The President established a Selection Commission to select judges of the Constitutional Court

Yesterday, Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on the establishment of a SelectionCommission to select judges of the Constitutional Court under the President’s quota. Such a decision only deepens the constitutional crisis in the country.

The Presidential quota in the Constitutional Court is currently full. Apparently, President Zelensky will try to appoint judges of the Constitutional Court instead of the unconstitutionally “dismissed” Tupytsky and Kasminin.

Judges “appointed” in this way will have no legitimacy, as they will be appointed to replace unconstitutionally dismissed judges. Therefore, independent and professional candidates will refuse to participate in the competition, moreover, there may be an attempt to appoint political proteges to the position of judges of the Constitutional Court.

Due to the obvious unconstitutionality of the Zelensky decree on the dismissal of Kasminin and Tupytsky, these judges may soon be reinstated.

As a result, a situation may arise when four judges will run for two positions in the Constitutional Court: the “dismissed” Tupytsky and Kasminin and the newly “appointed” Zelensky judges. This will undermine the legitimacy of the decisions of the Constitutional Court.

The competition for the Constitutional Court will not be held by national and international experts, as advised by the Venice Commission, but by individuals nominated by the chairman of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak.

It is unknown how this Selection Commission will examine candidates and determine whether they have “high moral qualities” and whether they are “lawyers with a recognized level of competence.”

“ If the decent competition procedure provided for in the Constitution and the advice of the Venice Commission had been introduced, we would have had half of the judges of high integrity in the Constitutional Court this year. And the majority next year.
Instead, we get a deepening of the constitutional crisis and the delegitimization of a key institution of the state right at the time of the accumulation of enemy troops on the border and the direct threat of a full-fledged war,”

– explains Mykhailo Zhernakov, Chair of the Board at the DEJURE Foundation