Legal mechanism of dismissal and termination of judge authorities: problem aspects

The article identifies the problems of the legal mechanism for the dismissal and termination of a judge’s powers, formulates directions for improving the legislation of Ukraine, which regulates the dismissal of a judge from office and the termination of his official powers. The following problems of the legal mechanism for the dismissal and termination of a judge’s powers have been identified: 1) constant changes in the legislation lead to the presence of a number of transitional provisions, differentiation of the grounds and mechanism for the termination of a judge’s legal status; 2) the unequal scope of rights and opportunities of a judge when implementing such a legal guarantee upon dismissal as a lifetime financial support for a retired judge, depending on the facts of passing a qualification assessment, being appointed to a position after September 30, 2016, and having worked as a judge for at least three years after that date, as well as the rules for calculating judicial seniority depending on the date of election to the position; 3) establishment of a judge’s non-compliance with the qualification evaluation criteria is an additional ground for the judge’s dismissal from office, which is not provided for by the Constitution of Ukraine; 4) the imperfection of the legislative changes to the list of grounds for terminating the legal status of a judge, in particular in the part of not taking into account the fact of the expiration of the five-year term of appointment of a large number of judges and the impossibility of terminating the legal status of a judge on this basis, created uncertainty in the status of employees; 5) the evaluative nature of the categories of materiality, rudeness, bias, intent in the judge’s actions leads to different perceptions of the presence or absence of grounds for dismissal as a disciplinary sanction; 6) differentiation of the statute of limitations for bringing to disciplinary responsibility depending on the time of illegal actions; 7) the absence of such grounds as the reinstatement of an employee who previously performed this work among the constitutional grounds for terminating the legal status of a judge, which makes it difficult to implement court decisions on the reinstatement of a judge; 8) the alternative of the norm on the possibility of stopping the consideration of an application for voluntary dismissal or resignation during the consideration of a complaint or application within the framework of disciplinary proceedings; 9) actual removal from the circle of persons who may be held administratively liable under Art. 172-6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, judges, in respect of whom a decision was made to dismiss them from office due to deficiencies in the legislative technique of legal regulation of the mechanism for dismissing a judge from office; 10) reflection of the widespread in society phenomena of legal nihilism, low level of legal culture and on the members of the Supreme Council of Justice as a disciplinary body in the judicial sphere; 11) attempts by the authorities to use the mechanism of dismissal of judges from political ones.