Canadian Lawyer

16 J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m Ukraine has long been the most cor- rupt country in Europe. Transparency International's 2016 Corruption Per- ceptions Index ranked Ukraine 131 out of the 176 countries for integrity, sand- wiched between Russia and Guatemala (Canada was ranked number nine). In 2012, Ernst & Young named Ukraine, Columbia and Brazil as the three most corrupt countries in the world. Cor- ruption in Ukraine appears to pervade every corner of the country: It is in public administration, the police, par- liament, business, health care, schools and universities. Bribery of everyone, from government ministers to plumb- ers, is rampant. Nothing happens unless money is passed under the table. If ever there was a country that needed a vital and honest legal profession and judi- ciary to protect citizens from a corrupt government and fight for democracy, stability and the rule of law, Ukraine is that country. And, yet, Ukrainian lawyers (there are about 40,000 of them for a population of 45 million) have dramatically failed to rise to the occa- sion. Few other countries demonstrate so vividly what happens to the state when essential honest and competent lawyers are, to put it politely, thin on the ground. A 2010 international sur- vey of corruption in the world's legal profession placed the Ukrainian legal profession as the fourth most corrupt in the world, preceded by Guatemala (there's Guatemala again) at number three and followed by Peru at number four. Nearly 90 per cent of respon- dents from the Commonwealth of Inde- pendent States region (which includes Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova and Russia) saw corruption as an issue compared with 16 per cent from Australasia. The recently elected president of the Ukrainian Bar Association, Andriy Stelmashchuk, said in his campaign for president (as reported in the Kyiv Post) that most Ukrainian law firms use complicated offshore entities and other dubious practices to minimize or evade their own taxes. As long as law firms persist in structuring their businesses in this way, Stelmashchuk said, "corruption will prosper and tax evasion and other illegal forms of doing business will prosper in Ukraine." He said many of his fellow lawyers don't see a problem with the status quo. "They see it as normal," said Stelmashchuk. Indeed, he said, the legal profession is actively complicit in a culture where bribes are demanded and paid to judges his past autumn, I was in Ukraine at the annual PEN International con- gress, held this year in the city of Lviv. Ukraine is a troubled country — it's politically unstable, divided, corrupt, threatened by Russia (hatred and fear of Russian leader Vladimir Putin is everywhere), pushed around by other countries, unsure of the future and crippled by civic unrest. The recent history of Lviv exemplifies the region's past. In the 19th century, the city was called Lemberg and was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the early 20th century, it became part of Poland and was renamed Lwów. At the beginning of the Second World War, it was occupied by the Soviets who called it Lvov. In 1941, the Germans occupied the city and renamed it Lemberg. In 1944, it became part of Ukraine and was given its current name of Lviv. The city's name has changed back and forth as armies have marched in and out. Who is to say that its name will not change again? T R O U B L E D W O R L D O P I N I O N @philipslayton SCOTT PAGE Ukraine's benighted bar Most Ukrainian lawyers are enmeshed in the country's deep-seated corruption By Philip Slayton T

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