Verdict 19

The "Verdict 19" documentary by renowned director and jurist Dr Vyacheslav Bihun, a contender for the "Ukrainian Oscar" - "Golden Dzyga" (2020), may look as a story about a single case in the life of a lawyer who lost the contest for the High Anti-Corruption Court in Ukraine. However, this film is about how the "Stuchka's children" and "Stuchka's grandchildren" continue to mock the law in Ukraine, guided by the clear and hidden interests of "the powers that be of this world".



"Stuchka's children" ("Stuchka's kids") is a term associated with a well-known insulting phrase in Slavic languages that expresses disdain for offspring with a dubious reputation. It was invented by a Russian publicist who chose the name of the founder of "Soviet law" P. I. Stuchka (1865-1932) to identify the qualities of Soviet lawyers.



Peteris Stuchka at one time had laid the theoretical foundations under the immense Bolshevik machine of terror and violence which ruled the one sixth territory of the globe. He "brilliantly" argued that the "Soviet law" should be guided not by the previous legal tradition and history, by the "spirit of the laws", by "justice", but by the party ideology of the "winners" (the Bolsheviks). And the Soviet lawyers, aware and unaware of this, were guided in their actions by this very idea, which is why they should be called "Stuchka's children". These lawyers both quietly and frankly neglected the "letter of the law" for the sake of the "triumph of Soviet law," but in fact disregarded the age-old principles of law for the sake of the party's expediency at stake. What about "adversarial trial" or "presumption of innocence"? No way, these are bourgeois fictions!



However, not only lawyers but also most of the Homo Sovietus became "Stuckha's children". And their major "birth defect" is the irreparable hidden disregard for the law.



But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the "Stuckha's children" did not go down in history but they began to create and reproduce themselves with the deep hatred towards "bourgeois law" and ... to procreate "Stuchka's grandchildren." And these "grandchildren" were born not only at newly created "law faculties", former "meat and dairy colleges", but also at quite respected universities and "professional" institutes under different branches of power of the post-Soviet republics. And their main "birth defect" is yet again the irreparable hidden disregard for the law.

• Driving under the influence? Not a problem if you have a pass of a people's representative, prosecutor or judge.

• Legalization of self-constructed premises, seizure of someone else's property? Sure, if you pay the right people within the judiciary.

• Need a wording in the law for business preferences? It's just a question of price!

• Need a Supreme or Constitutional Court ruling? Find leverage!

And naturally here comes the Revolution of Dignity, the killings on the Maidan, the change of power and the expectations of the citizens to replace the rotten power and, above all, the judicial system.



Long passed the "littering lustration" of judges, long procedures for the formation of legislative foundations of anti-corruption bodies, the emergence of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP). Hurrah, Victory?



Under pressure from the civic society and Western partners, the authorities are also forced to form the High Anti-Corruption Court. The very link that will launch the entire anti-corruption judicial procedure to cleanse the country of "Stuchka's children and grandchildren." However, it's not as simple...



The film's character is a professor, doctor of law, enters the contest for the status of judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court and ... loses it!



Designed as a success story, the documentary becomes an "accusation film": the High Qualifications Commission of Judges (VKKS) changes the "rules of the game" during the contest, showing an unhealthy disregard for the law, hiding behind procedures and collective irresponsibility.



True, it cannot be said that the winning candidates are unworthy or knowingly incompetent, but the film questions the integrity of the contest itself and its "judges".



Also, as the discussion of the film and the situation at the Commission show, the problem is well known within the world of legal professionals in Ukraine. Its effects can be now felt by everyone.



And here is the top question: how much longer will the legal system in Ukraine be in the sphere of influence of "Stuchka's children"? How many more revolutions, the Maidans, lustrations and contests do we need to get through to have the rule of law in Ukraine?



by Vitaliy NECHYPORENKO

Ph.D., Research Fellow, H. S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy, Ukraine