The current geopolitical and socio-economic conditions which Ukraine is facing trigger the processes of Ukraine’s statehood development and establishment of civil society, imparting certain specifics to the sphere of understanding and exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and the content of the said specifics is unexplored. Today, Ukraine is going through a turbulent period characterized by the introduced state of emergency or martial law in some of its regions.

The purpose of the article is to study the special features of the limitation on the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly in the state of emergency.

Based on a linguistic understanding, having absorbed the doctrinal and legal experience of understanding the meaning of the term “condition” in combination with other terms concepts, the article leads to the conclusion that a condition should be understood as external circumstances assuring the exercise, implementation or functioning of a phenomenon or a process which characterize the specifics present in the implementation of mutual rights and obligations of entities exposed to these circumstances.

The author proves that the legal regime of the state of emergency may affect the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly; however, its administrative introduction by the Decree of the President of Ukraine, which may contain a direct order prohibiting peaceful assemblies, may not be a lawful basis for the prohibition or limitation of the exercise of this right given the constitutionality, the rule of law principle and lawfulness. The legal regime of the state of emergency, as an external circumstance, affects the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly of entities exposed to such circumstances. At the same time, the decision to prohibit or limit the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly remains the exclusive prerogative of an administrative court, which, in making such a decision, acts at its own discretion, thus opening the possibility that sometimes opposing decisions may be made (to prohibit, limit the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly or to dismiss an administrative claim). Where the Decree of the President of Ukraine introducing the state of emergency prohibits mass events, this is an intervention in the discretion of administrative court (and now a lawful intervention, since it is expressly provided for in the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Regime of the State of Emergency”), which limits court discretion in deciding on the claim filed by public authorities or local self-government bodies regarding the limitation or prohibition of the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and which induces the court to pass a definite decision known in advance – prohibition to exercise the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. Therefore, the state of emergency, as a condition for the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, has a significant impact on the exercise of this right, and where an explicit ban is imposed on mass events, it entails the prohibition of the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly in the territory where the state of emergency has been introduced.

Bibliography

Authored books

1. Zakaliuk A, Kurs suchasnoi ukrainskoi kryminolohii: teoriia i praktuka [Course of Modern Ukrainian Criminology: Theory and Practice] (In Yure 2007) (in Ukrainian).

Edited books

2. ‘Umova’ [‘Condition’] v Slovnyk ukrainskoi movy [Condition. Dictionary of Ukrainian] 1979 (in Ukrainian).

Journal articles

3. Durmanenko O, ‘Teoretychnyi analiz ponyattia “pedahohichni umovy” v konteksti monitorynhu vyhovnoi roboty y vyschomu navchalnomu zakladi’ [‘A Theoretical Analysis of Concept “Pedagogical Terms” is in the Context of Monitoring of Educator Work in Higher Educational Establishment’] [2012] 7(90) Molod i runok (in Ukrainian).