Jury courts can be established in Ukraine

In the first reading, the Verkhovna Rada voted for draft laws No. 3843 and No. 3844, which propose to create a jury court in Ukraine.

MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported this.

The authors of the draft law "On Jury Trial" claim that the document is aimed at implementing Article 124 of the Constitution of Ukraine on the direct participation of the people in the administration of justice through juries.

The draft law provides for the definition, jurisdiction, composition of the jury, and regulation of the procedure for the formation of the Jury. The document also defines the requirements for a juror, his rights and duties, etc.

A citizen over the age of 21 who permanently lives in the territory covered by the jurisdiction of the relevant court can become a juror. Officials, lawyers, notaries will not be able to become jurors. The Jury shall consist of eight members selected automatically. The jury will consist of one professional judge and a jury. The judge will not influence the juryʼs decision.

In general, it is proposed to introduce a classic jury trial in Ukraine based on the following features:

• The jury consists of the jury, which are representatives of the population permanently living within the relevant judicial district, and a professional judge who only presides over the court session.
• After the completion of the hearing of the case in the court session, the decision (verdict) in the deliberation room is adopted only by the jury without the participation of a professional judge.
• The personal composition of the Jury (the main eight and two substitutes) is formed to consider one case.
• The jury formation procedure is dominated by the defense and the prosecution, whose joint decision to admit or disqualify a candidate to the jury is binding for the judge.
• Jurors do not take an active part in clarifying the circumstances of the case (they do not ask anyone a single question), but only accept the arguments of the parties and then analyze them in the deliberation room.
• Jurors make a decision (verdict) about the guilt of a person accused by the prosecutorʼs office of committing a crime.

In the explanatory note, it is noted that additional money should be allocated from the budget for the implementation of the draft laws in order to pay the jurors. The amount of costs for the introduction of a classic jury court (calculations were made in 2020, when the document was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada) in the first and second years of the operation of such a court will be approximately 20 million hryvnias each, and starting from the third year — approximately one billion hryvnias per year.

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