Updated Grounds for Filing a Cassation Appeal: Constitutional Limitation or Constitutional Violation?

Abstract

The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that the latest judicial reform has provoked a considerable influence on procedural relations and caused a number of problems for legal practitioners. The development of the main theoretical provisions took place since the 70s of the last century. In these studies, considerable attention was always paid to the procedural possibilities of applying to the court of first instance. At the same time, since the restoration of Ukrainian statehood, scientists have researched the value, limits of powers and, in general, the status of the Supreme Court in Ukraine. Ukraine has gone through many judicial reforms, most of which related to the courts of first instance and appeals. The main novelty, of the latest judicial reform, to which attention is paid in the article, is the updated grounds for filing a cassation appeal. Ukraine has declared a European course and adds all efforts to become part of the European family. That is why the latest judicial reform, which introduced these novellas, was carried out in the context of the European course. At the same time, the legal regulation of the possibility of applying to the court of cassation, actually restrict the constitutional rights and freedoms of a citizen, does not meet the standards announced in the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and in the European standards, which became the main problem. The purpose of the article is to study the working documents that accompanied the relevant bills on amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine on justice, decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the Supreme Court, as well as decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter – the ECHR). The achievement of the outlined goal became possible due to the use of a set of methods of information analysis and synthesis. The article highlights and analyzes the working documents that accompanied the constitutional amendments on justice, the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the Supreme Court, the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, with the aim of identifying substantive disagreements and shortcomings. It is emphasized that the changes (at the constitutional and legislative level) actually restrict the content and scope of rights and freedoms, regarding the possibility of cassation appeal of court decisions, which were guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine and do not meet the principle of legal certainty. Based on the results of the study, conclusions were formulated and recommendations were made on the implementation of the right to appeal to the court of cassation.