TERRITORIAL JURISDICTION OF CIVIL CASES UNDER MARTIAL LAW

Abstract

The article investigates the territorial jurisdiction of civil cases under martial law. The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that the military aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine has led to active hostilities and temporary occupation of part of the territory of our country, which has led to the need for the state authorities to take a number of urgent measures, in particular, to temporarily change the territorial jurisdiction of court cases in order to ensure the possibility of courts to properly administer justice in Ukraine in the current circumstances. A problematic issue is a new legal phenomenon in Ukraine - martial law. It has been studied exclusively in the theoretical aspect, which requires systematization of information also in the practical dimension. The purpose of the article is to review and streamline the peculiarities of legal regulation and practical implementation of the provisions on jurisdiction of civil cases under martial law in Ukraine. The Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine provides for cases (possibility) of transferring a civil case to another court for consideration on both subjective and objective grounds. It is concluded that from the moment of change of jurisdiction by order of the Chairman of the Supreme Court, the work of the relevant court ceases, and therefore it cannot consider cases and make any court decisions in them. The procedure for applying to courts in conditions when some courts do not function as a result of hostilities and occupation of certain territories of Ukraine is determined. The ways of solving problems in case of impossibility to export court cases from the temporarily occupied territories or territories where active hostilities are taking place are analyzed. The problem of restoration of lost unfinished court proceedings in a civil case in case of change of territorial jurisdiction under martial law is investigated. Today, in many cases, it is still possible to restore the lost unfinished court proceedings and continue the consideration of a previously initiated civil case with the participation and observance of the procedural rights of all parties to the case. Despite the fact that a separate section of the CPC is devoted to the restoration of lost court proceedings, as well as separate explanations of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the results of the generalization of court practice in these cases indicate that there are significant difficulties in the application of the institute of restoration of lost court proceedings by the courts.