Chief Justice urges focus on developing judiciary instead of launching new reform

Discussions about a new judicial reform are misguided; instead, efforts should focus on developing the judicial system in specific areas.

This opinion was expressed by Stanislav Kravchenko, President of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, in an interview with Ukrinform.

“I have indeed been critical of certain stages of the reform that has taken place, and I believe not only I, but society as a whole, has the right to do so,” Kravchenko said.

According to him, the key priorities remain staffing of the courts, the quality of legislation, and guarantees of judicial independence.

“First and foremost, it is staffing, because it is essential,” he stressed, noting that for a long time no judicial appointments were made, particularly to appellate courts. For example, no judges were appointed to an appellate court for 11 years. The first appointment took place only in December last year.

The President of the Supreme Court also pointed out that the content of court rulings is often determined by legislation. “Court decisions are very often criticized without considering that the court simply directly quotes a provision of the law,” he emphasized.

Kravchenko separately highlighted the importance of judicial independence: “This is a crucial point – without an independent judiciary, there is no democracy.”

At the same time, he noted that public perception of the judicial system does not always reflect citizens’ real experiences. “More than 70% of citizens surveyed across Ukraine upon leaving court hearings described the decision in their case as lawful and well-founded,” he said. Despite this, the overall level of trust in the courts remains significantly lower – only about 30% express trust.

According to the Kravchenko, this discrepancy is explained by the influence of the information environment. “When a person is in a negative information environment, even after receiving a positive and fair decision, they may believe they were simply lucky,” he explained.

As previously reported, Kravchenko earlier outlined five key steps to improve the justice system in Ukraine.