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Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Serhii Vdovichenko took part in the International Conference “The Role of Constitutional Review Bodies in Ensuring the Rule of Law in Rule-Making and Law-Enforcement”
Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Serhii Vdovichenko took part in the International Conference “The Role of Constitutional Review Bodies in Ensuring the Rule of Law in Rule-Making and Law-Enforcement” held on April 27-28 in Minsk (Republic of Belarus). The event was organised by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus in co-operation with the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) in the frame of the “Eastern Partnership” programme on “Strengthening the constitutional justice”.
The conference was attended by the Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy through Law Ms Herdis Kjerulf-Thorgeirsdottir, experts: Ms Lazarova-Trajkovska –former judge of the European Court of Human Rights in repect of Macedonia, Mr Aivars Endziņš – former President of the Constitutional Court of Latvia, representatives of the Secretariat of the Venice Commission – Ms Granata-Menghini and Ms Gerwien, chairmen and judges of constitutional courts of foreign countries, including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Chairman of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union A. Fedortsov. On behalf of the Republic of Belarus the event was attended by the President and judges of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus, representatives of bodies of state power, judicial institutions, major research institutions in the field of law and legal educational institutions of the country.
The participants of the conference were greeted by the President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus Piotr Miklashevich and the Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy through Law Ms Herdis Kjerulf-Thorgeirsdottir who wished the participants of this representative forum fruitful work.
The programme of the event included four working sessions to discuss various aspects of the rule of law, including, in particular, basic principle of modern democracies, which means binding nature of law for the state, human rights and freedoms, European approaches and criteria for assessing compliance with the rule of law, the role of constitutional courts in the rule of law as a fundamental constitutional principle in legislation and law-enforcement activity etc.
During the second working session, judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Serhii Vdovichenko made a presentation on “The principle of the rule of law in the activity of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine”, in which he outlined some of the trends of constitutional justice in Ukraine for the past 20 years. The main area of its development, according to the judge, is strengthening of the role of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in the protection of human dignity, rights and freedoms.
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine in its case law interprets the Fundamental Law of Ukraine in the spirit of the doctrine of “living constitution”, based on the rule of law and its elements.
Serhii Vdovichenko also touched upon the judicial reform implemented through the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine (on justice)”. In the frame of the 2016 reform, in Ukraine the institute of constitutional complaint was introduced, which allows citizens to challenge unconstitutional provisions of laws and regulations in case of violation of human rights.
At the end of his speech, the judge noted that the constitutional amendments of 2016 require appropriate legislative detalisation, in particular securing in the law of certain procedural aspects of the activity of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, including the procedures for dealing with constitutional complaints.
