“The Constitutional Court of Ukraine will lose its quorum on January 27 due to the end of the term of office of three judges and will not be able to hold meetings of the Grand Chamber of the Court and the Second Senate. Source: Head of the Communications Department of the Constitutional Court and International Cooperation Maryana Gaiovska-Kovbasiuk in a comment to “Ukrainian Pravda” Details: On January 27, 2025, judges of the Constitutional Court Viktor Krivenko, Volodymyr Moysyk and Viktor Kolisnyk will complete their nine-year term of office position in accordance with Article 149-1 of the Constitution of Ukraine.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine will lose its quorum on January 27 due to the end of the term of office of three judges and will not be able to hold meetings of the Grand Chamber of the Court and the Second Senate.
Source: the head of the communications department of the Constitutional Court and international cooperation Maryana Gaiovska-Kovbasyuk in a comment to “Ukrainian Pravda”
Details: On January 27, 2025, the nine-year term of office of judges of the Supreme Court Viktor Krivenko, Volodymyr Moysyk and Viktor Kolisnyk will end in accordance with Article 149-1 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
For the Constitutional Court, the termination of the powers of three judges at once will, of course, have negative consequences, given that the court has not been working with the full constitutional composition for a long time, namely 18 judges, the spokeswoman of the Constitutional Court notes.
As you know, there are currently 14 judges working in the Constitutional Court, 4 vacancies remain unfilled: one according to the quota of the congress of judges (from September 18, 2019), two according to the quota of the Verkhovna Rada (from December 8, 2022) and one more – according to the quota of the president ( from May 30, 2024). On January 27, only 11 judges will remain. This is not enough for the work of the Grand Chamber (the law requires the presence of 12 judges in order to have a quorum and the sessions to be valid).
In addition, the Second Senate of the court currently also works with the minimum (authorized) composition of that specified in the law. If the number of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is less than 18, the senate is authoritative provided that at least 6 judges participate in it. At present, the Second Senate of the Constitutional Court works with 6 judges out of 9. Since judge Volodymyr Moysyk is a member of the Second Senate, from January 27, only 5 judges will temporarily remain in this senate.
When asked when the vacant positions of judges are planned to be filled, i.e., the additional complexification of the KSU, Hayovska-Kovbasiuk noted that the competitive selection for vacant positions of judges of the Constitutional Court is currently underway according to the quotas of the President and the Verkhovna Rada.
Direct speech: “The advisory group of experts, which in accordance with the law “On the Constitutional Court of Ukraine” assists the subjects of the appointment of judges of the Constitutional Court in assessing the moral qualities and level of competence in the field of law of candidates for the position of judge of the Constitutional Court, works intensively to ensure that the period of temporary incapacity of the work of the Grand Chamber CS was minimal.
These days, the Advisory Group of Experts conducts daily interviews with these candidates. Everyone can also watch how this process is going in real time on the information resources of the DGE and the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
I would like to note that even under these conditions, the bodies of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (colleges and senate) will continue to work in the same way as the secretariat of the Constitutional Court.”
What preceded: Ukrinform, citing a source, reported that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine will lose its quorum on January 27 after the simultaneous resignation of three judges.
According to the publication, on January 14, the Advisory Group began conducting interviews with candidates for 5 positions of judges of the Constitutional Court – 2 positions from the parliament and 3 from the president. The DGE plans to finish the interviews with the candidates by January 22 and make a decision after that regarding their compliance with the criterion of moral qualities.
In the future, based on the results of the evaluation of the moral qualities and professional competence of the candidates, the DGE will hand over the rating lists of the candidates to the subjects of appointment – the Supreme Court, the president and the congress of judges for final decisions.
As a result, the DGE plans to finish evaluating this group of parliamentary and presidential candidates in the second half of February, the news agency noted.
For reference: A judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is appointed for a period of nine years without the right to be re-appointed and acquires powers from the day he takes the oath at a special plenary session of the court.
In January 2016, Viktor Kolisnyk and Volodymyr Moysyk were appointed judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine by the President of Ukraine and were sworn in on January 27 of the same year. In November 2015, Viktor Kryvenko was appointed a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine by the XIII Congress of Judges of Ukraine, and he also took the oath on January 27, 2016.