The Selection Commission of the HQCJ has elected the headship and approved the terms of the competition

At the first public meeting, which took place on January 21, the Selection Commission of the HQCJ elected the Head and the Deputy Head of the Commission, as well as approved the documents for the start of work and requirements for future candidates.

Thus, the international expert Ted Zazhechny was approved as the Head of the Selection Commission.

Ted Zazhechny is a retired judge of the Court of the Queen’s Bench for Saskatchewan (Canada). He has experience as a lawyer specializing in private and public law.
He was previously the director of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Superior Courts Judges Association, which consists of 1,300 members.
Ted Zazhechny has extensive experience in Ukraine: he participated in the process of vetting and appointment of judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine.

Ivan Mishchenko, a judge of the Commercial Court of Cassation within the Supreme Court, became the Deputy Head of the Selection Commission.

In addition to the headship, the Selection Commission approved the RoPs, the Regulations on the competition, the Methodology for assessing the compliance of candidates with the criteria of integrity and professional competence, the announcement of the first competition to the HQCJ and a number of other documents. All of them will be made public on Monday, January 24.

According to the announcement, candidates for the HQCJ can send their documents to the Commission between February 4 and March 4.

“The formation of a new HQCJ is a no less important component of judicial reform than the reform of the HCJ. After all, it is the new HQCJ that will select more than 2,000 new judges and complete the qualification assessment of the current ones. The composition of the Selection Commission, namely the participation of international experts, gives reason to believe that the competition will be fair and transparent. That is why it is important now that decent candidates take part in the competition. That is why we call on all lawyers who care about the success of judicial reform and believe in an independent Ukrainian court to submit their candidacies.”

– emphasized Stepan Berko, Advocacy Manager of the DEJURE Foundation.

The Selection Commission for selection of members of the HQCJ consists of six persons: three are delegated by the international organizations, three are delegated by the Council of judges. It includes retired Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court Stephen Markman, judge of the Disciplinary Court of Appeal of the Dutch Bar association Robert Broekhuijsen, retired judge of the Court of the Queen’s Bench for Saskatchewan Ted Zazhechny, judge of the Kyiv Court of Appeal Serhiy Verlanov, judge of the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal Yevhen Mezentsev, judge of the Commercial Court of Cassation within the Supreme Court Ivan Mishchenko.

You can find out more about the members of the Selection Commission delegated by the Ukrainian Council of Judges here.