Overview of Russian Civil Justice

• Author: D. Maleshin
• Position: National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia)
• Pages: 41-70

BRICS LAW JOURNAL Volume III (2016) Issue 4

oVERVIEw oF RuSSIan CIVIL JuSTICE

DMITRY MALESHIN,

National Research University Higher School of Economics

(Moscow, Russia)

DOI: 10.21684/2412-2343-2016-3-4-41-70

Contemporary Russian civil procedure is not a pure Continental model because it also

has procedural features of the common law system, as well as some other original and

exceptional features. This article examines the main aspects of Russian civil justice: its

main principles; judicial organization, including the structure of the courts and the

division between courts of general jurisdiction and arbitrazh (commercial) courts, and the

Intellectual Property Court; sources of procedural law; bar organization; the jurisdiction

of the courts; actions and proceedings; legal costs; evidence; administrative procedure;

class actions; enforcement proceedings; and arbitration and mediation.

Keywords: Russian civil justice; class actions; enforcement proceedings; administrative

justice; arbitration; mediation.

Recommended citation: Dmitry Maleshin, Overview of Russian Civil Justice, 3(4)

BRICS Law Journal 41–70 (2016).

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Distinction between the Types of Procedure

2. Brief Historical Perspective

3. Judicial Organization

3.1. General Information

3.2. Structure of the Court System

3.3. Supreme Court of the Russian Federation

3.4. Intellectual Property Court

BRICS LAW JOURNAL Volume III (2016) Issue 4 42

3.5. Juries

3.6. Judicial Statistics

4. Stages

4.1. The Institution of a Civil Case

4.2. Preparation for the Trial

4.3. Trials

4.4. Review Proceedings

5. Administrative Procedure

6. Class Actions

7. Enforcement of Judgments

8. Arbitration

Conclusion

Introduction

Similar civil procedu ral outlines exist today in Contin ental and Anglo-Saxon

legal systems. Before addressing which attributes exist in Russia, it is necessar y to

note that contemporary Russian civil procedure is a mixed jurisdiction. Historically,

it adhered to the civil law tradition.1 The French Code of Civil Procedure inuenced

Russian pre-revolution (1917) civil procedural legislation.2 During the Soviet era

judges became much more active and this model was fairly labeled “the radical

Communist solution” to the Continental civil procedure.3 In Russia, the court could

not act passively because of the widespread collective views in society.4

According to the Soviet patriarch of jurisprudence Andrei Vyshinsky, law is

entirely and completely directed against exploitation and exploiters in the Soviet

state; it is used as one of the means of the struggle for socialism.5

There are Continental features in Russian law such as case management, the

absence of a jury in civil cases and the absence of class actions. Some common law

features also exist in Russian civil procedure, for example the passive role of the

judge in the process of proof-taking. Exceptional features of Russian civil procedure

1 John H. Merryman, The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Western Europe and

Latin America 121 (1969).

2 Don W. Chenworth, Soviet Civil Procedure: History and Analysis, 67 Transactions of the American

Philosophical Society 3 (1977).

3 Mauro Cappelletti, Social and Political A spects of Civil Procedure: Reforms and Trends in Western and

Eastern Europe, 69 Michigan Law Review 847 (1971).

4 Harold J. Berman, Justice in the USSR: An Interpretation of Soviet Law 216–220 (New York: Vintage Books,

1963).

5 Andrei Vyshinsky, The Law of the Soviet State 50 (New York: Macmillan, 1948).