Representation of Territorial Community Interests in Court by the Public Prosecutor

Abstract

The article focuses on the representation of territorial community interests in court by the public prosecutor. Territorial community delegates representation of its interest to the local governments. Local governments are obliged to act according to the law. Nevertheless, that local governments may act against the interests of territorial communities in some cases. Therefore, acting in such manner cannot be considered as an expression of the will of the territorial community.
In the light of the above, the issue of representation of territorial community interests in court by the public prosecutor becomes extremely relevant. At the same time, the legislation contains a list of grounds for the prosecutor to represent the interests of the state, and the analysis of these grounds does not provide an unambiguous understanding of which should be referred to in the case of representation of territorial community interests. This causes certain problems in practice, which reduces the effectiveness of this function of the prosecutor’s office, and, among other factors, has a negative impact on the activities of the prosecutor’s office as a whole.
It was found that the protection of the interests of the territorial community is in line with the interests of the state, and therefore Art. 1311 of the Constitution of Ukraine, Art. 23 of the Law of Ukraine «On the Prosecutor’s Office» provide legal grounds for the prosecutor to represent the interests of the state in the person of the territorial community in court.
The prosecutor may not represent the local government while suing the same local government as the defendant. Therefore, it was concluded that the prosecutor should refer to the absence of a body whose competence includes the authority to represent territorial communities.