Ilchyshyn N. Judicial Procedures in Administrative Proceedings: Issues of Theory and Practice

The dissertation is devoted to defining the essence and peculiarities of judicial procedures in administrative proceedings, elaborating the relevant conceptual framework for their implementation, and, taking this into account, outlining the problematic issues and proposing ways to resolve them. The study of the professional scientific literature has made it possible to argue that judicial procedure can be viewed in a broad sense (as consideration of a separate public-law dispute in an administrative court in all instances, during which a final court decision is made) and in a narrow sense (as administration of justice in a separate instance for resolving a public-law dispute by an administrative court, in the course of which a court decision is made). In this aspect, it has been determined that judicial procedure is an appropriate procedural form of activity of administrative courts regulated by the rules of administrative procedure law, within which a certain set of legal means, actions and operations are implemented to resolve an administrative case on the merits and restore the relevant rights, freedoms and interests of individuals, rights and interests of legal entities violated by public authorities in the relevant public law relations, the ultimate result of which is the adoption of a lawful and reasonable court decision. The judicial procedure in administrative proceedings to resolve an administrative case on the merits is essentially completed by the adoption of a relevant court decision, which is of utmost importance for the administration of justice in administrative proceedings in order to protect the rights, freedoms and interests of individuals and legal entities in their relations with public authorities. It has been noted that one of the most important and key elements for comprehensive understanding of both theoretical and practical aspects of court procedures in administrative proceedings is their scientific classification. Based on the analysis of scientific sources, the author has summarised the criteria for classification of court procedures in administrative proceedings, namely: by the form of administrative proceedings; depending on the type of administrative case; depending on the range of participants to an administrative case; taking into account the composition of the court; depending on the procedural stage within which court procedures are implemented; depending on the mandatory stage of the administrative process (expression of the will of the person concerned); depending on the stage of the relevant stage of the administrative process. It has been argued that the objectives of judicial procedures in administrative proceedings in general should be implemented with due regard for and on the basis of a clearly formed basis, certain statutory principles of functioning of this type of proceedings, i.e., principles. Investigating the sectoral principles of judicial procedures in administrative proceedings, it has been found that some of them failed to receive proper legislative fixation, and therefore a new version of the provisions of Part 3 of Article 2 of the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine has been proposed. Analysing the principles of judicial procedures in administrative proceedings which are objectified in legal acts of various legal force, it has been established that some of them do not comply with the requirements of current national legislation in terms of defining the legal framework for the establishment of courts, including administrative courts. In this regard, it has been argued that there is a need to develop new legal acts and amendments to the existing ones, which is of particular importance in view of the European integration course of our country. It has been determined that dispute resolution procedures involving a judge are conducted beyond the court proceedings (within a reasonable period of time, but not more than 30 days; it cannot be repeated), are initiated by two parties to the dispute (the claimant and the defendant), can be implemented in the form of in-person and remote meetings (joint and/or closed), and consist of three stages (commencement of the procedure and holding a joint meeting; dispute resolution through joint and closed meetings; conclusion of a settlement agreement by the parties and its approval by the court or termination of such procedure).