INSTITUTE FOR THE TRANSFER OF JUDGES TO ANOTHER COURT: CURRENT ISSUES AND IMPLEMENTATION PROSPECTS

Abstract

The article considers problematic aspects of the transfer of judges to another court. It is indicated that a judge may be transferred to another court in cases of: 1) reorganization, liquidation or termination of the court in which the person holds the position of judge; 2) secondment to another court of the same level and specialization for administration of justice due to the impossibility of administration of justice in the corresponding court; 3) disciplinary action; 4) transfer to another court on the basis of competition. It is noted that today there is a potential threat of losing judicial potential due to the lack of a fair mechanism for transferring a judge to another court due to the reorganization/liquidation/ suspension of the court in which he worked. The latter is of serious importance, since today it is already possible to state a lack of personnel and applicants for vacant positions of judges of courts of various jurisdictions, which is caused both by difficulties of an organizational-management and scientific-methodical nature, and by the lack of decent material and technical support. The author concludes that the actual ways of developing the institution of transfer of judges to another court are: 1) introduction of secondment of a judge to a court of higher instance as a special form of transfer; 2) differentiation of contests for filling vacant positions by experienced judges and candidates for the position of judge; 3) making changes to the Law of Ukraine “On the Judicial System and the Status of Judges” in terms of setting out the features of the competition in the event of a judge being transferred to another court; 4) introducing amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” in terms of disciplinary sanctions for judges of higher specialized courts; 5) popularization of disciplinary sanctions in the form of transfer of a judge to a lower position.