The Supreme Council of Justice as a body for strengthening the independence of the judicial branch of government

Abstract

The scientific article examines and analyzes the High Council of Justice as a body for strengthening judicial independence, certain fundamental international legal standards of judicial independence are defined.
 It was determined that the legal mechanisms for the proper guarantee of judicial independence in foreign countries from the point of view of the organizational (institutional) context provide for the existence of such bodies of judicial governance, which would be empowered to form the judicial corps, dismiss judges, transfer, resolve issues of financial and material support .
 It has been established that the independence of judges has not only an external component, as it may seem at first glance. The internal organization of the judicial system, the activities of judicial governance bodies, components of selection and professional development are also vectors of this term-concept.
 It is emphasized that the Supreme Council of Justice was the primary model of the body of judicial governance in Ukraine. However, due to its limited legally defined functional purpose, as well as excessive politicization, the said body was unable to fulfill the mission assigned to it - ensuring the independence of the judicial branch of power. As a result of the judicial reform of 2016, the Supreme Council of Justice underwent thorough reformation and was modified into the Supreme Council of Justice.
 It is determined that the Supreme Council of Justice is a special body of state power, which, among other things, is called to: ensure the independence of the judicial corps; to make submissions regarding the appointment of representatives of the judicial branch of power, professionals in their field, who would possess appropriate professional competence and high moral and ethical values, including integrity; makes decisions on the suspension, dismissal, transfer, termination of resignation of judges, violation of incompatibility requirements by judges and prosecutors; regarding the disciplinary responsibility of judges - creates relevant bodies for consideration of such issues, considers complaints against their decisions, etc.
 Arguably, the Supreme Council of Justice as a body of state power and judicial governance, according to the research of domestic and foreign scientists, meets international standards of judicial governance, is a full-fledged analogue of bodies of judicial governance in foreign countries. This position is confirmed by the fact that the tasks, functions and limits of authority, as well as the peculiarities of the formation of the Supreme Council of Justice in Ukraine are mostly identical to those in the leading states of the world.