On November 22, 2024, the International Workshop “Is a human right effective without the right to its effective protection: the issue of compensation for violated right as a result of the declaration of an act unconstitutional” was held.
The event was organised by the Administrative Court of Cassation as part of the Supreme Court with the support of the Council of Europe projects “Support to the functioning of justice in the war and post-war context in Ukraine”, “Strengthening judicial and non-judicial remedies for the human rights protection of the war-affected people in Ukraine”, the OSCE Support Program for Ukraine “Support to National Stakeholders in Enhancing Accessibility of Constitutional Justice”, and the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ).
The International Workshop brought together the Judges of the Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, appellate and district administrative courts, scholars and international experts. Among the speakers were President of the Supreme Court, Stanislav Kravchenko, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights Mykola Gnatovskyy, President of the Administrative Cassation Court Mykhailo Smokovych, Judge of the Federal Administrative Court of Germany Martin Steinkühler, Former Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Mykola Koziubra and other prominent legal experts.
Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Serhiy Riznyk delivered a report on “Formation of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on compensation for material and moral damage caused to individuals or legal entities by acts declared unconstitutional”.
In his report, Serhiy Riznyk first of all drew the attention of the workshop participants to a number of decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, which formulated legal positions on the positive obligation of the state to adopt a law that should determine the procedure and conditions for such compensation in order to fulfill the requirement of Article 152.3 of the Constitution of Ukraine. The speaker noted that for the first time the Constitutional Court of Ukraine pointed to the existence of such an obligation in its Decision No. 25-rp/2009 dated October 7, 2009 upon the constitutional petition of the Supreme Court of Ukraine on the constitutionality of individual provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On Compulsory State Pension Insurance”. Subsequently, the Court developed this legal position in its Decisions No. 1-r(II)/2021 dated April 7, 2021, No. 4-r(II)/2021 dated July 21, 2021, and No. 1-r(II)/2023 dated March 1, 2023, adopted in cases upon constitutional complaints.
Sergiy Riznyk underscored that the very introduction of the institute of constitutional complaint in Ukraine has significantly increased the relevance of the issue of normative regulation of the procedure for compensation for material and moral damage caused by acts declared unconstitutional and the need to establish a sustainable case law in this regard.
At the same time, the speaker drew special attention to the systemic substantive conjunction between the provision of Article 152.3 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which guarantees the right to compensation for material or moral damage caused to individuals or legal entities by acts declared unconstitutional, and the provisions of Article 55 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which guarantees the right to judicial protection and the right to file a constitutional complaint with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. In this context, the Judge also analysed certain aspects of the interconnection between the constitutional institute of compensation for material and moral damage caused by an unconstitutional act and the legally defined procedure for reviewing court decisions in exceptional circumstances as a result of a decision delivery of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the unconstitutionality of an act.
Along with this, Serhiy Riznyk expressed his belief that the resolution of the legal issues raised at the workshop and the filling of the guarantee enshrined in Article 152.3 of the Constitution of Ukraine with real content, taking into account the current conditions of martial law and the challenges it poses to Ukraine's national, including economic, security, is possible in the near future.
