Verkhovna Rada supported in first reading draft laws on establishment of jury trial in Ukraine
The Verkhovna Rada has adopted as a basis two bills on the establishment of a jury trial in Ukraine.
This was reported by MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, Censor.NET informs.
Thus, 232 MPs voted in favour of the draft law No. 3843 "On the Jury".
And Bill No. 3844 "On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges" was supported by 237 parliamentarians in connection with the adoption of the law "On the Jury".
"The latest judicial reform regarding the introduction of a 'jury trial' instead of people's assessors turned out to be a substitution of concepts. The institute of people's assessors, which existed in judicial proceedings on the basis of Article 124 of the Constitution of Ukraine (1996 version), was simply called the institute of jurors by the lawmakers and thus reported on the alleged implementation of constitutional provisions.
At the same time, in historically well-known European legal systems, including those that existed in our country, the people have participated and are still participating in the administration of justice in two forms - through people's representatives (our term is 'assessors'), who administer justice together with a professional judge(s), and through juries.
The institute of people's assessors, which for some reason is politically opposed to the institute of a jury, is a form of people's participation in the administration of justice and is not a vestige of the ‘Soviet’ system," the explanatory note to the draft law says.
