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Veto demanded on law which enables court rulings to be concealed from the public

01.11.2011   
The Association of Ukrainian Banks considers that the law runs counter to Ukraine’s Constitution, international standards, fundamental principles of court proceedings, and will have extremely negative consequences for Ukraine’s economy and society.

 

The Association of Ukrainian Banks [AUB] has addressed an open letter to President Yanukovych asking him to veto Law No. 9151 on Amendments to Some Legislative Acts on Examination of Cases by the Supreme Court. This Law, as reported, was passed by the Verkhovna Rada on 20 October. AUB is convinced that the Law runs counter to Ukraine’s Constitution, international standards, fundamental principles of court proceedings, and will have extremely negative consequences for Ukraine’s economy and society.

Law No. 9151 makes amendments to the Law on Access to Court Rulings, according to which Article 3 § 3 now reads: “The list of court rulings of general jurisdiction courts which are to be added to the Register is approved by the Council of Judges, after agreement with the State Judicial Administration.

AUB says that its analysis shows that Law No. 9151 infringes a whole range of articles of Ukraine’s Constitution, runs counter to universally accepted international standards and established international practice regarding access to information, as well as negating general principles of court proceedings and creating broad scope for corruption.

The Law effectively gives the Council of Judges and State Judicial Administration the right at their own discretion to determine which information should be made public in the Single State Register of Court Rulings and deprives citizens of free access to court rulings to which the law current up till now gave them access. In so doing, the Law flagrantly infringes Article 22 of the Constitution which states that “the content and scope of existing rights and freedoms shall not be diminished in the adoption of new laws or in the amendment of laws that are in force”.

For all the above reasons, the Association of Ukrainian Banks asks the President to use his power of veto on the Law. The letter is signed by the President of the Association, Oleksandr Suhonyako. 

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