The DEJURE Foundation has won the case against the HCJ!

In April 2021, amendments to the Regulations on Open Data Sets came into force. The HCJ was obliged to publish a new set of “Information on the automated distribution of disciplinary complaints among members of the High Council of Justice.” The HCJ began publishing this set but included information on the distribution of complaints only for the period beginning from May 2021.

Our expert Khrystyna Burtnyk proved in court that this data set is incomplete as by publishing it, the HCJ violated the principle of “transparency by default” – it had to include information on the distribution of complaints for the entire period of its work.

On December 16, the Administrative Court of Cassation within the Supreme Court ruled in our favour in case № 9901/384/21. Now the HCJ is obliged to publish all its data on the automated distribution beginning from 2017.

This is the first time in Ukraine that a court has ruled that the administrator of data has violated the principle of disclosure. The decision is also important because it sets a positive precedent.

So far, the decision has not come into force, as the HCJ has a month to appeal. But we are ready for that!