The International Scientific and Practical Conference on Introduction of Constitutional Complaint in Ukraine held in Kyiv

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The International Scientific and Practical Conference on Introduction of Constitutional Complaint in Ukraine held in Kyiv

 

 

On December 18, 2015 the international scientific and practical conference on introduction of constitutional complaint in Ukraine was held in Kyiv. The event was organised in the framework of the cooperation of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine with the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine and on the occasion of the All-Ukrainian Law Week.

The conference was dedicated to the introduction of the institute of the constitutional complaint in Ukraine, study of the experience of foreign colleagues, in particular the amendments to the Constitution and relevant legislation, improvement of the structure of the court system, possible increase of caseload in view of introduction of the constitutional complaint, other problematic issues faced by courts in their activities in light of introduction of constitutional complaint, etc.

Chairman and judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, former judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Presidents and judges of constitutional jurisdictions from Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, representatives of international organisations – Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation, took part in the work of the conference.

The representatives of state authorities of Ukraine, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, Secretary of the Constitutional Commission Oleksii Filatov, representatives of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine and higher education institutions, experts in constitutional law were also invited.

Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yurii Baulin opened the conference.

On behalf of the judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yu.Baulin sincerely congratulated the participants and thanked the representatives of foreign bodies of constitutional jurisdiction, international organisations, scholars and representatives of the government of Ukraine for participating in the forum. In the opinion of the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the topic of the conference – the introduction of constitutional complaint in Ukraine, researching actual problems arising in view of the operation of this legal institution and identification of the promising ways to resolve them is extremely important and urgent, first of all, due to the fact that in recent years the concrete steps towards judicial reform have been made in Ukraine. In particular, a draft law "On Introducing Amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine (on the judiciary)" is under consideration of the Parliament, one of the provisions of which stipulates introduction of constitutional complaint as a form of individual access to constitutional justice, stressed Yurii Baulin.

He also noted that since the institute of the constitutional complaint is a part of the general system of institutes of constitutional law, it is important to clarify its system of relations with them and to determine the role of this institute in shaping and improving the legal system of a modern democratic and legal state.

In this regard, this process requires deep scientific understanding and consideration of legislative experience of the activity of both domestic and foreign scholars and constitutionalists, noted the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

Yurii Baulin expressed confidence that the conference will make a significant contribution to improving the legal institutes of constitutional justice, and scientific and practical information received during the forum will be carefully studied.

Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, Secretary of the Constitutional Commission Oleksii Filatov addressed the participants with the greeting speech.

During the first session, moderated by the President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania, President of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice Dainius Žalimas, the participants discussed the constitutional complaint as an efficient means of the protection of human and citizen’s rights and freedoms.

Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Mykhailo Hultai delivered a presentation on "Perspectives of introduction of the institute of constitutional complaint in the legal system of Ukraine".

In his report, the judge stressed that despite the increased interest to the constitutional complaint in the legal doctrine of Ukraine, the current state of its scientific development is characterised by fragmentation, some conceptual disorder and is not always based on single theoretical and methodological framework.

"Constitutional complaint and constitutional justice in general are the important levers of development of democracy, accountability of government before society. Direct access to constitutional justice is important for the realisation of all functions of democracy, but the most important is the relationship of this institute with the control function of democracy", stressed the reporter.

"The optimal model of constitutional complaint in the consolidated form at the present stage of the development of our country should include the right of citizens of Ukraine, foreigners, stateless persons and entities after exhausting all other domestic remedies to file a complaint to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the constitutionality of laws of Ukraine or other legal acts of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, acts of the President of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, legal acts of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, in cases where the application of these regulations in individual cases led to violations of rights and freedoms of the claimants, enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine", noted Mykhailo Hultai.

Also the President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia, Chairman of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts George Papuashvili presented his report on the topic: "Constitutional complaint and its statutory place in Georgia: a review, development and challenges". In his speech, the speaker noted that the introduction of constitutional complaint in Ukraine requires professional discussion and a thorough study of international experience. And in its turn, the Constitutional Court of Georgia had made proposals which were taken into account by Ukrainian Constitutional Commission.

President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia noted that the topic of the conference is extremely important, because a constitutional complaint is the biggest guarantee of justice. Speaking about Georgia, almost 70% of constitutional complaints are considered by the Constitutional Court of Georgia. The level of legal implementation of constitutional complaints improves the statistics, since it has been much improved, so most people are able to apply to constitutional justice.

The Head of the Department of Constitutional Law of the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University Vsevolod Rechytsky ("On the axioms of constitutionalism and the Fundamental Law of Ukraine"), former judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Petro Stetsiuk ("The problems of introduction of the institute of the constitutional complaint in Ukraine: social and political and moral and ethical aspects"), Head of the Department of Justice  of the Law Faculty of Chernivtsi National University Oksana Scherbaniuk ("Constitutional complaint as a guarantee of the protection of rights and interests of citizens"), Head of the Department of the Constitutional Law and Comparative Law of the Law Faculty of Uzhhorod National University Yurii Bysaha ("The introduction of full regulatory models of constitutional complaint in Ukraine as an effective legal instrument for the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms") presented their reports during the discussions.

Former judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Mykhailo Kostytskyi and Viktor Shyshkin, judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Stanislav Shevchuk joined the discussion.

During the second session, the participants discussed admissibility criteria and mechanisms of ensuring consideration of constitutional complaints by constitutional courts. President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia George Papuashvili chaired the meeting.

Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia Aldis Laviņš presented the report on: "Constitutional complaint as a means of protecting human freedoms: the experience of Latvia" and spoke about the experience of introducing constitutional complaint in his country, focusing on the advantages and shortcomings of the Latvian model of constitutional complaint. He stressed that Ukraine, which is on the way towards the introduction of a constitutional complaint, should choose its specific model.

During this session former judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Mykola Savenko ("Organisational and procedural issues of the implementation of the constitutional complaint in Ukraine"), Mykola Koziubra ("Positive effects and risks of introducing constitutional complaint in Ukraine"), Deputy Head of the Department of Constitutional Law and Justice of the Economics and Law Faculty of Odessa National University named after I.I. Mechnikov Kateryna Karmazina ("Terms and possibility of introduction of constitutional complaint in Ukraine") presented their reports.

At the end of the second session the winners of the annual contest of young scholars for the best research article on constitutional and legal issues related to the protection of human rights and freedoms were announced and awarded.

Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Doctor of Law, Professor, Full Member of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine Yurii Baulin announced the contest results. He noted that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine has been traditionally involved into such an important event in the life of Ukrainian legal community as All-Ukrainian Law Week.

Thus, the winners were Mykyta Yefstifeiev, Snizhana Shevchenko and Kostiantyn Bilous.

President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia Aldis Laviņš chaired the third session on "Practice of bodies of constitutional jurisdiction on examination of cases upon constitutional complaints."

President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova, Chairman of the Association of Constitutional Justice of the Countries of the Baltic and Black Sea Regions Alexandru Tănase presented his report on: "Issues relating to jurisdiction and constitutional jurisdiction in the Republic of Moldova, in particular, the procedure for consideration of exceptional cases of unconstitutionality as indirect appeal of citizens to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova".

The speaker described the order of the work of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova. He stressed that there is no institute of the constitutional complaint in his country, but there are other tools that stand in defending the constitutional rights of citizens.

The next report was presented by justice of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland Mirosław Granat ("Regulation of the constitutional complaint in Poland"). He said that Poland has a constitutional complaint and spoke about the procedure of its consideration. The judge stressed that the need for the existence of such a complaint has been proven in practice, and expressed his hope that Ukraine, which paves the way for introduction of constitutional complaint will succeed too.

Former judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Mariia Markush ("The role of the constitutional complaint in the judicial mechanism of the protection of human rights and freedoms in the adversarial criminal process in Ukraine") and Mykhailo Kolos ("Constitutional complaint – the guarantee of the constitutionality of the criminal and legal legislation") and a representative of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law of the Faculty of Lesia Ukrainka East European National University Volodymyr Kravchuk ("Polish experience in implementing constitutional complaint: lessons for the domestic legal system") made presentations during this session.

The fourth session "Forms of access to the constitutional justice" was chaired by the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Republicof Moldova Alexandru Tănase.

At this session a presentation of the President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania, President of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice Dainius Žalimas on "The individual constitutional complaint: search for an optimal model of human rights" was delivered.

Concluding the conference, Yurii Baulin thanked all participants on behalf of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

"It's hard to overestimate the importance of profound and meaningful reports presented and discussions that took place, proposals of the participants on possible ways to address certain issues in the relevant legal framework, the exchange of experience on constitutional justice", continued the Chairman.

The Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine stressed that personal contacts of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, representatives of the Ukrainian legal science with their international counterparts was also useful. He expressed hope that relations between the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the OSCE structures in Ukraine, constitutional jurisdictions of members of the Association of Constitutional Justice of the Countries of the Baltic and Black Sea Regions will continue in the future.

Conference materials will be published in a separate edition of the Bulletin of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.