Kuchma honors Futey with presidential award (12/19/99)

Kuchma honors Futey with presidential award

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine has honored Judge Bohdan A. Futey of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on December 8 for his work in helping Ukraine develop its judicial system.

He presented Judge Futey with the Presidential Meritorious Award (second degree) during his one-day visit here for talks with the Clinton administration and international financial organizations.

Noting the time and effort Judge Futey has devoted to assisting Ukraine since its independence, President Kuchma called him "a true friend of Ukraine."

It was the second time that Judge Futey was honored for his work in Ukraine. During festivities marking the anniversary of Ukraine's independence in Kyiv in 1995, he received a third-degree Presidential Meritorious Award.

Judge Futey has been involved with democratization and rule of law programs in Ukraine, as well as in Russia, organized by the Judicial Conference of the United States, the Department of State and the American Bar Association. He has participated in judicial exchange programs, seminars and workshops and has been a consultant to the working group on Ukraine's Constitution and Ukrainian Parliament.

Judge Futey is an advisor to the Washington-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), which promotes the democratic election process worldwide through technical assistance, legal reform and voter education. He has served as an official observer during the elections to the Verkhovna Rada in 1994 and 1998 and during the last two presidential elections, in 1994 and this past November, conducting briefings on Ukraine's election law and guidelines for international observers.

He has authored numerous articles in law journals on Ukraine's Constitution and the judicial system.

Thanking President Kuchma for his award, Judge Futey said he accepted it as "recognition of the many Americans of Ukrainian descent who have assisted Ukraine in this transitional period."

He congratulated President Kuchma on his re-election and praised the people of Ukraine for "consciously backing his course toward economic, political and judicial reform, closer cooperation and integration with European structures, and a peaceful and independent Ukraine."

The award presentation was held at Blair House, the official U.S. visitors' residence across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. Among those attending were members of President Kuchma's delegation, including presidential advisors Yevhen Marchuk and Yuri Shcherbak, as well as a small group of family members and friends of Judge Futey, among them, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Chief Justice Loren A. Smith and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Green Miller.

Born in Ukraine, Judge Futey, 60, received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Western Reserve University, and his J.D. from Marshall Law School in 1968. (The two institutions are now part of Cleveland's Case-Western Reserve University.)

He practiced law in the Cleveland area and in the 1970s also served as executive assistant to the mayor of Cleveland and as the city's chief assistant police prosecutor.

He was appointed chairman of the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission in Washington in 1984, and to his current position on the Foreign Claims Court in 1987.

Judge Futey and his wife, the former Myra Fur, live in Annapolis, Md.

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