On January 17, 2024, at the public part of the plenary session in the form of written proceedings, the First Senate deliberated the case upon the constitutional complaint of Viacheslav Pleskach.
During the plenary session, the judge-rapporteur in the case Viktor Kychun informed that the subject of the right to a constitutional complaint appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the constitutionality of the provision of Article 45.6 of the Law of Ukraine “On Advocacy and Advocacy Activities” No. 5076-VI dated July 5, 2012 (hereinafter referred to as “the Law”).
According to the contested provisions of the Law, “from the moment of state registration of the National Association of Lawyers of Ukraine, all persons who have a certificate of the right to practice law become its members. Other persons become members of the National Association of Lawyers of Ukraine from the moment of taking the oath of the lawyer of Ukraine”.
From the content of the constitutional complaint, it can be seen that on June 9, 2020, Viacheslav Pleskach was granted a certificate of the right to practice law and, in accordance with Article 45.6 of the Law, became a member of the National Association of Lawyers of Ukraine.
In June 2021, the author of the petition filed a lawsuit against the State of Ukraine, represented by the Main Department of the State Treasury Service of Ukraine in the Poltava region, to recover moral damages caused to him by state policy, legislative and regulatory activities of the state. The complainant demanded to collect moral damages from the Main Department of the State Treasury Service of Ukraine in the Poltava Region for his forced, against his will, acquisition of membership in the National Association of Lawyers of Ukraine, the policy of which contradicts his own professional beliefs and values, based on Article 45.6 of the Law.
Courts of first and appellate instances rejected his claim. The Supreme Court refused Viacheslav Pleskach to initiate cassation proceedings due to the insignificance of the case.
The subject of the right to a constitutional complaint claims that the mandatory and non-alternative membership of all lawyers of Ukraine in the National Association of Lawyers of Ukraine provided for by the provisions of Article 45.6 of the Law is a violation of his constitutional right to freedom of association of citizens in public organizations and testifies the inconsistency of these contested provisions of the Law with Articles 36.1, 36.4 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
The judge-rapporteur also informed that in order to ensure a full and objective deliberation of the case and adoption of a reasoned decision by the Court, he requested a number of establishments of higher education and other organizations to provide for their opinions on the issues raised in the constitutional complaint.
After examining the case files in the public part of the plenary session, the Court proceeded to the in-camera part for a decision.
The plenary session is available on the official website of the Court in the section “Archive of video broadcasts of sessions”.
