Strengthening the Institutional Independence of the Court in the System of European Integration Steps of Ukraine

The article is devoted to the study of European standards of judicial independence. The subject of the study is the institution of court independence and specific measures to improve its legal support in Ukraine in accordance with European standards. The purpose of the article is to determine the following judicial reform measures aimed at institutional and legal harmonization of Ukrainian legislation with the standards of the European Union. The research uses dialectical, systematic analysis and synthesis, comparison and legal modeling methods of scientific knowledge. Acquiring the status of a candidate country in the EU obliges Ukraine to carry out a number of transformations of social and political institutions, and judicial reform is one of them. This will require systemic measures, and not just amendments to legislation aimed at harmonizing national legal norms with European standards. It is emphasized that despite the ongoing judicial reform, the goal of an effective court has not been achieved: the level of public trust in the court is still low. The author predicts that if only point changes in judicial legislation are started now, the result will be the same as during the previous steps of judicial reform. It is necessary to start with the construction of the foundation for an effective judicial system, which is the independence of the court. Analyzing the European standards of an independent court and the practices of the EU institutions regarding the assessment of the impact of various indicators on the general assessment of the assurance of court independence, taking into account the current and urgent problems of the judicial system of Ukraine, the author makes a number of proposals for improving domestic legislation and practice aimed at strengthening the independence of the court, which the author calls fundamental the value of a democratic state, a prerequisite for an effective judicial protection system.