On 8 February 2020, the law amending the Codes of Commercial, Civil, and Administrative Procedure of Ukraine entered into force. The amendments are aimed to decrease the excessive caseload of the Supreme Court, as well as to enhance certain procedural tools.
New criteria for admission of cases by Supreme Court
From now on, the Supreme Court will only review the case if:
- the appellate court failed to follow an existing case of the Supreme Court
- the applicant justified the need to overrule an existing ruling of the Supreme Court
- there is no existing case of the Supreme Court on the issue in question
- the lower courts significantly violated due process of law
New rules for interim measures
Certain types of interim relief are excluded from the procedural codes, as they occasionally proved abusive, namely:
- compelling one to undertake an action
- handover of a disputed property to a custody of a third party
In addition, the new amendments expressly prohibit granting interim measures suspending public or municipal tenders and similar competitive procedures.
Combating unfair practices
The amendments shut down certain loopholes in the procedural rules, which were abused by dishonest litigants to frustrate and delay the proceedings. As a result, the procedure for recusal of judges was revisited and mechanisms preventing groundless appeals against the procedural orders were put in place.
