This work deals with the evolution of adversarial principle in civil process under the conditions of post-socialist regression and post-reform civil justice as well as the introduction of the principles of case management and cooperation between the court and the parties in the process. In particular, it analyses the main provisions of such new guarantees of realization of the right to a fair trial, which were introduced in the CPC of Ukraine in 2017-2018 as a court’s right to prevent abuse of procedural rights, as well as the exchange of competitive documents between the parties. The authors argue that effective protection of the rights today is to be based on the adversarial principles that shall be supplemented by the security of the balance of rights of the parties and the authority of the court on the examination of civil matters.