Participation of the prosecutor in the proceedings outside the limits of the public prosecution
Authors: Osipova Olena 
Published: December 2023

The article examines the topical issues of the prosecutor's representative function in judicial proceedings in the conditions of law enforcement reform and martial law. Special attention is paid to consideration of issues regarding the limits of the prosecutor's representation of the state's interests in court proceedings.

The views of scientists on the place and role of the prosecutor in the judiciary are analyzed, and the author's definition of the concept of the prosecutor's representative function in court is presented.

The dual legal nature of the participation of the prosecutor in the judicial proceedings is shown, who, on the one hand, is a participant in the case, and on the other hand, retains the elements of supervision over the legality of procedural actions of other participants and court decisions.

The legal status of the prosecutor in the process of representing the interests of the state in court and in other cases of his participation in the consideration of administrative, economic and civil cases by the courts was studied.

The expediency of limiting the representation of the interests of the state in court by the prosecutor to the sphere of defense, budgetary relations and corruption and narrowing the scope of the prosecutor's powers in court, in particular due to the right to enter into the consideration of the case at the request of other persons at any stage of the court proceedings and to initiate the review of court decisions independently from his participation in the proceedings.

A comparative analysis of the norms of laws and the branch order of the Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the participation of the prosecutor in certain types of judicial proceedings was carried out in order to check their compliance with the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, and attention was drawn to existing discrepancies and the need for their correction.

It is proved that the content of the concept of participation of the prosecutor in judicial proceedings is broader than the concept of representation by the prosecutor in court.

It was established that with the addition of the Law of Ukraine «On the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights» and the introduction of relevant changes to the procedural codes of Ukraine, the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights completely took over the function of the prosecutor's office in representing the interests of citizens in court, having received the appropriate powers, in including those that belonged exclusively to prosecutors.

Legislative proposals on further reform of the prosecutor's participation in the judicial process were provided, in particular, it was proposed to limit the representation of the state's interests by the prosecutor to the spheres of defense, the budget and anti-corruption during martial law, and in the future, if there are appropriate social, political and legal conditions, to completely abandon the representative function of the prosecutor in court.

In the post-war period, it was proposed to amend Clause 2 of Part 1 of Article 131-1 of the Constitution of Ukraine, where instead of representing the interests of the state in court, it should be written «other participation of the prosecutor in the proceedings in the cases and procedure specified by law».

Key words: prosecutor, representation in court, interests of the state, interests of the citizen, legal status of the prosecutor, judiciary, function of the prosecutor's office, human rights commissioner.