Correctly defined jurisdiction in various types of disputes is the basis for providing quality legal assistance. This was noted by the Chairperson of the Labor Law Committee of NAAU Victoria Polishchuk during the round table on the topic "Jurisdiction of disputes in judicial practice".
According to her, the competence of judicial bodies to consider civil, criminal and other cases, as well as the range of cases that this court has the right to consider and decide, is called jurisdiction, or sub-department. In Part 3 of Art. 124 of the Constitution defines that the jurisdiction of the courts extends to any legal dispute and any criminal accusation. Subdepartment of a dispute – the authority to accept for consideration a dispute subordinated to this body, defined by law. If a lawyer or citizens apply to a court that is not competent to consider a dispute, then the consequences, such as a refusal to open a proceeding or an already opened proceeding, are closed due to the fact that the dispute is not subject to consideration in the jurisdiction of this particular court.
In particular, during the event, issues related to problems with determining the jurisdiction of cases in the field of labor relations and public service, termination of powers of officials, corporate disputes, as well as issues of jurisdiction in land disputes were discussed.
Member of the Council of the Committee on Agrarian, Land and Environmental Law, lawyer Yan Bilogolovy spoke about the aspects of court practice related to the jurisdiction of land disputes and real estate. In particular, attention was paid to disputes regarding the use of agricultural lands, cancellation of decisions of local self-government bodies regarding the development of land management projects, cancellation of orders of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, and disputes involving state registrars.
Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Labor Law, lawyer Kateryna Tsvetkova disclosed the peculiarities and jurisdiction of disputes regarding the termination of the powers of officials. The speaker noted that the heads of the enterprises are in corporate and labor relations with the enterprises at the same time, which leads to problematic issues of jurisdiction in disputes about appeals against dismissal in connection with the termination of powers. Thus, in 2020, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court made a general conclusion that the specified disputes are subject to consideration in the order of economic proceedings, unlike other labor disputes, which are considered in the order of civil proceedings.
Member of the Council of the Committee on Labor Law, lawyer Nataliya Kaida drew attention to the criteria for the demarcation of court jurisdiction, according to which a certain case is subject to consideration according to the rules of one or another type of judicial procedure. Thus, the jurisdiction of administrative courts extends to cases in public legal disputes regarding the acceptance of citizens for public service, its completion, dismissal from public service, as well as disputes regarding the appointment, completion and termination of service in local self-government bodies and disputes arising before, during and after the elections. At the same time, the lawyer also drew attention to disputes about the protection of violated, unrecognized or contested rights, freedoms or interests arising from labor relations and subject to consideration in civil proceedings: disputes involving local self-government bodies, state authorities, state enterprises, institutions, organizations , professional unions of state authorities.
Nadiya Tarasova, a member of the Board of the Committee on Economic Law and Process, attorney, spoke about the types of corporate disputes and focused on the need for a detailed approach to determining jurisdiction in the event of disputes with company officials, auditors, and former participants. The speaker cited case law on these issues and shared her own recommendations.
During his report, a member of the Council of the Committee on Labor Law, lawyer Dmytro Navrotskyi analyzed the practice of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court regarding the consideration of disputes in the field of labor relations and public service. In particular, he focused on the problems that arise when filing a lawsuit in court and the problem of distinguishing disputed legal relations and mistakenly assigning them to public law. The lawyer focused in detail on the practice of the jurisdiction of disputes that arise regarding the dismissal of an assistant judge, as a public legal dispute, the practice of the dismissal of the head of a trade union, which belongs to the competence of courts of civil jurisdiction.
Based on the results of the discussion, the speakers came to a single conclusion that the issue of jurisdiction of disputes has always been controversial in the judicial system, especially in the field of labor law. First of all, this is due to the fact that labor law covers not only relations arising from the employment contract, but also from imperative norms, such as the work of civil servants, prosecutors, judges, policemen, diplomats, etc. So, in order to develop a unified position on determining the jurisdiction of this or that dispute, the participants of the event decided on the need to develop methodological recommendations for lawyers on this problematic issue.
Link to the video recording of the round table http://surl.li/eqgns
Link to speakers' presentations http://surl.li/eqgoy
The text and photos were prepared by the NAAU committee coordinator team