Theoretical and practical aspects of invalidation of a transaction in civil proceedings in Ukraine and foreign countries

Abstract

The paper examines the doctrinal foundations and legal grounds for invalidation of transactions under the civil law of Ukraine and foreign countries. The author highlights the main problems of national and foreign judicial practice in challenging typical transactions. The author establishes that valid transactions play a primary role in establishing, modifying and terminating legal relations between subjects of civil turnover. Invalidity is a specific result of assessing a transaction for compliance with applicable civil law, and the place of the institution of transaction invalidity in the system of civil procedure law of Ukraine is determined by the need to protect the violated rights of bona fide persons in cases where the requirements of civil law regarding a transaction are not met. The author analyzes and establishes that a transaction is void if its invalidity is established by law (voidable transaction), and no court invalidation is required. In contrast to a voidable transaction, a transaction is disputed if one of the parties denies its validity and tries to prove such a legal fact in a court proceeding. The study has determined that in domestic civil law, the rule that a disputed transaction can be invalidated only through the involvement of a court is mandatory. However, as practice shows, the judicial process in Ukraine has a number of drawbacks, in particular, due to the length of the proceedings. In view of this, many European countries have an out-of-court procedure for invalidating transactions, which is implemented by filing a statement of challenge. Such a mechanism has at least one obvious advantage - the speed of resolving the issue of invalidity of a transaction. The prospect of introducing an out-of-court procedure for challenging typical transactions will allow Ukraine to reduce the burden on the judicial system and speed up the process of considering other, equally important, civil cases.