Small Claims in the Law and Doctrine of Civil Procedural Law of European Countries

Abstract

The concept of small claims, which is the novelty of Ukraine's civil proceedings, is being explored. For comparison, the legislation and doctrine of civil procedural law of France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland and Lithuania were analyzed. In particular, the provisions of the CPC of Ukraine were analyzed, which showed that there is no unity in the definition of insignificant cases and cases of insignificant complexity, and the criterion of the size of the claim price is used for their differentiation. The second criterion for determining minor cases is the categorical nature of the case, that is, the law defines an exhaustive list of cases that should be considered in summary proceedings, as well as those that cannot be heard in such proceedings. The study of the relationship between the rates of court fees and the size of the cost of the claim in cases that can be considered in summary proceedings. This gave rise to the conclusions on the grounds for applying the provisions of the legislation on the subsistence minimum, which increases annually, creating the effect of unstable certainty of insignificant cases, in particular, the limit of such cases during 2017–2019 increased from 176 200 UAH to 192 100 UAH, which is 9.02 %. A comparative study of the law and doctrine of EU law and selected European countries has led to the conclusion that, in most other countries and EU law, the criterion of the limitation of the amount of claims, clearly enshrined in the law, is applied. This gave rise to some conclusions about the criteria for defining minor disputes, in particular, the lack of uniform criteria for determining small cases. The cost of a lawsuit that cannot be exceeded is determined by small disputes in the EU, as well as in Germany and Lithuania, in other countries, specific categories of cases should be determined, which should be considered small under the law (Poland). Based on the comparative study, it was proposed to classify small disputes, in which the main criterion is the price of the claim.