Setting up of a consistent court practice at the current stage of development of justice in Ukraine is a methodological issue resting on a respective empirical foundation. It is underlain by the lack of approaches in the procedural activities of the Supreme Court which would ensure compliance with the principle of legal certainty. The recent reform of the Ukrainian procedural laws has formed the bases for the administration of justice in the country; however, in the context of the above, some practical aspects of their implementation require respective improvement. It should be noted that in the legal literature no well-established position still exists with regard to the integral mechanism of the uniform court practice, and it still remains uncertain which legal means should ensure its efficiency. The purpose of the article is to find a solution to the issue of ensuring the sustainable practice of the Supreme Court by providing the rationale for introduction of analog legal structures of the EU community law of procedure and the law of procedure of France into the national legal system. It is established that a non-uniform application of legal provisions contributes to the deformation of structural consistency of court practice. One of the ways to overcome this process is to introduce the institute of a request (reference) for a preliminary ruling into the national legal system of Ukraine. This institution of derivative justice is gaining its procedural expansion not only within the framework of national judicial procedure in the European countries, but is also used as a means for unification of court practice in supranational justice. A request (reference) for a preliminary ruling is a form according to which a court of a certain jurisdiction level (which applies national law while establishing the factual circumstances) requests a competent judicial authority of the national legal system reviewing court rulings passed at the trial or appellate level via the cassation proceedings to provide its opinion on the application of a certain legal provision in disputed legal relations by means of a delegated interpretation of its meaning. The legal essence of a request (reference) for a preliminary ruling is manifested through the features of its form (judicial initiative, informatory availability, time limit, discreteness) and content (issue of the application of law, presence of any problem in respect of the consistency of law application, novation nature of the issue of law application, absence of cassation proceedings regarding the subject matter of the dispute within the framework of a request for a preliminary ruling). The analysis of the law of procedure of France shows that improvement of the national legislation is needed in the context of the convention obligations of Ukraine. It is expedient to introduce into the legal system of Ukraine the institution of a request (reference) for a preliminary ruling as a means of forming the consistent court practice which will ensure appropriate implementation of the requirements of articles 6, 13 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and facilitate an enhancement of the level of justice in the country. In this context, a draft law on the introduction of the institute of a request (reference) for a preliminary ruling and unification of cassation proceedings, which has been developed in Ukraine, requires further elaboration taking into account the positive experience of France.

List of legal documents

Legislation

1. Code de l’organisation judiciaire. URL: https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCode.do;j sessionid= F88DE07A93ABE 9469A9605 4E16B5B19F. tplgfr24s_1?cid Texte=LEGITEXT 000006071164&date Texte=20180317 (accessed: 07.03.2018) (in French).

2. Code de procédure civile. URL: https://www.legifr ance.gouv.fr/ affich Code.do;jsessio nid=6F9B628 183294A8A4 DCD3F4759DCA5B9. tplgfr23s_1? idSect ionTA= LEGISCTA 000006 135939 &cidTexte=LEGITEX T0000060 70716 &dateTexte=20180317 (accessed: 07.03.2018) (in French).

3. LOI no 91-491 du 15 mai 1991 modifiantlec odedel’organisationjudicia ireetinstituantla saisine pouravisdelaCourdec assation. URL: https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/ affichTexte. do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000526330& fastPos=1&fastReqId=1119730559& categorie Lien=id&oldAction= rechTexte (accessed: 06.03.2018) (in French).

4. Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community (13th of December, 2007). URL: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/ EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:12012E/TXT&from=EN (accessed: 07.03.2018) (in English).

5. Pro vnesennia zmin do Hospodarskoho protsesualnoho kodeksu Ukrainy, Tsyvilnoho protsesualnoho kodeksu Ukrainy, Kodeksu administratyvnoho sudochynstva Ukrainy ta inshykh zakonodavchykh aktiv [On Amendments to the Code of Economic Procedure of Ukraine, the Code of Civil Procedure of Ukraine, the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine and Other Pieces of Legislation]: Zakon Ukrainy [the Law of Ukraine] vid 3 zhovtnia 2017 r. № 2147-VIII. Ofitsiinyi visnyk Ukrainy. 2017. № 96. St. 2921 (in Ukrainian).

6. Pro vnesennia zmin do Tsyvilnoho protsesualnoho kodeksu Ukrainy (shchodo zaprovadzhennia instytutu preiudytsiinoho zapytu ta unifikatsii kasatsiinoho provadzhennia) [On Amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure of Ukraine (Concerning the Introduction of the Institute of a Request (Reference) for a Preliminary Ruling and Unification of Cassation Proceedings)]: proekt Zakonu Ukrainy [the Draft Law of Ukraine] vid 9 liutoho 2018 r. № 8030. URL: http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/ zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=63467 (accessed: 01.03.2018) (in Ukrainian).

7. Protokol № 16 do Konventsii pro zakhyst prav liudyny i osnovopolozhnykh svobod vid 2 zhovtnia 2013 r. [Protocol № 16 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 2 October 2013]: ratyfikovano iz zaiavoiu Zakonom Ukrainy [Ratified with Declaration by the Law of Ukraine] vid 5 zhovtnia 2017 r. № 2156-VIII. Ofitsiinyi visnyk Ukrainy. 2017. № 88. St. 2678 (in Ukrainian).

8. Uhoda pro asotsiatsiiu mizh Ukrainoiu, z odniiei storony, ta Yevropeiskym Soiuzom, Yevropeiskym spivtovarystvom z atomnoi enerhii i yikhnimy derzhavamy-chlenamy, z inshoi storony vid 27 chervnia 2014 r. [Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the One Part, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and Their Member States, on the Other Part, dated June 27, 2014]: ratyfikovano iz zaiavoiu Zakonom Ukrainy [Ratified with Declaration by the Law of Ukraine] vid 16 veresnia 2014 r. № 1678-VII. Ofitsiinyi visnyk Ukrainy. 2014. № 75. T. 1 St. 2125 (in Ukrainian).

Bibliography

Journal articles

9. Ibon Hualde López, ‘Algunasconsideracionessobreel tribunal y el recurso de casación civil Francés’ (2017) 9 (1) Cuadernos de Derecho Transnacional 161 accessed 5 March 2018 (in Spanish).

10. Demenchuk D, ‘Preiudytsialnyi zapyt – odyn iz zasobiv harmonizatsii sudovoi praktyky’ [The pre-trial inquiry as one of the means of harmonizing judicial practice] (2015) 4 Pravo i suspilstvo 14 (in Ukrainian).

Websites

11. Jean Buffet, ‘La saisine pour avis de la Cour de cassation Exposé devant les premiers présidents de cour d’appel’ (Cour de cassation, 29 march 2000) accessed 6 March 2018 (in French).