Olena Tanasevych

The two-week trip was the latest in a series of initiatives organised over the past two years by the European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM) Ukraine, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish judiciary.

Tánaiste Simon Coveney told Irish Legal News: “This judicial visit is a valuable example of what Ireland and the European Union can achieve through the EU’s CSDP programmes. We look forward to further developing Ireland’s links with Ukraine.”

Olena Tanasevych, head of the new court, and colleagues Andrii Nykyforov and Kateryna Shyroka joined the trip’s second leg in Dublin, financed by the European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI).

However, three other judges, selected as part of a competitive process – Tetiana Shevyrina from Ochakiv District Court in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region; Ihor Stadnyk, deputy head of Vinnytsia Court of Appeal; and Iuliia Saldan, a candidate judge – arrived in Cork a week earlier.

Solicitors and barristers in Cork hosted the three judges in their homes during a week of engagements aimed at allowing them to observe the Irish courts and see first-hand Irish best practice in terms of courtroom management and regulation of the legal profession.

The trip was the latest in a series of visits that also saw the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice John MacMenamin – early supporters of the project along with Cork barrister Helen Boyle – visit Ukraine in September 2017 and September 2018, and a delegation of the Ukrainian judiciary come to Ireland in April 2018.

The three judges were hosted in Cork by Juli Rea, solicitor at JRAP O’Meara; Richard Martin, managing partner at Ronan Daly Jermyn; Diarmaid Falvey and Mary Jones of Diarmaid Falvey Solicitors; and barristers Siobhán Stack SC, Mark Harty SC, David Holland SC and Helen Boyle.

Robert Baker, partner at O’Donovan Baker Solicitors and president of the Southern Law Association, welcomed the judges during a visit to the offices of JRAP O’Meara.

The Ukrainian judges shadowed barristers and met counterparts in the Irish judiciary during their stay, visiting a Clonakilty District Court hearing on a trip organised by the West Cork Bar Association and attending an Immigration, Asylum and Citizenship Bar Association (IACBA) conference in Dublin at the invitation of The Bar of Ireland.

They also attended information sessions with solicitors at the offices of JRAP O’Meara, Ronan Daly Jermyn, FitzGerald Legal and Advisory and Barry C. Galvin Solicitors, as well as an information session at UCC on building integrity in the legal profession through education.

At the end of the first week, the three judges travelled from Cork to Dublin, where they were joined by their colleagues on the new anti-corruption court for the second half of the trip.

The second week involved visits to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), the Law Society of Ireland and the Legal Aid Board.

It shifted the focus to the Irish courts system, with a specific emphasis on the manner in which corruption and related cases, such as money laundering cases, are processed in Ireland, as well as the management and function of specialised courts within the Irish court system.

The Courts Service of Ireland organised meetings with staff to discuss media, the Irish legal system and criminal procedure, as well as arranging for the six judges to meet with the Chief Justice and other judges of the Supreme Court, as well as a number of High Court judges.