The Supreme Court has begun closing "dead cases" that have been pending for over 15 years
The Supreme Court held a meeting with a delegation from the Secretariat of the Council of Europe, led by Clare Ovey, Director of Human Rights at the Council of Europe's Directorate General for Human Rights and Rule of Law.
During the discussion, the parties focused on key issues related to the implementation of the European Court of Human Rights' decisions concerning Ukraine. In particular, they addressed judicial independence, excessive length of court proceedings, and the specifics of reviewing cases by the national Supreme Court following ECHR rulings.
Within the meeting, the parties concentrated on discussing systemic problems grouped into case clusters:
- "Merit / Svitlana Naumenko v. Ukraine" (excessive length of court proceedings);
- "Denisov / Holovchuk v. Ukraine" (judicial independence);
- "Alakhverdyan v. Ukraine" (reinstatement and re-examination of cases after ECHR decisions);
- "Ignatov / Korneikova v. Ukraine" (detention conditions not meeting Convention requirements).
During the discussion, Larysa Rohach, Chair of the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, emphasized that war is not a reason to lower judicial standards, so commercial courts continue to consider cases, including through videoconferencing systems, remote hearings, electronic offices, and more. At the same time, she noted, this does not mean that the issue of excessive duration of proceedings has been resolved. Therefore, the Supreme Court remains actively involved in applying both individual and general measures to eliminate defects identified by the ECHR, for example, in the case "Fesenko v. Ukraine." In particular, the judicial panel for bankruptcy cases of the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court has begun applying the concept of "dead/abandoned cases," which allows closing cases that have been pending for over fifteen years and evidently no longer interest the parties or have any effect on the country's economy.
Overall, the Supreme Court is working on developing and implementing measures to ensure reasonable timeframes for case consideration, which can be realized using existing tools without legislative changes.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel t.me/sudua and to Google News SUD.UA, as well as to our VIBER and WhatsApp, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay informed about the most important events.
