Legal ensurement of guarantees of advocatory activity in Ukraine

The institution of advocacy in any democratic society is called to play an important role in ensuring principles of the legality and the supremacy of law. The importance of this has been confirmed by the constitutional prescription of the Art. 131-2 of the Constitution of Ukraine, according to which the advocacy operates in Ukraine to provide professional legal assistance. At the same time, only an advocate has the right to represents another person in court, as well as defense against criminal charges, with the exception of certain cases. The relevance of the study of the guarantees of advocatory activity in Ukraine has been determined by the existing problems of their violation. In particular, there is a need both to solve the existing practical aspects and to take into account the prospects of regulating the specified relations in the conditions of European integration, including in the future post-war period. At the same time, it is important to develop ways to ensure compliance with the guarantees of advocatory activity in Ukraine on the basis of taking into account the experience of the countries of the European Union and the best global standards. The peculiarity of the Ukrainian advocacy is that in the society it plays the role of a non-state self-governing institution, which takes care of ensuring the protection of the professional rights of advocates, compliance with guarantees and the proper implementation of legal activities, ensuring a high professional level of advocates and resolving issues of their disciplinary responsibility. Advocatory activity is impossible without the adequate guarantees of legal independence. The actual identification of advocates with their clients, attempts to hinder the practice of law by means of groundless appeals to bring advocates to various types of liability, etc., are extremely common violations of the guarantees of advocatory practice as of today. The existence of an independent institute of advocacy has a positive meaning for the state as well, because it balances forces, a clear system of checks and balances appears, which minimizes the possibility of various types of abuse. At the same time, the real guarantee of compliance with the guarantees of advocatory activity will be not only their consolidation in a declarative order, but effective enforcement of compliance, including by applying to guilty persons the measures of legal responsibility defined by law.