On 11-15 September 2024, The Aspen Institute Kyiv, with the support of the OSCE projects in Ukraine and the Council of Europe project ‘Support to the Judiciary in Ukraine in the Context of War and Post-War Period’, held the first seminar ‘Justice, Law and Society’ (for judges) in Zakarpattia region.
The event brought together 24 participants - representatives of the Supreme Court, courts of general jurisdiction, specialised courts, the High Anti-Corruption Court, the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine. This diversity of participants allowed for a fresh look at both worldview issues and professional challenges.
During the seminar, the participants engaged in dialogues based on philosophical, journalistic, scientific and practical texts through the prism of their own professional experience in relation to:

• correlation of concepts: ‘justice’, “honesty”, “sincerity” and “truth” in the moral and legal discourse of Ukraine;
• the content and forms of ‘democratic accountability’ of the judiciary;
• the possibility of operationalising and regulating the concept of ‘integrity’
• ways to optimise the structures and functions of judicial self-government and judicial governance systems;
• correlation of moral principles and legislative norms in judicial discretion.

During the seminar, participants had the opportunity to discuss issues related to miscarriages of justice and court discretion with Mykola Gnatovsky, a judge of the European Court of Human Rights.
In addition, there was a discussion with Vasyl Lemak, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, on practical issues of interpreting the Constitution of Ukraine, guarantees of judicial control over the observance of the rights of persons in custody and the development of the practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in general.
The seminar was moderated by Roman Kobets, Research Fellow at the H.S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and Tetyana Komarova, Professor, Head of the EU Law Department at the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University.
The seminar was coordinated by Olena Fomina, Director of Programmes at The Aspen Institute Kyiv.
The event was supported by the OSCE projects in Ukraine and the Council of Europe project ‘Support to the Judiciary in Ukraine in the Context of War and Post-War Period’ in cooperation with the Supreme Court.