Revisiting Procedural Human Rights Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- List of Authors
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- The Human Right to Accessible and Foreseeable Justice
- Fundamental Procedural Rights from a National Angle
- Doing Justice: Chinese Civil Procedure and its Reform
- The Presumption of Innocence in Civil Cases
- Fighting Recession at the Expense of Access to Justice. The Case of the Croatian Financial Operations and Pre-Bankruptcy Settlement Act
- The Right Principles – What Outcome? Fundamental Procedural Rights and their Implementation in Romanian Civil Procedure and Other Legal Systems
- What is Happening to Fundamental Procedural Guarantees in the Area of Civil Justice? A View from South Africa
- Judicial Reform in Russia and its Impact on Procedural Human Rights and Access to Justice
- Conditions of Admissibility and Access to Justice – A Slovenian Perspective
- Wheels of History: Fair Trial Rights in Historical Perspective
- Equal Justice for all: Empirical and Normative Approaches to Legal Aid and Assistance in Civil and Administrative Cases
- Ius Commune Europaeum
Judicial Reform in Russia and its Impact on Procedural Human Rights and Access to Justice
from Fundamental Procedural Rights from a National Angle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2018
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- List of Authors
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- The Human Right to Accessible and Foreseeable Justice
- Fundamental Procedural Rights from a National Angle
- Doing Justice: Chinese Civil Procedure and its Reform
- The Presumption of Innocence in Civil Cases
- Fighting Recession at the Expense of Access to Justice. The Case of the Croatian Financial Operations and Pre-Bankruptcy Settlement Act
- The Right Principles – What Outcome? Fundamental Procedural Rights and their Implementation in Romanian Civil Procedure and Other Legal Systems
- What is Happening to Fundamental Procedural Guarantees in the Area of Civil Justice? A View from South Africa
- Judicial Reform in Russia and its Impact on Procedural Human Rights and Access to Justice
- Conditions of Admissibility and Access to Justice – A Slovenian Perspective
- Wheels of History: Fair Trial Rights in Historical Perspective
- Equal Justice for all: Empirical and Normative Approaches to Legal Aid and Assistance in Civil and Administrative Cases
- Ius Commune Europaeum
Summary
Introduction
Russia has been working continually to improve the functioning of its judicial system and the administration of justice for more than twenty years. Today we are seeing a new level of judicial reform that is a topical subject much discussed among the members of the Russian legal community: specifically, the judicial reform of commercial litigation – ‘arbitrazh’ –, which underwent crucial changes in 2013- 2014.
It all started in June 2013 when President Vladimir Putin proposed a reorganization of the Higher Commercial Court of the Russian Federation during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Just a few months later, in October the president introduced a bill to the state Duma (the lower house of the Russian Parliament or Federal Assembly) according to which the Higher Commercial Court would cease to exist and its jurisdictional powers pass to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, thereby turning it into a sort of super Supreme Court.
Some lawyers spoke out vigorously against the reform, describing it as confusing, pointless and, generally speaking, dangerous. Others said that arguments opposing the reform went beyond criticism and were merely falsehoods intended to block judicial reform efforts. The debate continues today.
The Court System Issue
The new judicial reform debuted with Bill No. 352924-6 sent by the president to the state Duma for consideration and aimed at ensuring the uniformity of the Russian court system and legal practice. The official title of the bill, which proposed amending the Constitution of the Russian Federation, was ‘On the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation’. However, this title did not reflect the essential part of the bill that in reality entailed the abolishment of the country's Higher Commercial Court.
The Constitution Amendment Act on the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation (the Constitution Amendment Act) was passed by the state Duma on 22 November 2013 and just a few days later by the Federation Council (i.e. the upper house) on 27 November. In February 2014, after the amendments had been approved by the legislative bodies of at least two-thirds of the federal subjects (constituent entities) of the Russian Federation, the law was enacted.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Revisiting Procedural Human RightsFundamentals of Civil Procedure and the Changing Face of Civil Justice, pp. 195 - 208Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2017