Estopel in civil judicial proceedings of Ukraine=Естопель у цивільному судочинстві України

Abstract

This scholarly article describes the estoppel law institute formed in English case law and subsequently accepted by other Anglo-Saxon law families and borrowed by international law. Estopel was seen as a possible tool to counteract the abuse of civil procedural rights by the participants in a civil process. It is established that the concept of venire contra factum proprium, that is, the prohibition of contradictory behavior of participants in legal relationships as the basic idea of the principle of estoppel is gradually being accepted by the civil procedural legislation of Ukraine and the jurisprudence, which can be considered as a positive phenomenon, since it indicates a gradual awareness and a deeper understanding of the content of the principle of good faith by the judges and the directions of its practical application. It is proved that the doctrine of estoppel has not to this date been properly disseminated in legal science and is enshrined in the civil procedural law of Ukraine, and therefore it is premature to assert the existence of an estoppel in Ukrainian civil procedural law. The Ukrainian legislation does not contain general signs of contradictory behavior, does not define it as a type of abuse of law and does not indicate its association with violation of the principle of good faith. However, both substantive and procedural legislation of Ukraine have separate provisions that provide reasonable consistency in the actions of participants in legal relationships and prevent contradictory behavior. It is concluded that domestic procedural law (as well as substantive law) does not require borrowing of the case law of English case law, which are of a casuistic nature, and are created to solve particular problems of law enforcement in common law. At the same time, the general principle of the rohibition of ontradictory behavior of participants in legal relations, as the basic idea, which is the basis of virtually every estoppel, and is a component of the general principle of good faith, must necessarily be enshrined in legislation as one of the ways of counteracting the procedural unfairness of participants in the judicial process.