On 13 November 2011 the Law of Ukraine No.3932-VI of 20 October 2011 “On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on the Hearing of Cases by the Supreme Court of Ukraine” took effect. Supreme Court's status The Law returns to the Supreme Court certain rights withdrawn bythe reform of 2010 and introduces some new rules, inter alia:

  1. The Supreme Court may again adopt ultimate decisions in disputes (instead of merely returning cases for new trial).
  2. The term for appealing to the Supreme Court increases from one to three months. The Court may further extend this term if there are reasonable grounds.
  3. Courts must now obey the Supreme Court's interpretation of law. Thus, a notion similar to court precedent is effectively introduced into Ukrainian procedural law.
  4. The Supreme Court must post its decisions on its website within 10 days of their pronouncement. Unfortunately, the positive effect of these changes is somewhat negated given that appeals to the Supreme Court are still subject to the consent of the court whose decision is being appealed. Access to court decisions
  5. The Law cancels mandatory publication of all court decisions in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions (“Register”). The Register will from now on include decisions based on a list to be approved by the Judges Council of Ukraine and the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine.

After these changes, the Register will become less reliable as asource for court practice (case law) research. Ukrainian court