The lawyer is a necessary tool for the administration of justice, and the bill No. 9055 is discriminatory and threatens the freedom of the lawyer’s profession. The opinion was expressed by the leader of the European Party of Ukraine Mykola Katerynchuk on March 13 at a meeting with the Council of Advocates of Mykolaiv region.
During the discussion, the attorneys expressed outrage over the Presidential Bill “On Advocacy” (No. 9055), and called all the so-called “consultations” initiated by the Presidential Administration about this bill meaningless and purely formal. The bill violates the rights of attorneys, binds them in hands and feet, limits their powers. In response to questions about whether there are mechanisms to block the above-mentioned bill, Mykola Katerynchuk assured the lawyers that Anatoliy Hrytsenko, as President, would be able to veto this law and he would have the right of legislative initiative and would be ready to respond adequately to any legislative spam.
They also discussed the “destructive” judicial reform conducted by the current government and the proposals for presidential candidates to reform the judiciary, outlined in the electoral programs.
“It is now very popular to write in programs about the election of judges, referring to US experience. Anatoly Grytsenko proposes to reform the judicial system, first of all, by strengthening the responsibility of the judge for bribery – life imprisonment with confiscation of property”, Katerynchuk said.
It is also important to strike a balance between responsibility and the encouragement of judges. In this regard, Mykola Katerynchuk shared his own experience of writing a law on the status of judges for Georgia during the presidency of Mikhail Saakashvili. “We found a balance between whip and gingerbread. On the one hand, we offered the young judge a loan of $250,000, for which he could buy a house, a car, etc., and a salary of $ 2,000. And on the other, strict liability in the form of life imprisonment and confiscation of property. It is important that after the perfect service of the law – the loan for a judge is repaid by the state”, Katerynchuk said.
Mykola Katerynchuk is convinced that under such conditions it is possible to purify the judicial system from unscrupulous judges and end the oligarchic system by creating objective judiciary, when the lawyer’s legal talent, oratorical art, professionalism, knowledge of the laws will be decisive.
Press-service
European Party of Ukraine