KYIV – Ukraine’s attempt to reform its unruly judicial system reached a pivotal point on September 13 when the body that disciplines judges failed to appoint three of its own members to a corresponding ethics committee that is supposed to vet members of the High Council of Justice (HCJ).
The body, which mainly hires and fires judges, didn’t appoint three judges to the committee who were to be joined by three international experts that were chosen on September 10 jointly by a delegation of officials from the U.S., the European Union, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Council of Europe, the U.N. Development Program and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.