Background: On 24 February, Russia launched a military attack on the entire territory of Ukraine, in connection with which the President of Ukraine declared martial law. According to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Martial Law’, martial law is a special legal regime introduced in the event of armed aggression, danger to the state independence of Ukraine, or its territorial integrity and arranges for the provision of appropriate state authorities, military command, military administrations, and local authorities self-governance of the powers necessary to avert the threat, repel armed aggression and ensure national security, and eliminate the threat of danger to the state independence of Ukraine, its territorial integrity, as well as the temporary restriction of the constitutional rights and freedoms of persons and citizens and the rights and legitimate interests of legal entities within the validity period of these restrictions. This study is designed to analyse the consequences of armed aggression against Ukraine and the introduction of the appropriate legal regime in such areas as the realisation of property rights, the administration of justice, the enforcement of court decisions, and labour relations. Methods: To achieve the goals of the research, general scientific and special methods of scientific research were applied, such as comparative-legal and semantic-structural methods and the method of grouping, analysis, synthesis, and generalization. Results and Conclusions: The introduction of the martial law regime throughout the territory of Ukraine affected all spheres of life and, as a result, requires adaptation to modern realities. In particular, this consists of changes to the current legislation because the martial law regime involves the restriction of certain constitutional rights and freedoms of persons and the introduction of new mechanisms – for example, the suspension of labour relations, changes in the jurisdiction of courts for the possibility of justice, expanding the competence of private executors, and even making changes to the regulations of ICAC due to the impossibility of sending documents by mail, as well as allowing process participants to personally participate in meetings.

[full article, abstract in English, abstract in Russian] During the reform of 2014–2017 Ukrainian legislation was approved significantly, among them the Constitution, laws, related to judiciary and litigation, enforcement as well. The advocacy reform is last. This has led to the evolutionary renewal of justice in Ukraine, which was positively faced by the international community. This article proposes to consider some components of civil justice reform, which were substantially updated, as well as to analyse their compliance with international and European standards. This refers to (1) a general review of judicial statistics and (2) new approaches to the trial of a court of first instance – order, simplified, general proceedings, criteria for demarcation of civil cases (3), and (4) peculiarities of settling a dispute with the participation of a judge. The conclusions summarize the most progressive results of reforms, as well as make suggestions on further development of the potential of civil justice.

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In this issue, we have collected articles and notes written by authors on various topics related to the war in Ukraine. Among the research articles, we have a few contributions on the most requested issues. Our authors studied topical questions and tried to find solutions where they found a lack of proper regulations, gaps, and insufficient information on the reality of the war in Ukraine, using the experience of other war conflicts, modern doctrines, and approaches to argue for their conclusions and recommendations. I would like to express my endless thank to my colleagues, scholars from Ukraine who are working amid the war on topics that are important for all – for the protection of human rights and to develop Ukrainian law and mechanisms for its implementation. I thank all our international authors for their valuable contributions to this discussion. I truly believe that all the conclusions will be useful for further reforms and the main goal – to help prevent war and minimise losses in ongoing conflicts. I am also happy to have the opportunity to announce a joint discussion with the participation of our authors and our audience – we would be happy to share results and exchange opinions with all who are interested. Please see the announcement on our website. Slava Ukraini!

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms include several procedures that allow parties to resolve their disputes out of court in a private forum, with the assistance of a qualified neutral intermediary of their choice. Arbitration and mediation are one of the most popular institutes of alternative dispute resolution. This article analyzes the legal, social, and cultural prerequisites for the development of the institutes of arbitration and mediation in Lithuania and Ukraine.