A Settlement Agreement in Civil Process as Ensuring of the Principle of Dispositiveness

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the settlement agreement as a guarantee of the principle of dispositiveness in the civil process. However, substantive law is the basis for any procedural legal relations. Thus, the civil procedural principle of dispositiveness is an analogue of the principle of freedom in civil law. The principle of dispositiveness in the civil procedural sense means the possibility for the parties of the case to dispose their rights regarding the subject of the dispute at their own discretion. Dispositivity in the civil law sense is the freedom to perform procedural actions freely, without coercion. Dispositiveness in civil proceedings means that the parties to civil proceeding have the right to waive their claims against each other at any stage of the trial by waiving or admitting the claim, or by entering into a settlement agreement. The conclusion of a settlement agreement by the parties at any stage of the court proceedings is an ensuring of the principle of dispositiveness - the freedom to freely dispose of one’s procedural and material rights.
 Researched that settlement agreement is a reconciliation mechanism and the result of an agreement between the parties. The purpose of concluding a settlement agreement is to settle the dispute on the basis of mutual concessions and should concern only the rights and obligations of the parties. Also, the parties can go beyond the scope of the dispute, provided that the settlement agreement does not violate the rights or legally protected interests of third parties. The settlement agreement is a mixed contract, as it is regulated simultaneously by two branches of law - civil and civil procedural. In this regard, the norms relating to bilateral deed, civil obligation and civil agreement may be applied to the settlement agreement. The common features between these concepts in relation to the settlement agreement are that the settlement agreement is a bilateral agreement with a specific subject, parties, rights and obligations, and form. The settlement agreement is also considered concluded from the moment the parties have reached all essential conditions, which characterizes it as a consensual civil law agreement. The essential conditions of a settlement agreement as a civil law agreement are the condition about the subject and terms. All of the above means that due to its legal nature, the settlement agreement has both procedural and substantive legal features.