The right to a constitutional complaint as an element of access to constitutional justice

The article is devoted to the study of the right to file a constitutional complaint as a component of ensuring access to constitutional justice. Based on the analysis of Ukraine’s legal doctrine and legislation, it has been established that the institution of constitutional complaint became a novelty within the framework of the institutional judicial reform regarding justice in 2016, which was accompanied by amendments to the Constitution, and the practical implementation of these provisions, as well as the consideration of constitutional complaints by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine began in 2018. The article establishes that the peculiarities of the constitutional complaint in Ukraine allow it to be characterized as individual, direct, and «partially normative,» since its subject matter only covers «the law of Ukraine,» with the object of the constitutional complaint being limited exclusively to laws of Ukraine. The Ukrainian model of the constitutional complaint, by its potential, serves as an effective tool for protecting constitutionally guaranteed human rights, with the condition of its effectiveness being the productive activity of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. At the same time, the author draws attention to the debatable nature of limiting the object of the constitutional complaint exclusively to laws of Ukraine in view of the needs and realities of Ukrainian society in terms of guaranteeing human and citizen rights and freedoms. It is proposed to expand the range of legal acts that can be challenged through a constitutional complaint to verify their constitutionality, including other normative legal acts of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, acts of the President of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and legal acts of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in cases where the application of these acts in a specific case led to a violation of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine. It has been established that the introduction of the institution of individual constitutional complaint is a valuable step in the context of ensuring an individual’s access to constitutional justice in Ukraine and a guarantee of the effectiveness of the right to judicial protection. It is concluded that the right to file an individual constitutional complaint is an important guarantee of access to justice, as it ensures the non- illusory nature of democratic values, the principle of the rule of law, and contributes to the development of a judicial system that guarantees equality before the law and a fair trial.