Judicial “army” is thinning: almost a third of judicial positions in Ukraine are vacant

The number of judicial positions in Ukraine is decreasing year by year. At the same time, even the number of vacancies that exist today is not being filled in time. 29.6% of judicial positions are currently vacant. Volodymyr Bogatyr, a lawyer, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine, told UNN about this based on the response of the High Qualification Commission of Judges.

"Judicial reforms in Ukraine, among other relative achievements, have one absolute indicator of effectiveness: the number of judges is steadily decreasing over the years. Although the reformers are gradually reducing the maximum number of positions, judges still do not have time to fill them!" said Bogatyr.

The largest number of judicial positions since 2012 in Ukraine was recorded in 2016 - 9148. Before that, the number of positions was somewhat lower, but did not fall below 9,000.

Starting in 2017, after the next judicial reform came into effect and the amendments to the Constitution and the new Law on the Judiciary and the Status of Judges came into force, the number of judges' positions declined. And now it is 6631 (as of October 1, 2024).

The lawyer also explained how the need for the number of judges is determined in Ukraine: the required number of judges is determined by the High Council of Justice, taking into account the advisory opinion of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, the judicial workload and within the limits of expenditures set out in the State Budget of Ukraine for the maintenance of courts and remuneration of judges.

"Based on the logic of officials, it turns out that the need for judges in Ukraine has decreased by as much as 29.1% from 2016 to 2022," Bogatyr said.

And here it is appropriate to consider the issue of the actual number of judges appointed, not just the number of positions.

"The figures provided by the HQCJ show that the actual number was at a fairly high level (over 8,000) until the change of power in Ukraine in 2014. In fact, in 2013, the number of appointed (elected) judges increased (from 8223 to 8371), but at the end of 2014, the number of judges decreased to 8062. And then there is a further decline. The lowest number of them was in 2023 - 4920 servants of Themis (as of October 1 of this year, their number has slightly increased). In general, from 2013 to 2023, the number of working judges decreased by 41.2%! In other words, people were leaving their positions (which they did not have time to fill) faster than the need was decreasing," the lawyer explains.

If you look at the numbers of vacancies, you will notice that the highest number of vacancies was in the reform year of 2016 (2774). The lowest number was in the period before the change of government in 2014 (only 700 vacancies in 2013).

Bogatyr also emphasizes the number of unfilled vacancies as a percentage of the total number of judicial positions.

"And here you can see that in the year of the judicial reform, it rose sharply to 30.3% and then they tried to keep it plus or minus at this level," the lawyer said.

As of October 1, there were 4988 judges in Ukraine, but since the HQCJ's response to the request and preparation of the material, the Commission has granted 5 resignations. This means that the current "shortage" of judges is 29.6% of the total number of positions, i.e. 2096 in absolute numbers.

According to Bogatyry, the trend that has led to the fact that almost 30% of judicial positions are currently unfilled has been influenced by politically motivated lustration and integrity checks (which should be done when judges are appointed to their positions, not with every change of government). And the long absence of a functioning judicial selection commission in the country - the HQCJ did not work from October 2019 to November 2023.

More information about the trends can be found in material - Chronicles of Judicial Selection