Exchange of experiences of the Kyiv Court of Appeal and the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court

Details: Published: April 25, 2023

The Vice President of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, Hanna Kryzhanivska (middle), with fellow judges during the online expert talks 22 March 2023.

Ukraine

The cooperation between the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court and the Kyiv Court of Appeal was initiated and is maintained by the IRZ and has existed since 2016. A European judicial identity is promoted through the regular collegial and professional exchange between the two courts.

The online meeting was originally scheduled for the end of 2022, but had to be cancelled twice due to a power failure caused by the war. The exchange finally took place on 22 March 2023 – despite the air raid warning in Kyiv. The focus of the expert talk was the topic of “e-justice”.

The participants in the online expert talks first discussed the current situation and case law of the Ukrainian judiciary and the Kyiv Court of Appeal under the current wartime conditions. In their presentation, the judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, Borys Levenets and Yurii Tryasun, described the organisation of the work of the court in the first months of the war and the current features of court proceedings under martial law conditions.

Another topic of discussion was the introduction of electronic files in the judiciary. Dr. Jana Bruns-Klaes, judge at the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court, discussed the following points: electronic legal transactions and electronic files, the impact on persons seeking justice and the impact on the judiciary. The deputy chair of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, Hanna Kryzhanivska, then reported on the experiences at her court in this respect, and the specific challenges of electronic justice.

The exchange of experiences between judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeal and the Higher Regional Court of Oldenburg is to be continued in the future - if possible, also in person, for example through a working visit to Oldenburg. The President of the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court, Anke van Hove, and the IRZ emphasised the importance of maintaining the dialogue between the two courts at this time, and reiterated their willingness to continue the cooperation.