With the support of EU Project Pravo-Justice, Dead Lawyers Society Is Launching a Dialogue Project "The Strongest Branch"

With the support of EU Pravo-Justice Project, Dead Lawyers Society is launching a dialogue project ‘The Strongest Branch’ – a series of video and text conversations dedicated to judicial reform. The initiative will bring together representatives of various levels of the judicial system and experts from other fields whose experience may be useful for the development of justice in Ukraine.

The project format includes video podcasts, articles, interviews, and research. Its goal is to critically rethink overly simplified ideas about the problems relating to judicial reform and, while maintaining the indepth analysis, to offer clear and understandable approaches to solving them

“DLS is somewhat concerned about the irreconcilable polarisation that has accompanied the judicial reform in recent years. If one looks closely, one can see the ‘us vs. them’ divide almost everywhere: international experts vs. national experts, activists vs. judges, scoundrels vs. honest ones, anonymous judicial media vs. classical media, in short, there is constant opposition of (good) us and (bad) them. We have a hypothesis that this format of public discussion is the reason for the excessive friction that has slowed down judicial reform so much. With this project, we want to stop being hostages of the ‘us vs. them’ dichotomy, to highlight some halftones, on the basis of which, perhaps, the participants of the judicial reform could find common ground,” says Dmytro Hadomskyi, founder of the Dead Lawyers Society.

The project provides for:

• A series of five video podcasts on the most controversial issues of the reform: competitions, judicial management, the concept of integrity, the court apparatus, and the future of the judiciary
• A series of materials with a deep dive into the details of each of these topics. In particular, what are the types of supreme courts and how lawyers become judges in other countries. In addition, several unexpected interviews are planned.
• A thorough study ‘Corruption in Courts Before and After NABU-SAPO’.
• To form a stronger evidential basis within the project, DLS team is also planning to thoroughly study EU Justice Scoreboard and look at Ukraine through the lens of the EU Rule of Law Report.

“The Dead Lawyers Society is distinguished by its creative style and ability to generate new ideas and views on important topics. Thus, we hope that this project will help to find common ground for all participants to the judicial reform, which will become the basis for the formation of a culture of constructive dialogue,” said Volodymyr Chaban, Judiciary Component Lead at Project EU Pravo-Justice.

Background.

Dead Lawyers Society is a media outlet for insides and insights of the legal profession.

EU Project Pravo-Justice is an international technical assistance project implemented by Expertise France with the financial support of the European Union.

Since the triumph of the Revolution of Dignity, EU Project Pravo-Justice has become one of the drivers in promoting the rule of law in Ukraine, bringing the country’s legal framework in line with European standards; developing a strategic vision of reforms, judicial reform, proper enforcement of court decisions, etc.