ПРИНЦИП СУДОВОЇ СПЕЦІАЛІЗАЦІЇ ЧЕРЕЗ ПРИЗМУ КОНЦЕПТУ ПРИРОДНОГО СУДУ

Abstract

In the current conditions of intensive development of public relations and the complication of their legal regulation more and more states are turning to the institute of specialization of the judiciary organization and judiciary exercise. Thus, in Ukraine, it is established at the constitutional level that the judicial system of Ukraine is built on the principles of territoriality and specialization, additionally, higher specialized courts may operate in accordance with the law. Moreover, the Constitution of Ukraine states that the establishment of extraordinary and special courts is not allowed. In Art. 31 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges" (2016) it is stated that in the judicial system the higher specialized courts function as first instance courts for certain categories of cases. This category of courts currently includes the High Court of Intellectual Property and the High Anti-Corruption Court. However, a fierce debate evolved in Ukrainian political circles concerning the constitutionality of the anti-corruption court, and, accordingly, the subject of the constitutional petition questioned the number of provisions of the Law on the High Anti-Corruption Court and referred to the Constitutional Court to declare the law unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine has initiated the constitutional proceedings on this issue. The familiarization with the legal position of the subject of the constitutional petition indicates that the key issue of this constitutional proceeding concerns the presence of signs of a "special court" (within the meaning of Part 6 of Article 125 of the Constitution of Ukraine) in the mechanism of legislative regulation of the High Anti-Corruption Court. In order to find an objective answer to the existing conflict, there appeared a necessity to clarify the legal nature of judicial specialization and to identify key features of the "special court". To solve such an applied issue, the author turned to the theoretical and applied provisions of the principle of natural court, that provided the grounds for the subject of this work.