Sukalo: amendments to Constitution strengthened basic principles of judicial performance
The third stage of the judicial and legal reform has been completed in Belarus, during which all the main structural and functional transformations in the judicial system have been implemented – as stated by the Chairman of the Supreme Court of Belarus, Valentin Sukalo, at a meeting of the President with heads of supreme courts of foreign states
In particular, Valentin Sukalo noted that the legal Council of Chairmen of Supreme (Highest) Courts, established in late 2022, began its active work, and Belarus is a co-chair in it, “Today, when many norms of international law are devalued, international legal institutions are broken and destroyed, our communication within the framework of such a Council seems to be very relevant. The main topics of such interaction should be the state of our judicial systems and directions for their further development.”
In this context, Valentin Sukalo underlined that our own Belarusian experience, our national model of justice has its own peculiarities, “The third stage of the judicial and legal reform has been completed in Belarus, during which we have implemented all the main structural and functional transformations in the judicial system. The Constitutional referendum held and the amendments made to the Basic Law at the highest legislative level strengthened the basic principles of the formation and functioning of the judicial system. The country has retained a very understandable and convenient three-tier judicial system, which perfectly suits Belarus’ administrative-territorial division headed by a single supreme judicial body – the Supreme Court. The high status of the Supreme Court is for the first time enshrined at the highest constitutional level, with a simultaneous increase in the status and guarantees for judges of the Supreme and Constitutional Courts.”
At the same time, Valentin Sukalo noted that we took the path of debureaucratisation of outdated, unnecessary judicial procedures, “Our courts today widely use writ legal proceedings, as well as fast-track trials and trials in absentia. We have fully completed the phased transition of the courts of second instance to the appellate procedure for checking court decisions that have not entered into legal force. The direction of cases for a new judicial review today is of a single nature.”
