Administration of Justice Under Martial Law: Adaptation of the Judicial System to Emergency Conditions

The relevance of the study is determined by the need to ensure continuity of justice amid wartime threats, changes in territorial jurisdiction, relocations, staff shortages, infrastructure damage and restricted access to courts. The purpose of the article is to identify legal and organisational foundations for adapting Ukraine’s court system to martial law without weakening judicial independence, equality of the parties and the right to a fair trial. The study applies formal legal, systemic and comparative methods, together with analysis of legislation and court administration practices. The introduced measures are assessed against legality, necessity, proportionality, legal certainty, temporariness and protection of procedural rights. It is established that changes in territorial jurisdiction should be temporary, justified and reversible. Their application should consider the staffing, technical, security and organisational capacity of the court receiving transferred cases. The need for clear rules on remote participation in hearings, renewal of procedural time limits and restoration of lost proceedings is substantiated. Priority is given to cybersecurity, protection of judicial information, electronic document management, data backup and secure videoconferencing. Comprehensive criteria are proposed for assessing courts’ readiness to resume operations in de-occupied territories. These include infrastructure condition, staffing levels, access to information systems, transport accessibility, security and the ability to hear cases within a reasonable time. Wartime digital and organisational solutions may continue after martial law only if regulated and subject to institutional oversight. Further research should develop a legislative model for integrating wartime practices into the administration of justice and mechanisms for evaluating their effectiveness.