Partner Oleg Malinevskyi Gains Important Victory in the Interests of Independence of the Ukrainian Bar!

Oleg Malinevskyi, a partner at EQUITY, has gained an important victory in the interests of independence of the Ukrainian Bar.

The court has found the actions of the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption regarding the claim for Oleh Malinevskyi as a member of the Qualification and Disciplinary Bar Committee, to submit a declaration of a person authorized to perform functions of the state or local self-government to be unlawful. 

Considering convincing arguments laid down in the claim, the court ruled: 

1. The Bar, being an independent institute of the civil society, is a specially authorized non-state professional human rights body one of the function of which is to protect an individual from charges and provide legal assistance, particularly in courts and other public bodies.

2. Activity of the bar is not related to performance of functions by the state or local self-government, since the advocacy activity, which is independent, may not be interfered with by public bodies. 

3. The Law of Ukraine on State Service does not apply to activities of defense lawyers which are regulated by the Law of Ukraine on the Bar and Practice of Law.

4. Referring to the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine No 3-р/2019 dated June 6, 2019, the court indicated that Subparagraph B, Paragraph 2, Part 1, Article 3 of Article 45 of the Law of Ukraine on Prevention of Corruption does not align with the principle of legal certainty because it does not enable unspecified addressees of these norms to exactly enough figure out their duties in regard to submission of declarations.

As a reminder, it was in May when EQUITY">Oleg Malinevskyi received a letter with a notice of his failure to submit a declaration of a person authorized to perform functions of the state or local self- government. The notice was sent on the ground that Oleh had been a member of the Kyiv Disciplinary Bar Committee since 2017.

We congratulate the partner on this important victory in a “great” battle for rights of defense lawyers!

The text of the ruling can be found at the link.