The Ministry of Justice shall prohibit “cloning” of the names of bar self-government bodies — HACU decision

The Ministry of Justice shall prohibit the use of names of the bar self-government bodies in the names of other legal entities and NGOs.

The Higher Administrative Court upheld the decision of the District Administrative Court of Kyiv dated April 15, 2016 and the ruling of Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal dated June 7, 2016.

 “The panel of judges of the Higher Administrative Court considers that the court of first instance and the court of appeal have reached a right conclusion”, - says the HACU in its decision dated April 26.

By these court decisions the Ministry of Justice was obliged to introduce a legislative ban on the use of proper names of the bar self-government bodies in the names of other legal entities and NGOs. Such a ban shall be imposed under paragraph 10 of the transitional provisions of the Law “On the Bar and Practice of Law”, pursuant to which the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministries and other central executive authorities were obliged to bring laws and regulations in line with the requirements of the relevant law on bar.

“The inferior courts have come to the right conclusion that the Ukrainian legislation clearly defines proper names for all bar self-government bodies, whose list is exhaustive. The substitution of names of the bar self-government bodies and the use of their proper names by other parties of social relations shall not be allowed”, - explains HACU in its ruling.

The UNBA has repeatedly appealed to the Prime Minister in respect of a need to prohibit the use of the proper names of the bar self-government bodies in the names of other legal entities in the Requirements for Writing the Name of a Legal Entity or its Separate Unit, approved by the Order of the Ministry of Justice. However, the UNBA received numerous refusals from the Ministry in response.

In its claim the UNBA pointed out that the lack of such prohibition allows the legal entities, established under the laws other than the Law on the Bar, to misappropriate the names of the bar self-government bodies and use them in violation of the said law.

By its decision the court confirmed that the Ministry of Justice is obliged to bring the regulatory framework, related to the state registration of legal entities and individuals, into conformity with the Law on the Bar, since the latter takes precedence. The court refers to the fact that the legislation clearly defines proper names for all bar self-government bodies, and the use of their proper names by other parties of social relations is not allowed. The court agreed with the UNBA arguments that paragraph 10 of the Law on the Bar was not complied with by the Ministry of Justice, and ordered to establish in the aforementioned Requirements the ban on use of the full, reduced and written in English proper names of the bar self-government bodies and their derivatives in the names of other legal entities, their units and NGOs having no legal status.