The Constitutional Court of Ukraine () is the sole body of constitutional jurisdiction in Ukraine. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine interprets the Constitution of Ukraine in terms of laws and other legal acts. The Court initiated its activity on 18 October 1996. The first Court ruling was made on 13 May 1997. On urgent matters the Constitutional Court rules within weeks, but on matters deemed less urgent it can take months. Decisions of the Constitutional Court are binding, final, and cannot be appealed. Mission and authority In 2016, access to the Constitutional Court was significantly broadened. Since then all individuals and companies where there are grounds to claim that a final court judgment contradicts the Constitution can file a complaint at the court. (Prior only the President and a member of parliament had the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court.) A complaint may only be filed after all other remedies have been exhausted in the regular Ukrainian courts. The authority of the Constitutional Court is derived from Ukraine's Constitution – Chapter XII The Court: on the appeal of the President, no less than 45 members of the parliament, the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the Ombudsman, or the Crimean parliament, assesses the constitutionality of: laws and other legal acts of the parliament acts of the President acts of the Cabinet legal acts of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Crimean parliament) officially interprets the Constitution and laws of Ukraine on the appeal of the President or the Cabinet, provides opinions on the conformity with the Constitution of international treaties on the appeal of the parliament, provides an opinion on the observance of the procedure of impeachment of the President provides an opinion on the compliance of a bill on introducing amendments to the Constitution with the restrictions imposed by the Constitution. The Court's rulings are mandatory for execution in Ukraine, are final and cannot be appealed. Laws and other legal acts, or their separate provisions, that are deemed unconstitutional, lose legal force. Structure The Court is composed of 18 judges, appointed in equal shares by the President, the parliament, and the Congress of Judges. A judge must be a citizen of Ukraine and must have: attained the age of forty; a higher legal education and professional experience of no less than 10 years; resided in Ukraine for the last twenty years; command of the state language (Ukrainian