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Eugen SIDOROV,

Judge, the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv

OlenaPOLEHENKA,

lecturer of the department of training and advanced training of military prosecutors of the National Academy of the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine

MILITARY COURT: INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS OF JUSTICE AND STAFFING

The article analyzes the international standards of justice to be met by newly created military courts, examines the number of military judges necessary for the effective administration of justice in military courts of first instance and appellate military courts, and also analyzes the detailed jurisdiction of military courts introduced in accordance with international standards.

It has been established that by restoring military courts, the legislator must adhere to the following international principles of justice: the principle of activity on the basis of the law, which means the creation of military courts only on the basis of the law and provision in it a provision according to which military courts can not go beyond the scope of their activities this law powers, the principles of impartiality and independence, which provides for the appointment of judges of military courts with the participation of representative bodies (the High Council of Justice) for the term of father to ensure their independence. Also, military judges should have sufficient guarantees of their independence from any pressure, that is, to be withdrawn from the command of the military command.

Taking into account international standards of justice, and the provisions of the current Code of Criminal Procedure, we have investigated that the jurisdiction of military courts should transfer cases concerning war crimes and crimes committed by servicemen, military and reservists of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations, as well as crimes committed by mobilized persons during the period of military duties. In addition, they came to the conclusion that the jurisdiction of the military courts also need to transfer the examination of applications and petitions during the pre-trial investigation of criminal proceedings subordinate to these courts, as well as cases of administrative offenses concerning servicemen.

It is revealed that today there is no open statistics on crimes and administrative offenses committed by servicemen, however, given the specifics of military service, it can be argued that the bulk of crimes that may be committed by this category of persons are war crimes.

Analyzed the Single Criminal Law Reports, published on the official web site of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, for 10 months of 2017, when the authorities of the military prosecutor’s office handed 13084 criminal proceedings, in 2016 there were 11520 such criminal proceedings (for comparison in 2013 In the year 224 criminal proceedings against the crimes of this category were handed over to the court).

At the same time, it was decided that, in addition to criminal proceedings in essence, judges of the military court should also consider other categories of cases. It was found that the optimal solution for a judge of a military court was the division of working time between the consideration of criminal proceedings in substance and the consideration of other categories of cases in the ratio 2 to 3.

Taking into account the number of cases concerning war crimes, as well as our view on the jurisdiction of the military courts, found that 98 military judges in first-tier military courts and 31 judges in appellate military courts would be necessary and sufficient to ensure the effective operation of military courts.

Key words: international standards of justice, military court, jurisdiction, military judges, legality, independence.

References

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