Chief Editor's Note on Civil Justice in the Brics Countries

• Author: D. Maleshin
• Position: Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia)
• Pages: 4-5

BRICS LAW JOURNAL Volume III (2016) Issue 4

CHIEF EDIToR’S noTE on CIVIL JuSTICE

In THE BRICS CounTRIES

DMITRY MALESHIN,

Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia)

DOI: 10.21684/2412-2343-2016-3-4-4-5

Recommended citation: Dmitry Maleshin, Chief Editor’s Note on Civil Justice in the

BRICS Countries, 3(4) BRICS Law Journal 4–5 (2016).

The BRICS countries belong to dierent legal traditions. Brazil, Russia and China

have civil law features as the fundamentals of their legal systems. India and South

Africa, on the other hand, historically have common law legal systems. At the same

time, the civil procedural history in each of these countries has some similar features

and tendencies. There are common challenges. The most important is that the

dynamics of civil procedural law is similar in the BRICS countries.

None of the BRICS countries has a pure civil or common law system. All of them

have some mixed elements. Brazilian civil procedure shows the strong inuence of

US legislation. The best example is the Brazilian legislation on class actions that made

Brazil one of the pioneers in this area in the civil law world. The Chinese legislator has

also adopted some common law features. South Africa still has a strong connection

with Dutch legislation.

All of the BRICS countries share the reception of aspects of civil procedural

legislation from Western countries. The nineteenth century was the most important

period for them, because during that time they passed legislation introducing their

rst civil procedural codes. For example, the Russian Civil Procedure Code of 1864

was the result of the adoption of French, German and Italian legislation of that time.

It was one of the best civil procedural codes in Europe then, but within twenty

years of its adoption it became ineective in Russia. During the twentieth century,

legislators of the future BRICS countries attempted to introduce their own approach

to civil procedure. The best example is the Soviet style of civil procedure in Russia.

Mauro Cappelletti called this approach the “radical solution” of inquisitorial civil

procedure. In China, legislation was strongly connected with the Soviet style in the