| Article title | The Right to Submit an Individual Constitutional Complaint in Ukraine: Theoretical and Practical Aspects |
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| Authors |
HRYHORII BERCHENKO
YEVHENII TKACHENKO
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| Magazine name | Legal journal «Law of Ukraine» (Ukrainian version) |
| Magazine number | 12 / 2018 |
| Pages | 92 - 113 |
| Annotation | Currently the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CCU) has opened 30 proceedings based on constitutional complaints (out of 1,068 complaints filed), and panels of judges or senates mostly rule on declining the proceedings. In recent years, scientific and practical aspects pertaining to the functioning of the constitutional complaint have come into a significantly increased focus at the level of numerous conferences, seminars, round tables, and special studies on this issue have begun to appear. The purpose of this article is to find out the typical reasons which entail the decline to open the proceedings when a constitutional complaint is filed, to identify theoretical and practical challenges of application of the Law of Ukraine “On the Constitutional Court of Ukraine” and to formulate the proposals for improving the practice of dealing with and the quality of preparation of constitutional complaints as such. In most cases, the court declines to open constitutional proceedings in cases based on cl. 4 of Part 1, Article 62 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Constitutional Court of Ukraine”. The typical cases which the panels and the senates qualify as a violation, are: 1) citation without argument; 2) arguments about unconstitutionality of a particular provision, not the entire law; 3) disagreement with a court decision or legislative regulation; 4) reference only to a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights; 5) lack of legislative regulation and legislative inconsistency, ambiguity; 6) no demonstration of any connection between a provision of law and restriction of a right; 7) proof that application of a provision is characterized by ambiguity; 8) the claim has other acts (and also actions or omissions) and not the law as its subject matter. The position of self-restraint, which is quite appropriate in case of constitutional submissions and applications, seems too formal in dealing with constitutional complaints. A constitutional complaint is largely considered by the constitutionalist and the legislator in terms of public significance, public interest, and is characterized by its focus on the protection of human rights. While dealing with a constitutional complaint, CCU is entitled to recognize that a provision is constitutional, and also to assess its interpretation practice which may be inconsistent with the Constitution of Ukraine. |
| Keywords | constitutional complaint, constitutional control; Constitutional Court of Ukraine; human rights |
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