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Report on the Development of the Judicial System of the Russian Federation presented by Chief Justice Vyacheslav Lebedev at the 10th All-Russia Congress of Judges — Верховный Суд Российской Федерации

Report on the Development of the Judicial System of the Russian Federation
presented by Chief Justice Vyacheslav Lebedev
at the 10th All-Russia Congress of Judges


Honourable President [of the Constitutional Court Valery] Zorkin,

Distinguished delegates and guests of the tenth, anniversary All-Russia Congress of Judges,

In the history of the Russian court system, the year 2022 is related to two important events that complement each other in harmony: the Centennial of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the tenth, anniversary All-Russia Congress of Judges.

A hundred years ago, on 11 November 1922, the All-Russia Central Executive Committee adopted Regulations on the Court Structure of the RSFSR, in accordance with which its top judicial body, the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, was created.

Application of law and legislative activities of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation became especially rich and intensive during the time when the foundations of a democratic state based on the rule of law were being laid in the Russian Federation along with the basis of a market economy, as the changes in the public and political life of the country were unfolding.

On 11 April 1991, at a joint session of the Board of the Ministry of Justice and the Presidium of the Supreme Court, it was decided to hold the first congress of judges. The composition of the congresses’ organising committee was adopted in a way to include the representatives of all tiers of the court system.

The first All-Russia Congress of Judges was held on 17–18 October 1991. Its delegates supported suggestions regarding the concept of judicial reform, drafted by the organising committee. The document stipulated development of civil and criminal procedure based on the principles of adversarial proceedings, introduction of jury trials, reinstatement of appellate instances and re-emergence of justices of the peace.

The delegates also discussed suggestions for selection and prolongation of the pre-trial restriction measure in the form of pre-trial custody to become a court procedure, for establishment of judicial control over the actions and decisions of investigative bodies, formation of a system of bodies of the judiciary. In its Resulting Statement, the first All-Russia Congress of Judges stressed the need to firmly establish the judicial power – an independent and influential force, equal in its significance to the legislative and executive powers. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, together with the judiciary, began implementing these conceptual provisions, actively using its right of legislative initiative in the process.

On 26 June 1992, the Law “On the Status of Judges in the Russian Federation” was adopted at the legislative initiative of the President of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court and the legislation committee of the Supreme Soviet. This law became the first normative act that contained provisions regarding judges as holders of the judicial power acting autonomously, independent of the legislative and the executive, as well as containing legal guarantees of independence, irremovability and immunity of judges.

The end of last century was a complicated time in the history of our country, when certain constituent entities of the Russian Federation tried to form their own independent court systems. In ensuring the unity of legal space of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognised the provisions of legislative acts of constituent entities not conforming to federal legislation as ineffective, reversed the judicial acts adopted by judges appointed by the authorities of constituent entities and not by the President of the Russian Federation.

For the purpose of strengthening legality, the third, extraordinary All-Russia Congress of Judges adopted the Concept Note on the Court System of the Russian Federation. Its provisions became the basis for Federal Constitutional Law “On the Judicial System of the Russian Federation”; the Supreme Court played an active role in drafting and discussing this law.

One of the most acute problems arising during this period was the non-compliance with provisions of Article 124 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which states that the courts should be financed in a volume ensuring the possibility of full and independent administration of justice. Material support of the courts was extremely low, the financing was not being received regularly and in full volume.

In order to solve these systemic problems, the fourth, emergency Congress of Judges was convened in December 1996. The Congress found it necessary to create a Judicial Department at the Supreme Court and adopt a federal law on the manner of court financing. Bringing the suggestions of the Congress into reality, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation proposed draft federal laws on the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court and on financing of the courts to the State Duma. These drafts received support of the legislators and became laws.

Similar problems existed with the military courts. In this regard, Federal Constitutional Law “On Military Courts” was adopted upon the legislative initiative of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. Its current version states that the main direction of activities of these courts is judicial protection of rights of members of the military.

In order to enshrine the competence of bodies of the judiciary in law, Federal Law “On Bodies of the Judiciary” was adopted upon the legislative initiative of the Supreme Court on 14 March 2002. The Supreme Court works with these bodies; studies, analyzes and implements their suggestions, in particular using the legislative initiative.

Compliance with the principles of the rule of law and separation of powers is ensured through judicial control, exercised in the form of administrative judicial proceedings. The Russian Supreme Court has consecutively asserted the need to enshrine this legal institution in legislation. In September 2000, the Supreme Court introduced to the State Duma a draft federal constitutional law “On Federal Administrative Courts”, which was adopted in first reading on 13 November 2000. Taking into consideration that the constitutional provision on administrative justice has stayed without implementation for a long time, a panel of judges on administrative cases was formed within the Judicial Chamber for Civil Cases on 15 September 2003 by an internal order of the Supreme Court. In November 2006, the Supreme Court introduced to the State Duma a draft of the Code of Administrative Judicial Procedure. The revised draft of the Code was adopted at your legislative initiative, Esteemed President Putin, and entered into force on 15 September 2015.

Administrative justice has proved itself as an effective institution that enjoys demand. Over 9 months of this year, the courts of the Russian Federation have considered over 4.5 million administrative cases. The Plenary Session of the Supreme Court has adopted 24 rulings on issues of consideration of administrative cases and introduced to the State Duma five draft federal laws aimed at improving administrative justice. Administrative judicial proceedings have not taken their final form yet, and administrative justice is yet to reach its fullest potential.

The quality of justice is one of the criteria of effective judicial proceedings. One of the ways to reach high quality is through ensuring uniform judicial practice. Over the last 30 years, the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has adopted over 400 rulings on issues of application of law, and the Presidium of the Supreme Court has adopted more than 150 case law reviews.

Special attention in this work is paid to implementing the constitutional provision stating that the Russian Federation is a social state. Over this period of time, the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has addressed issues of court consideration of cases regarding the citizens’ labour, pension, social and housing rights more than 70 times.

Stable social and economic development is also aided by the improvement of judicial protection of rights and lawful interests of businesses, the establishment and observance of legal certainty in the economic sphere.

Since the merger of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Commercial Court, the Plenary Session of the Russian Supreme Court has adopted 39 rulings containing legal standings taken into consideration by the courts both in civil and commercial proceedings. As a result of this work, contradictions in the interpretation and application of legislation by courts of general jurisdiction and commercial courts have been eliminated, the necessary legal conditions have been created for stable engagement in investment and commercial activities in the Russian Federation.

The quality of justice is first and foremost determined by the level of professionalism of judges in the courts of first instance and appeal: they have broad procedural powers as regards the study of evidence and establishment of the facts of the case.

In order to improve professionalism, provide professional training and further education for the judges, Russian State Academy of Justice was founded in 1999 at the initiative of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. In 2015 it received the status of a university, and in the future it will realize its accumulated scientific potential more fully, working more actively in the field of fundamental legal research.

An important condition of improving the quality of justice is the timely discovery and elimination of judicial errors. In this regard, following the legislative initiative of the Supreme Court, general jurisdiction courts of cassation and appeal, military courts of cassation and appeal were created and began their work on 1 October 2019. These courts operate on the principle of extraterritoriality, allowing all cases to be reviewed in cassation. Cassation appeals are considered by a board of judges in a court session to which the parties are invited.

The results of work of these courts over the last three years demonstrate that their creation has allowed to make the appellate and cassation instances, as well as proceedings therein, more effective.

Taking into account the growing volume of work, one of the current tracks of improvement of justice is optimization of judicial workload, elimination of excessive judicial procedures.

The Supreme Court’s legislative initiatives regarding broader use of court order proceedings and simplified proceedings in civil, administrative cases and economic disputes have been implemented. The constitutional guarantee of judicial protection of citizens and organisations is ensured by meeting the requirements of reasonable time of trial; compensation is awarded for violation of those time periods, as well as for violation of reasonable time of execution of judicial acts.

The democratic foundations of justice stipulate open nature of judicial procedures, open access of the society to information about the activities of the court system of the Russian Federation. That’s why over the last 30 years the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has addressed the issues of compliance with the principle of open nature of trial 17 times.

In this regard, following the legislative initiative of the Supreme Court, Federal Law “On Ensuring Access to Information about the Activities of Courts in the Russian Federation” of 22 December 2002 was adopted. Obligatory online publication of court acts by the courts, without any prior selection, is a condition of transparency of court activities. In order to improve this transparency, on 26 April this year Roskomnadzor [Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media] has registered the Russian court system’s unified online outlet – a multimedia resource titled “Pravosudie” [Justice].

The Supreme Court’s activities in the sphere of legislation and application of law caused broad public discussion of issues of improvement of judicial proceedings. This year, various media have published over 80 thousand materials regarding the legislative initiatives and legal standings of the Supreme Court.

The principle of open nature of trial is naturally related to the accessibility of justice, faster procedures of application to court, broader opportunities of remote participation in court sessions through the use of digital technologies. In all types of court proceedings it is now possible to submit procedural documents in electronic form, conduct court sessions with the use of video conferencing and web conferencing. The further development of “Justice Online” superservice presupposes the use of artificial intelligence technologies by the courts.

During the pandemic, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Presidium of the Council of Judges of Russia adopted three joint rulings on issues of administration of justice with regard to the citizens’ right to protection of health. These documents paid special attention to the use of IT by the courts. The implementation of those procedures ensured unobstructed access to justice; the administration of justice never stopped or paused.

As a result of meaningful cooperation between the court system and the Government of the Russian Federation, it is now possible to apply to court through multifunctional state and municipal services centres operating on a “one stop shop” principle.

Moreover, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation introduced to the State Duma draft laws concerning the broader application of modern technologies in judicial proceedings.

The Supreme Court implements measures aimed at differentiation of crimes and individualization of criminal punishment, broader use of pre-trial restriction measures that do not involve pre-trial custody. As a result of humanisation of criminal legislation and the practice of application of law, the number of criminal convictions was cut down more than by a half over the last 20 years. Herewith, the number of persons in whose regard criminal prosecution was terminated by the courts has increased from 2 % in 1999 to 21 % this year.

An important track of improvements in criminal proceedings is elimination of negative social consequences of having a criminal record for first-time offenders who do not present a great danger to the society. Following the legislative initiative of the Supreme Court, certain crimes have been decriminalized, with the first-time offence regarded as an administrative one; as for certain other criminal offences, the court may now terminate criminal prosecution of a first-time offender by appointing a court fine.

The Plenary Session of the Supreme Court introduced to the State Duma a draft federal law suggesting to create the institution of a criminal misdemeanour. Adoption of this law will contribute to broader application of measures alternative to criminal punishment. The principles of fairness and humanism are also implemented by the courts in resolving the issues pertaining to execution of sentences.

Due to adoption of new constituent entities into the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court, the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court and bodies of the judiciary are implementing measures aimed at integrating them into the legal space of the Russian Federation and creating the necessary conditions for the effective administration of justice.

Dear colleagues,

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, bodies of the judiciary and the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation have conducted specific work aimed at improvement of the court structure, judicial proceedings, the legal status of judges and ensuring the activities of the courts. The meetings that we had with the delegates of the tenth, anniversary All-Russia Congress of Judges demonstrate that the Russian judiciary has many new suggestions aimed at increasing the effectiveness of justice.

I am confident that the decisions of the tenth, anniversary All-Russia Congress of Judges will provide valuable input to ensuring the rule of law and the steady development of the society.

Esteemed President Putin,

Please accept my sincere gratitude for your constant attention to the development of the court system of the Russian Federation. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation expresses its gratitude to the Government of the Russian Federation, the State Duma, the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for their meaningful and productive cooperation.

Thank you for your attention.

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Report on the Development of the Judicial System of the Russian Federation presented by Chief Justice Vyacheslav Lebedev at the 10th All-Russia Congress of Judges — Верховный Суд Российской Федерации
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