The Ministry of Justice Presented the Monitoring Report 2023 Produced with the Support of EU Project Pravo-Justice

On March 4, there was a presentation of the Monitoring Report on the Implementation and Analysis of the Efficiency of Adopted Legal Acts in 2023, produced by the Directorate of Justice and Criminal Justice of the Ministry of Justice with the expert and technical assistance of EU Project Pravo-Justice. Representatives of the Ministry of Justice, High Council of Justice, Supreme Court, SJA, academia, and EU Project Pravo-Justice experts participated in the event.

In his address, Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska welcomed the presentation of the Monitoring Report and noted that there are no similar documents in many other areas of reforms where Ukraine receives recommendations from international partners. He said that the main recommendations of the Report regarding criminal justice, anti-corruption policies, digitalisation, and the HACC will be implemented in practice. Moreover, Mr. Maliuska outlined a potential scope of topics that could be included in the following report.

In her turn, Oksana Tsymbrivska, Team Leader of EU Project Pravo-Justice, stressed that the Ministry of Justice has been analysing the effectiveness of legislation for six years in a row and then presents the Monitoring Report following this process.

"Our legislation must be both high-quality and effective. Monitoring is the key to ensuring it in the future," she emphasised.

Oksana Tsymbrivska also underlined that this year's monitoring report is unique.

"For the first time, we added a bit of digitalisation to this process. We have tried to make it more accessible, faster, and easier for both users - representatives of the legal community who could report a problem, and the staff of the Ministry of Justice who can more easily process the information collected and, accordingly, draw up certain proposals to solve problems," she said.

Oksana Tsymbrivska also expressed the hope that lawmakers will actively use the findings of the Monitoring. After all, according to her, any legislative amendments should be evidence-based. She informed the attendees that the scope of the monitoring will expand in the near future, particularly through analysing the application of the Law on Administrative Procedure.

Oleksandr Mamalui, Deputy President of the Supreme Court, noted the high-quality and useful work done by the Ministry team. According to him, it is necessary to conduct such monitoring to harmonise legislation. He also assured that the Supreme Court supports accelerating digitalisation of justice in Ukraine.

"People should receive justice services in their own homes. Electronic accounts are the future," emphasised Mamalui.

Nataliia Kuznetsova, Doctor of Law, Professor, and Member of the Advisory Group of Experts, mentioned the adoption of the Law on Lawmaking in the context of the Monitoring Report. According to her, it was perhaps the first time that the concept of legal monitoring and its main parameters were defined in legislation. Therefore, she quoted the definition set out in the law itself.

"What is the purpose of legal monitoring? What does 'in full' mean? Apparently, this is a chronic disease of our legislation. When a law containing blanket rules is adopted, it must promptly be supported by bylaws... When drawing up a draft law, we must be at least mentally prepared for it to start functioning tomorrow," she said.

Nataliia Kuznetsova expressed the opinion that it is necessary to work out the issue of introducing a monitoring expert review. "I think that after the monitoring reports we will present the first monitoring expert reviews," she concluded.

Serhii Orlov, Deputy Minister of Justice for Digitalisation, said that collecting data for the current Monitoring Report was fully automated for the first time. The data was collected via the Online Monitoring Platform.

"We are not complacent. We intend to further develop this platform and introduce new features by communicating with users to meet their needs in the best possible way," he emphasised.

In his turn, Yehor Razohrieiev, Director General of the Directorate of Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalisation of the Ministry of Justice, briefly described the achievements of the Online Monitoring Platform over the year, which is currently operating in test mode. According to him, there are now more than 2,000 registered users, 173 proposals received, and about 400 responses to the questionnaire. Also, citizens of Ukraine who are abroad submitted their proposals for the first time.

Furthermore, he announced the launch of Online Monitoring 2.0, which is to be presented on June 1, 2024. The upgrades include adding the sixth area as part of working on the monitoring report, tracking the status of the proposal, providing technical support, customising questionnaires, and ensuring system stability.

Oleksandr Banchuk, Deputy Minister of Justice, moderated the introductory panel discussion at the presentation of the Monitoring Report 2023. The two-day event will feature expert discussions on the effectiveness of legislation regarding judiciary, criminal justice, forensic expertise, enforcement of judgements and bankruptcy.

Text of the Monitoring Report 2023.

Presentation of the Monitoring Report 2023.