Draft

Introduction of misdemeanors

The Draft Act On Changes to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine concerning Introduction of Misdemeanors of 19 May 2015, No.2897 has been submitted by a group of Ukrainian MPs.

The Draft proposes the following:

1) to continue humanization of criminal law by transforming separate minor offences into misdemeanors;

2) to ensure persons accused in criminal offences all procedural rights and guarantees of  criminal proceeding, which they are currently deprived of in administrative offense proceedings. On the other hand, pretrial detention is not applied to persons committed in criminal offences; 

3) to halt misuse of administrative proceedings’ results upon investigating criminal cases (decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Doronin vs. Ukraine). Currently, in administrative offences proceedings it is possible to apply a great number of measures of interference (detention of a person, inspection, seizure of things and documents, etc.) without proper judicial control. According to such actions important evidence for criminal proceedings can be acquired. The introduction of misdemeanors will substantially reduce the number of interference measures in administrative proceedings;

4) to guarantee protection of human rights in criminal cases (seizure of property, corrective labor, short-term arrest, etc.) based on Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Any other state agency, other than a court, has no right to adopt such decisions with regard to a person;

5) to implement requirements of the Constitution of Ukraine (Article 41) as to the seizure of property only via a court ruling;

6) mandatory compliance of Ukrainian international obligations. A great number of international agreements require establishment of criminal responsibility for actions which may not be qualified as crimes. Existence of the only type of criminal acts (crimes) makes the legislator recognize such unlawful acts only as crimes, although many of them have to be recognized exactly as misdemeanors.

Reform of the judicial branch

The Draft Act On Changes to Some Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Initiating Proper Reform of the Judicial Branch of 21 May 2015, No.2932, was submitted by Ukrainian MP Serhiy Vlasenko.

The Draft introduces changes to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, the Civil Procedure Code, the Commercial Procedure Code, Administrative Procedure Code, the Code of Administrative Offences and Judicial System and Status of Judges Act of Ukraine. The general approach involves introducing minimal textual changes, necessary for the implementation of the principle of unity of jurisprudence and its obligation for courts of all jurisdictions, introducing the concept “legal position of the Supreme Court of Ukraine (SCU)”.

The proposed changes include the following:

— introduction of the concept “legal position of the SCU”;

— loss by courts of the right of deviation from the legal position of the SCU;

— fixed obligatory use of the legal position of the SCU, as set out in its resolutions;

— inconsistence of a court decision to the legal position of the SCU is included in the list of the court decision’s appeal;

— introducing a special procedure for review of SCU cases, that possess several legal positions in similar cases and for making decisions in such cases;

— providing extended periods for appealing to the Supreme Court of Ukraine of decisions with regard to their inconsistency with the SCU’s legal position.

The main objective of the Draft centres around courts of all instances using the SCU’s legal positions and establishing a single court practice.

State energy and utilities regulation

The Draft Act On the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission of 28 May 2015, No.2966, has been submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

The Draft possesses implementation of measures identified by the key event of the 8 Strategic and Institutional Reform Program (Matrix) as part of the Second Program Loan for the Policy Development, determination of state regulation legal principles in the energy sector and principles of NERC, which aim is to ensure effective state influence on natural monopolies and economic entities conducting activities in the energy market and establishing a clear framework for their activities. 

The Draft suggests creating the conditions for the work of state regulation on the activity of natural monopolies in the energy sector through resolutions adopted by the NERC, which will prevent sharp fluctuations in economic environment of the entities regulated by the NERC, making such activities more predictable for a long period of time.

The Draft proposes defining the procedure of formation, legal status and organization of the Commission’s activities as a state collegial body, as well as clear scope of the remit of the NERC and the powers necessary for it to fulfill its tasks.