Andrii Kubko has analysed the issue of state responsibility and state interests

In the collection Wissenschaftlich-Praktischer Sammelband zum 10-jährigen Jubiläum der DUJV (Scientific and Practical Collection for the 10th Anniversary of the German-Ukrainian Association of Lawyers), Hamburg, article by the partner of Salkom Law Firm Andrii Kubko “State responsibility and state interests (international standards and Ukrainian context)” has been published. The article deals with development of the institute of state responsibility in the legal system of Ukraine, as well as the practice of the European Court in this area.

The author emphasizes that since the beginning of the 2000s, the institute of state responsibility has found more systematic reflection in the national legislation of Ukraine. Provisions governing the issues of state responsibility were largely based on international standards for protection of human rights developed in the jurisprudence of international judicial bodies, primarily the European Court.

One of the problematic aspects, which largely determine the violation of international legal standards by the state and, as a consequence, cause bringing the state to international legal responsibility is associated with the category of interests that underlie the actions of the state. On the part of public authorities, there is not always a correct identification of interests, for the implementation of which the state restricts the private rights of a person, as well as not always a choice of legal means for implementing such interests is justified.

Often, violations by Ukraine of international standards for the protection of human rights are due to the fact that national authorities apply restrictions on the rights guaranteed by the Convention to protect interests that are erroneously classified by the state as public, although by their nature they are departmental interests, interests of individual government agencies, officials, etc. Such interests are not of a public nature. The legal means that the state uses to protect these interests does not correspond to their (interests’) nature. As a consequence, the legal means applied by the state are often found by the European Court not to meet the requirement of proportionality.