THE ROLE OF JUDICIAL PRECEDENT (CASE LAW) IN UKRAINE AS A TOOL FOR RESOLVING CURRENT ISSUES IN THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

Abstract

The article highlights the basic principle of Ukrainian legal proceedings and analyses its application as the Anglo-American principle of "ratio decidendi". The author defines the legal basis for the organisation of court proceedings in the Ukrainian national legal system. The article focuses on the key reasons for the need to use judicial rule-making, namely, the low level of interpretation and, consequently, understanding of legal norms. Judicial law-making is driven by the need to protect the so-called hidden rights and is an effective means of eliminating the legal vacuum and overcoming conflicts between legal norms.

The article also examines the young institution of exemplary cases in administrative proceedings and the role of legal opinions of the Supreme Court through the prism of judicial practice as a driving force for the development of the judicial system in Ukraine. As regulatory authorities, the key purpose of legal opinions and exemplary cases is to ensure the sustainability and unity of judicial practice and to guarantee the standard of human rights observance.

Taking into account the inability of the legislator to regulate the rapid development of social relations, the emergence of a large number of conflict of laws and a legal vacuum, the author focuses on the irrationality of the development of the judicial system in Ukraine only within the so-called "framework" of the Romano-Germanic legal family.

The prospects for the development of judicial precedent in Ukraine are either to grant it an official auxiliary recommendatory status as a source of legal regulation or to classify it as a source of law binding on all subjects. In any case, further reform of the institution of judicial precedent is directly related to improving the professional selection of judges, as well as ensuring transparency and objectivity of court decisions.