The prosecutor’s influence on compliance with the principle of equality of parties in civil proceedings

Abstract

Despite the reform of the prosecutor’s office carried out in the period from 2014 to 2016, one of the main ideas of which was the maximum concentration of the prosecutor’s office on activities within the criminal process excluding the so-called “general supervision”, every year, the courts of Ukraine consider more and more civil cases cases initiated by the prosecutor acting in accordance with Art. 23 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Prosecutor’s Office” No. 1697-VII dated October 14, 2014.
 This circumstance definitely calls into question the effectiveness of the reform and creates the need to analyze its results. Also, it is considered appropriate to check whether the current legislation of Ukraine defines the range of interests of the state that the prosecutor’s office has the right to defend in court, whether there is no place for the prosecutor to abuse his right to represent the interests of the state in civil proceedings, as well as whether the participation of the prosecutor affects compliance with the principle equality of all participants in the civil process before the law and the court, which is one of the basic principles of civil justice, defined as part 3 of Article 2 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine and Article 129 of the Basic Law of Ukraine.
 This article also publicizes the author’s position regarding the existence of a problem in the fact that the prosecutor’s office is empowered to initiate legal proceedings on virtually any issue that, to one degree or another, is of importance to the state.In addition, the main ideas and goals that were pursued and declared by the legislator during the reform of the prosecutor’s office were highlighted, judicial practice and conclusions of domestic courts, made after the reform, were analyzed, and attention was also paid to the conclusions of the European Court of Human Rights, in the context of: the expediency of empowering the prosecutor’s office powers to represent the interests of the state in civil proceedings; prevention of duplication by the prosecutor of the functions of bodies authorized to perform state functions; the need to observe the principle of equality of participants in the legal process before the law and the court, as well as paragraph 1 of Article 6 of the Convention “On the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms”.