The United Kingdom will train 90 Ukrainian judges to conduct trials for Russian war crimes

The UK Attorney’s General Office announced it last week.

In the interview with Sky News, the Attorney General of the United Kingdom Victoria Prentis KC said that the Russian war crimes trials could have an unprecedented scale, so Ukrainian judges will definitely need some help.

Sir Howard Morrison KC, a former Judge at the International Criminal Court, will train Ukrainian judges. Judging by the regalia, this is a powerful lawyer, so it seems that Ukrainian judges are very lucky.

From 1977 to 1985, Morrison worked in military courts in Great Britain and Germany. In 1998, he began working as a defense attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Tanzania and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

In 2001, he received the status of the King’s Council (this is like an honored lawyer of Ukraine, only it’s a really very important status). In 2008, he was a senior judge of the Sovereign bases of Cyprus (yes, Great Britain has military bases there). And in 2011, Morrison became one of the six judges of the International Criminal Court.

In October 2015, Queen Elizabeth II knighted Howard Morrison and awarded him a Knighthood of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for services to international justice and the rule of law.

In October 2015, Queen Elizabeth II knighted Howard Morrison and awarded him a Knighthood of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for services to international justice and the rule of law.

Britain allocated 2.5 million pounds for this training. It works out to be approximately £27.8K per judge. To give you an idea of whether this is a little or a lot: a year of studying law at Cambridge costs around £37K.

We couldn't find a Ukrainian judge who would be aware of this program. If anyone can share the information, please write to us, because it’s damn interesting what this training looks like.

✍️Oleksii Chernetsky