Judicial reform of the year. New courts and the “procedural revolution”: how the judicial reform went

As Kommersant has learned, the State Duma on Tuesday will return to the second reading stage the bill approved last week, which should unify the judicial system in the Russian Federation. In agreement with the presidential administration (AP), new amendments will be made to it. Age limit The tenure of deputy chairmen of the Constitutional (CC) and Supreme (SC) courts will be equally extended to 76 years, and the powers of the leadership of all instances of lower courts will be limited to two consecutive terms. Moreover, one of the five appellate courts general jurisdiction It was decided to create it not in Kaluga, but in Moscow.

The head of the State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov, told Kommersant about the new package of amendments for the project on judicial reform, which the Supreme Court introduced at the beginning of the year to create courts of appeal and cassation of general jurisdiction. Instead of the third “technical” reading of the bill adopted last week (see Kommersant on July 11), the State Duma will return it to the second reading stage, in which amendments were made to the draft, agreed at that time with the presidential administration, the government and the Supreme Court. One of them was not directly related to the project of creating new courts: having established that a judge will be able to hold leadership positions in them until he is 76 years old (with the current 70-year term for deputy chairmen of all courts of the Russian Federation), legislators extended this provision to six deputy chairmen of the Supreme Court. Innovation on this moment relevant for the head of the board of civil cases Vasily Nechaev, who was facing resignation in August. The previously announced competition for this position has been frozen. According to Kommersant sources, before the amendment to age limit After his resignation, Vasily Nechaev was tipped for the post of financial ombudsman of the Russian Federation, which should appear in September in accordance with the law signed by the president in June.

On Tuesday, a similar provision will predictably be introduced into the law “On the Constitutional Court,” which will allow one of the two deputy chairpersons of the Constitutional Court, Olga Khokhryakova, to retain her post in 2019. According to Mr. Krasheninnikov, the age limit of 75–76 years corresponds to the recommendations European Court on human rights. Age limit in higher courts The Russian Federation has changed several times: judicial reform 2001 forced one of the most authoritative judges of the “Yeltsin call,” the deputy chairman of the Constitutional Court, Tamara Morshchakova, to resign at the age of 65. We would like to remind the chairmen of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court that the age limit was abolished on the eve of their 70th anniversary.

Another amendment introduced by Mr. Krasheninnikov and his colleagues from all factions of the State Duma limits the tenure of chairmen and deputy chairmen in any courts of general jurisdiction to “two consecutive terms” - similar to the current restriction for the leadership of arbitration courts. The opposition called for this for the newly created courts of appeal and cassation, and at the beginning of the year, Vladimir Putin promised to limit the term of office of chairmen of courts of constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the system of general jurisdiction (now they can be reappointed indefinitely). As Pavel Krasheninnikov clarified, a transition period will be introduced for this restriction: court chairmen who have already held office for two terms or more will be able to receive this appointment for another term. Previously, this is how the Constitutional Court resolved disputes about the “third term” for governors. Such a clause will be relevant for the head of the Moscow City Court, Olga Egorova, whose term of office, which she has been serving since 2001, expires in 2020 and can be extended for another six years.

The latest amendment to be introduced by the State Duma will finally exclude Kaluga from the number of locations for new courts. One of the cassation courts, which was planned to be located there, “moved” to Saratov last week (natives from the Saratov region are its former vice-governor, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and deputy chairman of the Supreme Court Vasily Nechaev, who studied at the Saratov Law Institute and former deputy chairman of the Saratov Regional Court) . Now the authorities have changed their minds about locating the appeal court in Kaluga, choosing a place for it in Moscow, where, as in St. Petersburg, two new courts will operate. Mr. Krasheninnikov explained that this decision was due to better transport accessibility for the plaintiffs.

Anna Pushkarskaya, St. Petersburg

2018 will be remembered for two most important years for the whole judicial system laws. The first is about the creation of new cassation and appeal courts of general jurisdiction. The second is the “procedural revolution,” which introduced many changes to all major codes. Their adoption drew a line under large-scale judicial reform in Russia.

How the “procedural revolution” came about

In October 2017, the Plenum of the Supreme Court proposed the so-called procedural revolution - a large-scale package of amendments to procedural codes. A few months later, the bill was submitted to the State Duma for consideration, where it remained for almost nine months. During this time, the initiative has undergone significant changes.

Important stages of procedural reform

October 2017. The Supreme Court Plenum presents a draft procedural reform. Among the innovations are the abandonment of the motivational parts of decisions in a number of cases, professional representation in courts and an increase in the number of cases considered in a simplified manner.
February 2018. The bill is submitted to the State Duma for consideration. The Federal Chamber of Lawyers and the Human Rights Council are critical: they do not like the rule on the refusal of “motivations”.
April 2018. The State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation gives the bill " green light" Committee Chairman Pavel Krasheninnikov points out that the rule on “motivations” requires serious discussion. Other provisions of the reform are also criticized.
May 2018. introduces amendments to the “procedural revolution” to the State Duma. They have expanded the list of decisions whose motives will have to be explained. At the same time, the Chairman of the Supreme Council then stated: this list may be revised in the future.
June 2018. The bill passes the first reading, but without amendments yet. A week later, the working group proposes several serious amendments to the reform. Experts agree that the rule on waiving incentives for reform is not needed. It was decided not to abandon the novella about professional representation in the courts, but it is also being softened.
September 20, 2018. The working group proposes a new package of amendments: with new requirements for the rules for identifying debtors and old amounts for simplified proceedings.
November 2018. The bill is entering the home stretch - it will be adopted in the second reading on November 6, and in the third reading on November 20. On November 23, it receives approval from the Federation Council.
November 28, 2018. Putin signs a “procedural revolution.”

The 219-page law, signed by President Putin at the end of November, incorporates changes to all major procedural codes. But by that time the reform had undergone significant changes. Thus, the final version of the document did not include provisions on the rejection of the motivational parts of the decision: they were eliminated during the consideration of the document in the State Duma. In addition, they decided not to oblige citizens to independently monitor the progress of cases on the Internet.

Even though the main controversial provisions were removed from the final version of the document, it still contains many significant changes. So, in Russian courts first appeared " full cassation" Now the question of transferring the case for consideration is at the discretion of the judge of the cassation court. The Chairman of the Supreme Court, commenting on the progress of judicial reform, noted: “Ensure high-quality verification cassation appeals is possible only in case of continuous cassation proceedings, and not selective cassation.”

The rules of judicial representation have also changed. After the law comes into force, representatives of the parties in court when considering civil and arbitration cases will only be able to be persons with higher education. legal education or an academic degree in a legal specialty, but with the exception of cases heard by magistrates or district courts.

We wrote in detail about the significant changes brought by the “procedural revolution” on the day the law was published, in the material.

New courts: who, where, when?

The “procedural revolution” was adopted largely in conjunction with another initiative of the Supreme Court, which back in the summer of 2017 proposed creating new appellate and cassation courts general jurisdiction. The bill was adopted over the course of a year, and it also underwent a number of changes. In the final version, deputies approved five courts of appeal of general jurisdiction, nine cassation courts, and one cassation and appeal military court each.

The new courts of appeal will review cases that are decided in the first instance by the courts of the constituent entities (Supreme Courts of the republics, regional, regional courts). Disputes regarding new or newly discovered circumstances will be under their jurisdiction. The new courts of appeal will be higher courts in relation to the supreme courts of the republics operating in the territory, regional courts and so on.

Cassation courts of general jurisdiction, by analogy, consider cases as a court of cassation and on new or newly discovered circumstances. It will be a higher court in relation to those acting in the territory of the corresponding judicial cassation district federal courts general jurisdiction and magistrates.

Where were the new courts located?

Courts of appeal were created in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk. In the Moscow region (city of Vlasikha) a military court of appeal will operate.

They decided to locate the cassation courts in Saratov, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Pyatigorsk, Samara, Chelyabinsk, Kemerovo and Vladivostok, and the military courts in Novosibirsk. To view the interactive map, click on the picture.

Court	Chairman	Court address	Website
		410031, Saratov, st. Pervomaiskaya, 74	https://1kas.sudrf.ru/
			https://2kas.sudrf.ru/
		129090, St. Petersburg, st. Pestelya, 9, letter A	https://3kas.sudrf.ru/
		350020, Krasnodar, st. Morskaya, 3	https://4kas.sudrf.ru/
		357502, Pyatigorsk, st. Lermontova, 9	https://5kas.sudrf.ru/
		443030, Samara, st. Uritskogo, 19	https://6kas.sudrf.ru/
		454140, Chelyabinsk, st. Truda, 34	https://7kas.sudrf.ru/
		650991, Kemerovo, st. Nikolay Ostrovsky, 12	https://8kas.sudrf.ru/
		690090, Vladivostok, st. Svetlanskaya, 54	https://9kas.sudrf.ru/
		129090, Moscow, st. Gilyarovskogo, 31, building 1	https://1ap.sudrf.ru/
		191028, St. Petersburg, st. Pestelya, 9, letter A	https://2ap.sudrf.ru/
		354000, Sochi, st. Sovetskaya, 26a	https://3ap.sudrf.ru/
		603022, Nizhny Novgorod, ave. Gagarina, 17, letter A, room. P1	https://4ap.sudrf.ru/
		630120, Novosibirsk, st. Titova, 184	https://5ap.sudrf.ru/

Other cities were included in the original version of the courts bill. Thus, it was proposed to locate the first cassation court of general jurisdiction in Kaluga (eventually it was moved to Saratov), and the sixth - in Kazan, from where it moved to Samara. Kaluga was deprived of the appeal and given it to Moscow, because the capital has the best material, technical and personnel base and transport accessibility.

A court is considered established if it has recruited at least half of the established number of judges. We wrote in more detail about how new SOYU are completed in the material.

Completion of the reform

At the end of February 2018, the Chairman of the Council of Judges took part in a meeting of the HRC dedicated to improving procedural legislation. Then he spoke about the three main stages of judicial reform.

Merger of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court (2014).
Creation of new courts of appeal and cassation of general jurisdiction.
Reform of procedural legislation.

The head of the Council of Judges called the ultimate goal of the reform the creation of a model of the judicial system “that will meet modern needs civil society, enjoy the trust of this society and ensure the highest level of legal protection.”

Thus, all three “big” stages of judicial reform have already been adopted legislative level, but have not yet entered into force. This will happen no later than October 1, 2019. Changes to procedural legislation will come into force on the same day on which new courts of appeal and cassation of general jurisdiction begin to work. The decision on a specific date will be made by the Plenum of the Supreme Court.

Andrey Klishas told Parlamentskaya Gazeta about key changes in the structure of courts of general jurisdiction

Andrey Klishas. Photo: PG / Yuri Parshintsev

The Supreme Court submitted to the State Duma a draft federal constitutional law “On amendments to federal constitutional laws in connection with the creation of cassation courts of general jurisdiction and courts of appeal of general jurisdiction.” Its main innovations were commented on by the Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, Andrei Klishas, in an interview with Parliamentary Newspaper.

Andrey Aleksandrovich, what are the main innovations provided for by the draft federal constitutional law?

One of the main novelties of the bill prepared by the Supreme Court is the creation of courts of appeal and cassation of general jurisdiction in the form of separate instances.

Courts of appeal of general jurisdiction will consider cases as a court appellate court on complaints about non-effective judicial acts regional and equal courts, accepted by them as a court of first instance, as well as cases on new or newly discovered circumstances, and also exercise other powers.

The powers to consider all cases that were previously considered in cassation by the presidium of the regional and equivalent courts are transferred to the exclusive competence of cassation courts of general jurisdiction, which will become a single cassation instance, both in relation to judicial acts of magistrates and in relation to judicial acts issued by district courts and garrison military courts.

- Will such a radical change in the structure of the judicial system cause any negative consequences?

It should be noted that the change in the structure of courts of general jurisdiction is not fundamental. Independent cassation and appeal courts, not associated with administrative-territorial divisions, have been operating in the system of arbitration courts for many years, and their experience is considered positive.

In addition, now for a number of court cases there are no cassation instances at all - these are criminal cases considered at first instance by the courts of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The bill under discussion fills this gap, which creates additional guarantees exercise of the right to judicial protection.

Proposals for the creation of five courts of appeal of general jurisdiction and nine courts of cassation of general jurisdiction are based on the results of an analysis of judicial statistics and information on the judicial workload for the relevant categories of cases over several previous years.

- What positive aspects do you see in the bill under discussion?

In addition to the positive aspects described above, attention can also be focused on increasing the independence and impartiality of the court of appeal and cassation.

In order to maximum provision independence and independence of courts when considering appeals and cassation complaints and submissions, the created courts will be of an extraterritorial nature. Unlike the current procedure, the activities of these courts will not be carried out in the same subject Russian Federation and especially in the same court that heard the case in the first instance. We consider this step important and overdue.

In addition, the creation of courts of appeal and cassation of general jurisdiction is part of a comprehensive reform of the judicial system, which is planned to be implemented in the coming years.

- You mentioned judicial reform. How, in your opinion, will this reform be implemented?

Judicial reform is comprehensive.

First of all, this is a change in the system of courts of general jurisdiction, which we have already discussed today.

Secondly, the acceptance procedure will change court decision. The stage of preparation for a court hearing will be reformed, which will facilitate prompt decision-making at this stage (without compromising the quality of preparation) due to the possibility of holding a preliminary hearing by an assistant judge. In addition, the introduction of mandatory audio recording (and possibly video recording) of a court session will make it possible to abandon such a procedural document as the protocol of the court session. This document must be manufactured in short term, and comments on the protocol must also be submitted within a short period of time.

Let's pay attention to criminal proceedings. According to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, the information carrier (protocol, transcript) is a source of evidence in criminal proceedings. This is due to the absence of norms in the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation on mandatory video recording of court proceedings. Meanwhile, an analysis of the current global practice, as well as the practice of pre-revolutionary Russia, allows us to say that the appropriate source of evidence should be the information (facts) presented by the parties during the court hearing. And in turn, the reliability of such information must be confirmed by audio and video recordings.

Introduction of mandatory recording of court proceedings using technical means will improve the quality of legal proceedings and at the same time reduce the load on the court apparatus.

In addition, the concept of judicial reform provides for the introduction electronic system distribution of cases. This step will also have a positive impact on increasing confidence in the judicial system.

Suggested measures to improve independence courts, their independence, as a result, will help ensure the impartiality of the court and create an effective mechanism for protecting rights. Review and revision court rulings in accordance with the proposed bill, the procedure will allow to minimize miscarriages of justice. The adoption of the law prepared by the Supreme Court will create additional guarantees for the implementation of the right to judicial protection.

Five appellate and nine cassation courts of general jurisdiction may appear in the Russian Federation after July 1, 2018. They are expected to be located in major Russian cities, including both capitals. This follows from the text of the bill (available to Izvestia), which on July 13 will be considered at its meeting by the plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (RF Supreme Court), after which the document will be submitted to the State Duma. Such measures will make it possible to unify the work of courts of general jurisdiction by analogy with arbitration courts - their higher authorities are also located in other regions.

It is proposed to locate the courts of appeal in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Tomsk. In addition, the option of locating the court in Voronezh or Ivanovo, as well as in Krasnodar or Sochi, is being considered. Cassation courts, according to the draft document, may appear in Kaluga, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Pyatigorsk, Kazan, Perm, Kemerovo and Vladivostok. As follows from the appendix to the bill, 723 judges will work in cassation courts, and 181 in appellate courts. Additional expenses of the Judicial Department under the Supreme Court are estimated at 4.4 billion rubles - from federal budget For these purposes, 3 billion rubles will be required, the authors of the initiative believe. Previously, the head of the Armed Forces, Vyacheslav Lebedev, estimated the costs associated with the reform at 3.828 billion rubles.