ACCESS TO JUSTICE DURING MARTIAL LAW

Abstract

The relevance of the study stems from the necessity to assess the efficiency of access to justice as a compulsory and integral element of human rights in the context of a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. The purpose of the study is to analyse the main measures undertaken by the Government of Ukraine and the judiciary to restore access to justice during martial law, identify the problematic issues of its implementation, and find efficient mechanisms to overcome them. The research methodology covered general scientific and specific methods of scientific knowledge: comparative legal method, cybernetic method and method of analysis and synthesis. Based on the study of the work of the courts of Ukraine, a conditional division of courts was performed based on the mode of their work and the respective location, namely: territories where active hostilities are underway; territories under occupation (blockade); de-occupied territories, and territories remote from hostilities. It is stated that active hostilities, occupation and constant rocket attacks have established several new problems in access to justice, namely the physical impossibility of judges in the occupied territories and areas of active hostilities to administer justice; the catastrophic shortage of court officials; problems related to the transfer of jurisdiction from one court to another (overloading of judges, physical impossibility to transfer case files, actual destruction of cases, longer delays in court cases). It is concluded that under martial law, using electronic justice is an efficient solution that can ensure the right to access justice. It was noted that the current model of electronic justice in Ukraine still requires improvement through the adoption of a clear regulatory framework governing the full use of electronic justice (including the introduction of appropriate amendments to the procedural codes and the development of detailed instructions for judges and parties to the proceedings); improvement of the software to expand its functionality while providing technical equipment to all judges. The practical significance of the conducted research is of scientific value both for practitioners and scholars studying the theoretical and legal issues of access to justice and can be used to ensure the observance and implementation of the right to access to justice in the face of future challenges of extraordinary or global scale, such as war or pandemic.