On November 8, a ruling on the compliance of Clause 2 of the RA Civil Code Article 17 (“Compensation for Losses”) with the Main Law was posted onto the RA Constitutional Court website. The Constitutional Court’s ruling was passed on November 5, in relation to the petition, submitted by citizen Artur Khachatrian. The latter disputed the constitutionality of Article 17 Clause 2, establishing various kinds of losses, except moral damage. In the course of three years Artur Khachatrian’s lawsuit on material and moral damage compensation was heard by all court instances with only partial satisfaction – the claim for indemnification of moral damage was rejected.
According to November 5 ruling, the Constitutional Court adjudicated Article 17 Clause 2 of the RA Civil Code at variance with the Armenian Constitution and ineffective. Besides, the Constitutional Court ruled that the given provision would lose its legal force on October 1, 2014, since its immediate abolition might cause legal imbalance. To prevent it, the Court considered it necessary to institutionalize the legislative regulation of moral damage compensation.
Talking to YPC, Ara Ghazarian, one of Artur Khachatrian’s lawyers, evaluated the decision of the Constitutional Court as positive. In his opinion, the inclusion of a provision on the material compensation for moral damage in the RA Civil Code will contribute to the protection of privacy and enhancing the responsibilities of media. It is necessary to work out a clear mechanism to define the amount of material compensation for moral damage, Ara Ghazarian added.
