party, cases of disciplinary offenses by servicemen;
- the appellate courts that review judicial decisions made by military garrison courts are military appellate courts established in appellate districts;
- a judge of a military appellate court may be a person who meets the requirements for candidates for the position of judge, has confirmed the ability to administer justice in the appellate court as a result of qualification assessment, and has at least five years of work experience as a judge specializing in criminal proceedings. The chamber for military cases of the Supreme Court of Cassation consists exclusively of judges who have at least 10 years of work experience as a judge specializing in criminal proceedings;
- judges of military garrison courts and military appellate courts are required to undergo mandatory specialized training on military law, military discipline, tactics of military operations, and the peculiarities of the functioning of military structures within one year from the moment of their appointment as judges;
- a judge is required to undergo specialized training on military law at least once every three years to maintain qualification at the National School of Judges of Ukraine; judges of military garrison courts, military appellate courts, as well as those included in the chamber for military cases of the Supreme Court of Cassation are assigned military ranks of officer corps, starting from junior lieutenant of justice;
- the peculiarities of conducting the first competition for filling vacant positions in the military garrison court and military appellate court.