Dmytro Razumkov jeopardizes the draft law on the reboot of the High Qualification Commission of Judges

The speaker sent the text of the draft law № 3711 to the President for signature with contradictory amendments to it. Now Volodymyr Zelensky must veto the draft law.

During the second reading of draft law 3711-д, MPs adopted two controversial amendments to it: # 453 on the casting vote of international experts in the selection of the HQCJ members and # 409 on the imitation of this process.

The Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada stipulate that such controversies can be resolved either through technical and legal amendments or through additional voting in Parliament. However, Speaker Dmytro Razumkov signed the controversial text of the draft law and sent it to the President of Ukraine for signature.

“Thus, the President was faced with a choice – to sign a draft law that will not work due to the collision (extremely bad scenario) or to veto it with a return for the second reading.

Obviously, the President, who has already communicated that he is interested in real judicial reform and the real participation of international experts, should now veto the law and return it with amendments”

– comments Mykhailo Zhernakov, Chair of the Board of the DEJURE Foundation

If the President vetoes the draft law, Verkhovna Rada will have only one plenary week to consider it within the current session. In the event of a presidential veto, the final adoption of the draft law is likely to be postponed until the fall.

At the same time, Volodymyr Zelensky may not only propose to remove the conflict between the amendments in favour of the actual involvement of international experts but also to remove another flaw according to which the unreformed High Council of Justice has a decisive influence on the final composition of the High Qualification Commission and will appoint 16 members out of 32 candidates.