Viešojo intereso gynimas civiliniame procese

LTŠioje mokslinėje monografijoje viešasis interesas aptariamas kaip socialinė teisinė kategorija ir savarankiškas teisminės gynybos bei teisinės apsaugos dalykas. Joje atlikti moksliniai tyrimai leido suformuluoti ir pateikti viešojo intereso sąvokos apibrėžimą ir apibūdinti viešojo intereso dalyką bei subjektus. Monografijoje atskleidžiamos ir nagrinėjamos viešojo intereso apsaugos civiliniame procese aktualios teorinės ir praktinės problemos, pateikiami pasiūlymai šioms problemoms spręsti. Tuo tikslu monografijoje analizuojamos Lietuvos Respublikos civilinio proceso kodekso normos, reglamentuojančios viešojo intereso apsaugą, aptariamos problemos, susijusios su prokuroro, valstybės ir savivaldybių institucijų bei kitų asmenų dalyvavimu civiliniame procese, siekiant apginti viešąjį interesą, nagrinėjamos viešojo intereso gynimo individualiais, grupės ieškiniais ir išvestiniais ieškiniais problemos, atskleidžiamos res judicata principo įgyvendinimo grupės ieškinių procese problemos. Monografijoje taip pat tiriami pastaruoju metu Lietuvoje pateikti įstatymų projektai, kuriais siekiama tobulinti viešojo intereso gynimo civiliniame procese ir grupės ieškinių viešajam interesui ginti teisinį reglamentavimą, kritiškai vertinami tokio reglamentavimo neatitikimai bendrųjų civilinio proceso teisės doktrinos reikalavimų bei civilinio proceso teisės pagrindinių principų ir pateikiama reikšmingų pasiūlymų tokiam teisiniam reglamentavimui tobulinti.Monografija skirta socialinių mokslų srities teisės krypties mokslininkams, teisėkūros subjektams, aukštųjų universitetinių mokyklų teisės studijų doktorantams, magistrantams bei kitiems studentams, taip pat teisėjams, prokurorams, valstybės ir savivaldybių institucijų darbuotojams ir visiems kitiems, besidominantiems viešojo intereso gynimo teorinėmis ir praktinėmis problemomis. Tikimės, kad ši monografija susilauks didelio visuomenės ir aktyvių jos atstovų, siekiančių ginti ne tik savo subjektines teises, bet ir bendrus, daugeliui bendruomenės narių svarbius interesus, susidomėjimo. [Anotacija knygoje]

ENRelevance and Academic Novelty of the Subject. As social and economic systems are becoming global as well as production and consumption of goods and services are acquiring a mass nature, socio-economic phenomena are influencing rights and legitimate interests of increasingly numerous groups consisting of persons with same rights and obligations. Such system of social and economic relationships determines the contents of legal relationships. Consequently, these relationships are acquiring a mass nature, too. Therefore, the modern system of socio-economic relationships is becoming a multi-party system instead of a bipartite one and the civil circulation is becoming more complex. Under such conditions, growth of business entities and a huge scale of their activities pose a risk that rights and legitimate interests of very numerous groups of persons being in the same legal and factual situation, instead of ones of one or few individuals, might be infringed. Negative nature of such phenomena manifests as mass violations of law, such as pollution of environment and foodstuffs, defective and hazardous consumer commodities, services of bad quality, unfair conditions of consumer contracts, unfair activities of organizers and disseminators of public information, various frauds, as well as infringements of equality of rights of individuals. Such mass violations of rights and legitimate interests of numerous groups should already be treated not only as infringement of one’s individual subjective rights, but also as infringement of the public interest. The law of civil procedure should be correspondent to a level and condition of substantive civil legal relationships as well as should offer adequate judicial remedies.The abovementioned global, multi-party, and mass character of civil legal relationships shows a necessity of search for new judicial remedies of numerous groups in addition to already known conventional remedies of rights and legitimate interests of groups of few persons (joinder of parties, representation, joinder of uniform cases, and defence of rights of other persons). Such circumstances indicate that an issue of protection of the public interest as well as of rights and legitimate interests of numerous groups being equated to the public interest is relevant and significant. The contemporary legal doctrine that seeks for cohesion of a person and the society is paying the increasing attention to the public interests and their protection. The public interests in Lithuania are protected even by legislation, for example, by the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania, which traditionally is ascribed to the private law. Therefore, a need for judicial protection of the public interests is quite understandable. The individualistic liberal model of the civil procedure is often criticised because in fact it is oriented towards protection of private interests of separate individuals. In order to ensure a balance between protection of private and public interests, the model of the social civil procedure was chosen as a basis for the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter – CPC). Implementation of the model of the social civil procedure in the CPC provisions related to protection of the public interest has determined a greater procedural activity of the judge, what manifests by exceptions to the principle of disposition. Such exceptions are justifiable and necessary in order to match defence of the private and public interest in the civil procedure and to ensure the balance of these interests because it is admitted that litigation is not only a private concern of the parties.Socially, the public interest is a constitutional value. It is worthwhile noticing that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania, already in its ruling of the 14th February, 1994, stated that “however, in case some circumstances aggravate the opportunity to exercise one’s right to legal protection or make it impossible at all, the declarativeness of the said constitutional right would have to be recognized. Therefore, empowering of state institutions or their officials by law in order to help people in necessary cases to realize the protection of their constitutional rights is expedient and justifiable but only on condition that it is in compliance with the Constitution”. In its Ruling “On Compliance of Item 2 of Part 1 of Article 16 of the Law on Officials of the Republic of Lithuania with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania”, dated on the 6th of May, 1997, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania stressed that the legislator has a right to determine the boundaries of the public interest in specific relationships. Therefore, without violating the Constitution, laws may provide for cases and procedure for judicial protection of the public interest by authorized institutions or officials. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania indicated in the said Ruling that implementation of the public interest, being a social interest acknowledged by the state and protected by the law, is one of the most important preconditions of existence and development of the society itself”. CPC establishes a judicial remedy of the public interest, which is absolutely new in Lithuania, that is, the class action. In the event a particular composition of a numerous group is unknown, the class action enables one or few members of such group to defend its interests without a need to acquire specific authorizations of all members in the group. [...]. [From the publication]