On 13 July 2023, the Parliament adopted Draft Law No. 8392 ‘On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on the Application of Sanctions’, which improves the mechanism of sanctions confiscation in Ukraine

The Institute of Legislative Ideas prepared and submitted amendments to the second reading through the MPs of Ukraine.

The ILI amendments that were partially or fully taken into account:

• The amendment to the rules for calculating time limits was partially taken into account. The Committee extended the provision of the CAP on postponement of the last day of the term to the first business day if the term expires on a weekend, holiday, or other non-working day to the procedure for applying sanctions.
• The provisions on extending the time limits for filing a response have been partially taken into account. The provision of Article 283-1 gave 2 days for a response. The IPI proposed 10 days. The final version is 5 days.
• The amendment regarding the need to indicate ‘satisfaction of claims in full or in part’ based on the results of the HACC's consideration of the claim has been taken into account.
• An amendment has been made to calculate the period from which an appeal may be filed if only the introductory and operative parts are announced in court (from the moment the full text of the court decision is drawn up and published on the HACC website).

Even though the amendment on the application of the standard of proof was rejected, these provisions are already being applied in practice by the HACC. During the appellate review of the Deripaska case, the HACC Appeals Chamber determined the applicable standard of proof in line with the recommendations made by the CPI in its respective analyses. Thus, the Appeals Chamber's Ruling of 16 June 2023 in case No. 991/265/23 states:

‘In other words, in such cases, the standard of proof is ‘preponderance of the evidence’ or the so-called balance of probabilities. The burden of proof is deemed to be met if, based on the evidence presented, it can be concluded that the fact is more likely to have occurred than not.’

This indicates that the practice is already being shaped in this way - now it will be necessary to enshrine these provisions in the law in the future.

The draft law also introduces the following changes:

1. The term for consideration of a case on the application of a confiscation sanction has been increased from 10 to 30 days.

2. The consequences of the termination of martial law for cases that have not yet been completed at the time of termination are regulated. They are considered by the rules of the Code of Administrative Procedure.

3. The State Register of Sanctions is introduced - an information and communication system that ensures the collection, accumulation, protection, accounting, display, processing, and provision of information on all entities subject to sanctions. The NSDC approves the Regulation on the State Register of Sanctions and determines the administrator of the State Register of Sanctions.

The draft law has now been submitted to the President for signature.