EQUITY traditionally acted as the General Partner of the III Conference «Compensation for Damage Caused by War» from Yurydychna Praktyka
On 14 November, Yuridicheskaya Practika held the III Conference «Compensation for Damage Caused by War» for the third time under the General Partnership EQUITY.
EQUITY Managing Partner Oleh Malinevskyi traditionally opened and delivered a special report «The Role of the State in Compensation: from Monopoly to Efficiency». Oleh spoke about the danger of further monopolisation of the field of compensation by the State and called for cooperation among all professionals involved in the field. He also suggested areas and issues where cooperation would facilitate compensation and break the deadlock.
In particular, the partner stressed the need to lobby for legislative changes at the national level, both in Ukraine and in the partner countries, to facilitate litigation in these areas (lifting of state immunity, access to justice for both victims and perpetrators of aggression and expansion of the circle of the latter), to establish mechanisms for financing litigation, including in the public sector, and to expand the geography of available jurisdictions. The implementation of such a joint plan would significantly revitalise the reparations industry, make existing mechanisms more effective, promote the right of victims to legal self-defence, and serve as an important factor in ending this war and preventing similar aggressions in the future.
Vyacheslav Krahlevych, Partner at EQUITY, acted as a co-moderator of the first session dedicated to «Public Law Mechanisms».
«The illegal actions of the agressor must be fairly compensated, and such measures by the professional community should improve this procedure. Since the beginning of this undeclared war, in the summer of 2022, there was already the first decision of the Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, which already then began to state the right of any citizen of Ukraine and legal entity to recover damages,» Vyacheslav began the session.
Together with the Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy, Deputy Minister of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, Head of the Kyiv Office of the Register of Damage for Ukraine, Deputy Head of the National agency of Ukraine for finding, tracing and management of assets derived from corruption and other crimes, as well as representatives of the Bar and business, engaged in constructive dialogue on the draft laws on judicial immunities. The session also addressed a number of other important matters, including the issue of compensation for destroyed housing, the creation of a compensation mechanism, the use of frozen assets of the russian federation, standards of legal proceedings against the russian federation, and international experience and legislative changes to protect the rights of war victims. In addition, the urgent issues that require immediate attention were also discussed.
During the second session of the conference, dedicated to private law disputes, EQUITY Partner Anna Yudkivska spoke on «Breaking the deadlock: is it possible to enforce the ECHR judgment against russia?».
Anna provided a comprehensive overview of potential avenues for overcoming the challenge of judicial immunity of the russian federation in the recovery of sovereign assets. She also explored the possibility of enforcing ECHR judgments against Russia in third countries, as well as the ways to obtain compensation in the event of a judgment against russia by the ECHR. Additionally, she discussed the potential of seizing the sovereign assets of the russian federation as a means of securing a claim, drawing upon international experience in similar cases. The EQUITY partner also took the opportunity to share the latest changes and developments in this area.
«We hope that the Register of Damage for Ukraine will be backed up by real assets and then the decisions of Ukrainian courts will become practical,» said Anna Yudkivska.
We thank the panelists for their active discussion and questions and Yurydychna Praktyka for organising such an important event for our time, which becomes the basis for productive changes in establishing justice!