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Judicial System of the Russian Federation
and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
The existing judicial
system of the Russian Federation was formed and is being
developed as a result of a judicial reform carried out in
Russia from the beginning of the 90s with the purpose to create
and maintain the judicial power in the state mechanism as
an independent branch of power, free from political and ideological
bias, independent in its activities from the executive and
legislative branches of power.
Independent, competent law court is an important component
of a democratic state based on a rule of law.
The Constitution of the Russian Federation
of 1993 became the main legal basis for the introduction
of the judicial reform. For the first time the Constitution
contained a Chapter “Judicial Power” according to which the
state power in the Russian Federation should be exercised
on the basis of its division into legislative, executive and
judicial powers, and all these branches of power should be
independent.
The structure of the judicial system of the Russian Federation
and the sphere of activities of its various parts are determined
by the Constitution and federal constitutional laws (paragraph
3 Article 118 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation).
The judicial system of the Russian Federation consists of:
- The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and constitutional
courts of the republics and other subjects of the Russian
Federation.
The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation considers
cases relating to the compliance of the federal laws, normative
acts of the President of the Russian Federation, the Council
of the Federation, the State Duma, the Government of the Russian
Federation, constitutions of republics, charters and other
normative acts of the subjects of Russian Federation with
the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 125 of
the Constitution);
- four-tiered system of courts of general jurisdiction. Three-tiered
system of the military courts is an integral part of it .
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is the supreme
judicial body of this branch ;
- three-level system of arbitration courts with the Higher
Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation as a supreme judicial
body competent to settle economic disputes and other cases
considered by arbitration courts, exercise judicial supervision
over their activities according to the federal law-envisaged
procedural forms . The system of the arbitration courts comprises:
arbitration courts of the subjects of the Russian Federation;
courts of arbitration districts (10) and the Higher Arbitration
Court.
The system of general jurisdiction courts
has the following structure:
The first tier comprises all general jurisdiction rayon
(district) courts -city, intermunicipal and equal to them
- acting on the territory of Russia.
Middle tier of general jurisdiction courts includes the supreme
courts of the republics, kray ( regional) , oblast
(provincial) courts, city courts of Moscow and St.-Petersburg,
courts of autonomous provinces and autonomous districts.
The main tier of military courts are the military courts of
armies, fleets, garrisons and military formations.
The middle tier of military courts consists of military courts
of the branches of the Armed Forces, military districts, districts
of antiaircraft defence, navy and separate armies.
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is the supreme
judicial body for all courts of general jurisdiction, both
civil and military.
Rayon courts form the basis of the system of general jurisdiction
courts of the Russian Federation.
The law attributes to the jurisdiction of rayon courts
all civil cases, overwhelming majority of criminal cases and
cases relating to administrative offences.
Rayon courts act as a higher judicial instance for the Justices
of the Peace operating on the territory of the appropriate
judicial district.
Justices of the Peace are judges of the subjects of the Russian
Federation and form an integral part of the system of courts
of general jurisdiction.
The reestablishment of the institute of Justices of the Peace
in Russia in 2000 is an important step in the course of development
of the judicial and legal reform and provides for more operative
and accessible judicial protection for the citizens of the
country.
The law entrusts the Justices of the Peace with functions
and duties equal for all the judges of Russia: to exercise
justice observing precisely and strictly the requirements
of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, generally recognized
rules , norms and principles of the international law and
international agreements concluded or joined by the Russian
Federation.
The Justices of the Peace are included into the structure
of general jurisdiction courts and participate in the work
of its bodies.
Courts of general jurisdiction: of kray , oblast,
city, of autonomous oblast and autonomous districts
act as higher instance courts for rayon courts.
The courts of this tier of the judicial system are empowered
to carry out all the powers of a judicial instance, namely
to examine cases as a first instance court in the order of
cassation, by way of supervision and upon newly discovered
evidence. They work in the following composition: presidium
of the court, judicial panel for civil cases and judicial
panel for criminal cases.
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is the supreme
judicial body for civil, criminal, administrative and other
cases under the jurisdiction of courts of general jurisdiction,
carries out judicial supervision over their activities according
to the federal law-envisaged procedural forms and provides
clarifications on the issues of court proceedings (Article
126 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). It heads
the judicial system of general jurisdiction, representing
a supreme tier of this system.
The Supreme Court of Russian Federation has the right of the
legislative initiative. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
acts as a court of first instance for cases of special importance
or special public interest when it accepts them for consideration
according to the legislation. The law determines a category
of cases which are included in the sphere of activities of
the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation as a court of
first instance .
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is a cassation
instance in relation to the federal courts of general jurisdiction
of republics or oblast.
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation supervises legality,
validity and substantiality of sentences and other decisions
of courts of lower level.
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
is composed of its Chief Justice, first deputy and deputies of
the Chief Justice, the justices of the Court and People’s assessors.
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
has the following structure:
The Plenum of the Supreme Court.
The Plenum of the Supreme Court on the basis of studies and
generalisation of the judicial practice and judicial statistics,
provides its guidance to courts on the issues of proper application
of the legislation of the Russian Federation.
The Plenum hears reports on the activities of the Presidium
of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, reports by
the judicial chambers chairmen . It has the right to present
the legislative body with presentations on issues subject
to be resolved in the legislative order.
The Presidium of the Supreme Court.
Apart from consideration of cases by way of supervision and
upon newly discovered evidences, the Presidium of the Supreme
Court considers and hears issues relating to the organisation
of activities of judicial chambers, examines materials of
the studies and generalisation of judicial practice, analyses
judicial statistics, assists lower courts in correct application
of the legislation.
Judicial chambers.
There are three chambers in the structure of the Supreme Court
of the Russian Federation: Judicial Chamber on Civil Cases;
Judicial Chamber on Criminal Cases; and Military Chamber.
Within the limits of their powers they consider cases as courts
of first instances; in the order of cassation; by way of supervision
and on newly discovered evidence, study and generalise judicial
practice, analyse judicial statistics.
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
is assisted in exercising its powers by several offices, departments
and other structural units.
At present the Supreme Court has initiated establishment of
the all-Russian system of administrative justice . The appropriate
draft of a federal law has already been presented to the State
Duma.
Administrative courts.
Competence of administrative courts will
include appeals and complaints by citizens against unlawful
actions of the officials of different levels, normative acts
issued by ministries, departments, President’s decrees , Government
decisions, acts promulgated by the Chambers of Parliament,
laws of the subjects of the Russian Federation . Besides,
administrative courts will consider cases on violations of
electoral and some tax laws and disputes between bodies of
state power .
The basic aspect of these new courts, according
to the main concept, is to make administrative courts independent
of the state bodies. That is why it has been decided that
their territorial structure will be different from that of
courts of general jurisdiction when the courts traditionally
are established according to the existing administrative -
territorial division of the country.
Several Federal laws had been adopted to
develop further the judicial system of the Russian Federation:
- Law on Judges’ Status;
- Law on Judicial System of the Russian
Federation
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