Some aspects of implementing the right to the free of charge secondary legal aid in the context of access to justice
Abstract
The article is devoted to the analysis of certain provisions of the current legislation of Ukraine concerning the understanding and interpretation of the accessibility of justice as a key guarantee of ensuring the implementation of international norms and provisions of domestic legislation. The link between the principle of access to justice and the mechanism for providing free secondary legal aid has been followed. The procedure for the provision of secondary legal aid free of charge, the problematic issues that arise in the process of providing such assistance and the further prospects for solving these problems
are also defined. The categories of persons entitled to free secondary legal aid are characterized, certain problem aspects of their administrative-legal status are identified, which create obstacles in the practical realization of the right to free secondary legal aid. A number of legislative amendments to the State Fundamental Law, procedural acts, which significantly influenced the realization of the right to secondary free legal aid, were considered. The jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the practice of domestic courts regarding access to justice are analyzed. The statistical data of the Coordination Center on the provision of free secondary legal aid as an indicator of ensuring access to justice for vulnerable categories of people in Ukraine is researched.
The international community recognizes that the right to a fair trial includes the guarantees of procedural rights, namely: the right to access to a court, the right to execute court decisions and the right to the final judgment. In Ukraine, free legal aid can be considered as a mechanism to ensure compliance with international obligations undertaken by our state. The article notes that access to justice is not only the territorial approximation of the organs of justice to citizens, but also the existence of real rights and opportunities for their implementation by appealing to the court, initiating court proceedings, as well as the presence of correspondent duties of the subjects conducting judicial proceedings the process, which in general, meets the requirements stipulated in international legal acts. The article also examines the impact of the judicial reform carried out on the provision of secondary free-of-charge assistance in Ukraine, and, accordingly, the impact on access to justice in connection with the introduction of the so-called “monopoly of advocates” in court.
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