Judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Stanislav Shevchuk and Ihor Slidenko took part in the XVIIth International Congress on European and Comparative Constitutional Law

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Judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Stanislav Shevchuk and Ihor Slidenko took part in the XVIIth International Congress on European and Comparative Constitutional Law

 

On October 16-18, 2015 judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Stanislav Shevchuk andIhor Slidenko took part in the XVIIth International Congress on European and Comparative Constitutional Law “Constitutional Courts and Ordinary Courts: Cooperation or Conflict?”, held in Regensburg, Germany. The event was organised by Professor Rainer Arnold of the University ofRegensburg, Professor of the University of Regensburg, President of the Association of Civil Procedural Law Teachers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland Herbert Roth with the assistance of the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation.

The purpose of the congress was to discuss the important theoretical and practical aspects of interaction between constitutional courts and courts of general jurisdiction.

The representatives of the bodies of constitutional control from Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Armenia, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Tunisia, Montenegro took part in the event.

Among the scholars who participated in the Congress were researchers from the University ofZielona Góra and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland), University of Tuzla (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the University of Pitesti and the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (Romania), King Juan Carlos University (Spain), University of Perugia and the University of Bologna (Italy),Örebro University (Sweden), Moldova State University, the University of Oslo (Norway) and other educational institutions. The event was also attended by Ukrainian scholars Natalia Mushak (National Academy of Law Sciences of Ukraine), Volodymyr Kampo (former Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine) and Viktor Muraviov (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv).

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine was represented by Judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Stanislav Shevchuk and Ihor Slidenko.

At the opening of the Congress, the organisers and Ms. Julia Iliopoulos-Strangas (Greece) – President of the Societas Iuris Publici Europei, Mr. Evgeni Tanchev (Bulgaria) – Vice President of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, Mr. Eivind Smith (Norway) – Vice-President of the International Association of Constitutional Law welcomed the participants.

Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Stanislav Shevchuk delivered a presentation on the peculiarities of interaction between the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Supreme Court of Ukraine and other higher courts in our country. Attention was paid to the fact that the Constitution is an act of constituent power of the Ukrainian people, and therefore all general courts should apply it in the administration of justice. "At the same time, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine which owns the forefront in ensuring human rights and freedoms in the domestic legal system is called to examine the questions that the courts can not solve by simply applying rules", continued the judge. According to him, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine through the decision-making process, in fact, enables avoiding conflicts between the courts of different instances and jurisdictions.

Stanislav Shevchuk noted that the sloe body of constitutional jurisdiction in Ukraine resolves complex issues concerning the standards of the determination of constitutionality of legislative restrictions of fundamental human rights and freedoms. The problem of general binding nature of the Constitutional Court’s decisions on the official interpretation of the Constitution and laws of Ukraine was also emphasised.

Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Ihor Slidenko delivered a presentation on "Some considerations on interaction and cooperation between the constitutional courts and courts of general jurisdiction." According to him, "in terms of legal theory there are several reasons that lead to cooperation between constitutional courts and courts of general jurisdiction and those reasons give an answer to the question why there is no conflict between the courts, but there is cooperation."

"The nature of a special body of constitutional control determines the interaction and cooperation between constitutional courts and courts of general jurisdiction", noted the judge. Heemphasised that this body unites two branches of government, the executive and the legislature, to implement the arbitration function, and, if needed, to prevent possible crises in the activities of the state mechanism.

The Judge noted that today courts are the major institutional guarantees of rights and freedoms. Ihor Slidenko added that the concept of rights and freedoms implemented in British constitutionalism provides a way to protect them. "Thus, the relationship between the institution of constitutional control and ordinary courts implies the use of the same tools to ensure human rights and freedoms”, continued the speaker, “and other principles typical for the European law, led to the establishment of a special body that serves the constitutional control function in the system of higher state institutions."

In conclusion, Ihor Slidenko stressed that the problem of European constitutional control lies in an exaggerated chapter on rights and freedoms, and it is worse when positive and negative rights are mixed as a result of political expediency, and the body of constitutional control should ensure both. "In this case the role of constitutional control is definitely unique because it improves the text of the constitution, which is underdeveloped in terms of the legal doctrine", said the judge.

According to the program, a number of seminars were held, during which the current issues of constitutional justice in the European states were discussed.