PECULIARITIES OF JUDICIAL CONSIDERATION OF DIVORCE CASES

Abstract

The article explores the general concept of evidence and the concept of evidence specifically in divorce cases. While there is a certain amount of literature on the topic of evidence and the procedure for its collection and evaluation by the court, the number of publications specifically focusing on evidence in divorce proceedings is not large. Therefore, the subject of this research is underexplored and requires comprehensive and additional investigation. Furthermore, the topic of this article is relevant because, despite the existence of the 2022 practice of the Supreme Court of Ukraine warning against excessive formalism in divorce cases, particularly concerning the requirement for the original marriage certificate, courts of first instance continue, for two consecutive years up to and including October 2024, to unjustifiably demand original documents to confirm the fact of marriage. In this publication, the author attempts to understand the essence of proof in civil cases, particularly in divorce cases. The relevance of this topic is also underscored by the fact that, due to the full-scale war, a large number of documents may be permanently destroyed or lost. Moreover, the issue arises from the presence of these documents in non-government-controlled territories and the plaintiffs themselves, who are legally obliged to prove the circumstances they reference in court applications with specific evidence, being abroad. This topic would have lesser research value if judicial authorities did not create conditions requiring plaintiffs to provide exclusively originals or duplicates of lost documents, even though the facts they establish, namely the fact of marriage, are recognized by the parties to the dispute, and there is no reasonable doubt about their authenticity. Nonetheless, courts demand original documents, often leaving plaintiffs' applications stagnant, which violates the legal rights of applicants to a fair trial. The subject of this publication also includes the examination of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, and its formal.