EU Project Pravo-Justice Presents the Draft Report on Mediation in Administrative Disputes

On July 28-29, the experts of the EU Project Pravo-Justice presented the draft report on “Mediation in Administrative Disputes” to representatives of Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk District Administrative Courts. The participants to the meetings discussed the categories of public cases where mediation may apply, as well as the mechanisms for transferring such cases to mediation.

“No doubt, mediation in administrative disputes has some peculiarities. Therefore, if we manage to resolve 1 to 3 percent of administrative disputes through alternative dispute resolution, including mediation, it will be a great success,” said Dovydas Vitkauskas, Team Leader of the EU Project Pravo-Justice.

According to the experts, the most promising for mediation are disputes involving local governments, which are interested in the peaceful settlement of disputes and have the necessary powers. In particular, the following categories of cases are proposed for piloting: appeals against decisions on utility rates, transfer of communal property, obtaining of permits, granting land for ownership or lease, etc.

“Mediation can become a new way to restore trust in state institutions, and turn the conflict into a mutually beneficial cooperation," said Andrii Ryshchenko, judge at Dnipropetrovsk District Administrative Court and coordinator of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Justice Reform Council (RJRC).

In addition, peaceful settlement is possible in disputes related to the activities of private law professions, namely notaries and private enforcements officers. These can be disputes over public service and dismissal, protection of the right to access to public information, collection of tax debts, etc.

Among the existing models of mediation, the experts single out in-court mediation. It provides for the establishment of a mediation centre with accredited external mediators on the basis of a court.

The participants to both meetings agreed that the effective use of mediation in administrative disputes requires political will and the adoption of laws on mediation and administrative procedure.

The presentation of the final report is scheduled for August 31 in Kyiv. During the study, the experts of the EU Project Pravo-Justice analyzed national legislation, statistics on the work of administrative courts, and held individual interviews with stakeholders alongside group discussions with judges of administrative courts within the interregional RJRC group.