Citizens are often interested in the question of whether it is possible to examine the dispute regarding the determination of the child's place of residence and/or the procedure for visitation if it has previously been examined by another court and there is already a final court decision resolving the dispute.
The principle of legal certainty requires that as a result of the examination of the case, a person has a final court decision resolving their legal dispute. It is noteworthy that the final court decision imposes certain obligations on the parties to the dispute and reserves certain rights, therefore, for the parties to the proceedings, they must be clear and unchanging. For the purpose of ensuring this principle, the legislator has established the requirement to terminate the proceedings without examining the case on its merits in all cases where it becomes clear that there is a final court decision aimed at resolving the same dispute on the same grounds between the same persons. However, it should be noted that in cases concerning the interests of the child, there are not few instances where courts, while discussing the issue of terminating the proceedings, nevertheless continue the examination of the case and provide a new resolution to the dispute. The reason is perhaps that when examining disputes concerning the interests of the child, in compliance with the requirements of Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, courts prioritize the best interests of the child. The best interests of the child are assessed as a result of the combination of circumstances such as, for example, the child's age, the behavior of the parents, the child's relationship with each parent, and so on. Some of the aforementioned circumstances worthy of attention over time will inevitably undergo changes, thereby creating the need for a new examination of the case in several instances, as well as taking into account the already changed factual circumstances during that examination, and assessing the best interests of the child in light of them. Thus, the changed circumstances become the factual basis of the newly presented claim, resulting in the conclusion that although there is a final court decision resolving the same dispute between the same persons, the factual basis of the case is different, and therefore, the basis for terminating the proceedings is absent according to the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia.