Summary: 1. Introduction. – 2. The History of Ukrainian Commercial Courts Development. – 3. Novels of Commercial Procedure in the Context of Judicial Reform. – 4. Concluding Remarks.
The judicial system of commercial (arbitration) courts of Ukraine has undergone a difficult path of formation and approval. An active process of creating the system of arbitration courts in Ukraine began in 1991, with the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Arbitration Court’. This law defined the prerogatives of the arbitration court as one of the branches of the judiciary designed to administer justice in commercial relations. The main peculiarity of the arbitration court as a part of the judiciary was its specialization. Today we are the witnesses of the final stage of the reform of commercial courts and commercial justice as a whole within the adoption of the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Judiciary and Status of Judges’ in 2016.
Within current judicial reform in Ukraine, not only the organization of the courts itself, but also the procedure for reviewing commercial cases has changed. The main novels of commercial justice, analysed in this paper, are the following: reflection of the main purpose of the CPC and the basic principles, among which there are new ones: proportionality and case management; more complete implementation of the principles of publicity and openness, etc.; introduction of electronic justice; differentiation of proceedings; determining the written statements of the participants of the case and the written form of the proceedings; improvement of the procedure of proof in the case, as well as distribution of court costs in the case, taking into account the main elements of case management and the need to ensure the principle of cooperation between the court and the parties in the case; as well as the prevention of confusion with procedural rights in the process and the settlement of a dispute with the participation of a judge.