Judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine took part in an international conference on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan
On July 6-7, 2018, the delegation of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, consisting of Viktor Horodovenko and Natalia Shaptala took part in the international conference in Baku, Azerbaijan Republic, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan on “The state governed by rule of law and the constitutional justice: values and priorities”.
The event was organised by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan in cooperation with the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) and the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ).
The international conference was opened by the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Azerbaijani Republic Farhad Abdullayev. He emphasised the relevance of the topic of the conference and expressed his hope for fruitful and productive work.
Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Fuad Alasgarov read a congratulatory message on behalf of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan .H.E. Ilham Aliyev.
The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan congratulated the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the 20th anniversary and emphasised the important role of the Constitutional Court in ensuring the stability of the legal system of the Republic of Azerbaijan, its sustainable development, integration of national legislation in the modern system of international law and further strengthening of legal culture in society, as well stressed that the Court became a reliable guarantor of human rights in the state.
First Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan Ziyafat Asgarov welcomed the guests and noted that the establishment of the Institute for Constitutional Review in Azerbaijan was a very important step in the development of democratic values in the country.
The President of the Venice Commission Gianni Buquicchio emphasised that the main mission of the Constitutional Court is to ensure the stability of the Constitution and the rule of law. He also dwelt in detail on the decisions taken by the Venice Commission with respect to Azerbaijan. The speaker stressed the urgency of the topic of the international conference, since the tasks of the Constitutional Court are to protect the rights and freedoms of citizens.
In the framework of the international conference “The state governed by rule of law and the constitutional justice: values and priorities”, the judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Viktor Horodovenko presented a report on “The principle of the law-based state in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine: evolution and prospects for application in connection with the introduction of the institute of constitutional complaint”. He emphasised that in the theory of law there are different approaches related to the rule of law. According to him, the practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine shows that, in order to protect the constitutional human and citizen’s rights and freedoms from the arbitrariness of the state, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine more often uses the principle of the rule of law, implementing it with the help of the basic elements of the principles of the law-based state and the rule of law and exercising a dynamic interpretation of fundamental rights and freedoms. The judge noted that, at the same time, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine simultaneously applies these principles in the same sense of purpose – the protection of fundamental human rights from arbitrariness of the state.
Viktor Horodovenko analysed the practice of national constitutional justice in the aspect of understanding the principle of a law-based state and noted that certain decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine faced a number of legal positions. In his opinion, the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine does not preclude the general application of the principle of a law-based state and the rule of law. “It shows a certain tendency towards their rapprochement, proceeding from the understanding of the content of these two principles by the Court”, he added.
The judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine stressed that today the abstract relationship between the doctrines of the law-based state and the rule of law is not important, as well as their implementation as practical concepts for the protection of human rights from the arbitrariness of the state in modern legal systems. The speaker highlighted that for this purpose in Ukraine the constitutional complaint institute was introduced.
Viktor Horodovenko mentioned that a normative model of the constitutional complaint was introduced in Ukraine, which is a written application submitted to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine regarding conformity of the Law to the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality), which was applied in the final judicial decision with respect to the subject of the right to constitutional complaint. The speaker informed the participants of the event that over 750 constitutional complaints had already been received by the Court, most of which were returned to the applicants at an early stage, in particular, because they were not challenged by law, but by a specific court decision.
Yet, analysing the constitutional complaints submitted to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, it can be mentioned that many of them were substantiated by the applicants, taking into account the principles of the law-based state and the rule of law, in particular, such as legality, legal certainty, prohibition of arbitrariness, access to court, the Judge underlined.
Concluding the report, the judge of the Constitutional Court Viktor Horodovenko noted that the practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine does not preclude the general application of the principle of law-based state, the rule of law and the tendency for their convergence. However, all these principles are applied to achieve the common goal – the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms from state arbitrariness. In addition, the effectiveness of the implementation of these powerful tools should increase at a time due to the introduction of a constitutional complaint in Ukraine.
According to the programme of the event, the reports were presented by the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) Elmira Suleymanova (“Effective institutional mechanisms for ensuring equality"), President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Austria Brigitte Bierlein (“Constitutional review: the Austrian experience”), Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic Ivetta Macejková (“Some issues of constitutional justice”), Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus Petr Miklashevich (“Constitutional justice within the process of development of modern state governed by the rule of law”), President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Montenegro Dragoljub Drašković (“The Constitutional Court of Montenegro as a guardian of the constitutional order and human rights and liberties”), Judge of the European Court of Human Rights Latif Huseynov (“The role of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the implementation of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms”), Judge of the European Court of Human Rights Péter Paczolay (“The dialogue of Constitutional Courts and the European Court of Human Rights”), Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan Rovshan Ismaylov (“The judicial protection and principle of efficiency in the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan”), Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Serbia Tomislav Stojković (“The rule of law and constitutional judicial review”), Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Macedonia Nikola Ivanovski (“Constitutional Court of the Republic of Macedonia in the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms”), Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Hungary Imre Juhász (“The questions of constitutional identity”), Dean of the Law Faculty of the Baku State University Amir Aliyev (“New vision on human rights and their protection in the context of globalization”), Member of the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alibek Temerbekov (“The applications of courts to the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan”), Senior Lecturer of the Department of International Public Law of the Baku State University Turgay Huseynov The issues of recognition of the judicial decisions of foreign countries in the proceedings of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan”).
The presentations were followed by lively discussions among the participants of the event, in which the judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine also participated.
In addition, the judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Natalia Shaptala presented her report on “Philosophical and legal concepts of universal values, in particular, the rule of law in the constitutional proceedings”. The reports of the judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the results of the international conference “The state governed by rule of law and the constitutional justice: values and priorities” will be published in the collection of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
At the end of the conference, the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Azerbaijan Republic Farhad Abdullayev expressed gratitude to all the participants for interesting and extremely informative reports. He noted that fruitful discussions took place within the framework of the event, in particular, on constitutional justice. Farhad Abdullayev emphasised that, given some differences in the views of the participants in the discussion, they were really interesting, cognitive and productive.
