A unified Code of Civil Procedure was introduced

The concept of a unified Civil Procedure Code (CPC) was presented, which should create uniform rules for civil, arbitration and administrative proceedings. According to the developers, the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) will preserve the most outstanding achievements of the current procedural legislation, in particular electronic claims and court orders. Lawyers doubt the urgent need to unify procedural norms and note that the concept is incomplete.

Member of the Russian State Duma Committee on Affairs of Public Associations and Religious Organizations Pavel Krasheninnikov
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin, Kommersant / buy photo

Yesterday in Yekaterinburg there was a presentation of the concept of a unified Civil Procedure Code, developed by the working group of the Committee on Legislation of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. As the head of the committee, Pavel Krasheninnikov, explained before the meeting, the CSC will combine the procedures of civil, arbitration and administrative proceedings. The need to develop it arose after the merger of the Supreme and Supreme Arbitration Courts. According to the authors of the concept, the new code should enshrine “the principles of legal proceedings that reflect the standards of fair trial generally recognized in the community of democratic states.”

Among the goals of developing uniform rules are the strengthening of conciliation procedures, the spread of simplified proceedings and the elimination of unreasonable differences in terminology. Judges to consider a particular case will be selected randomly, taking into account only their specialization (currently this is only the case in the arbitration system). As a general rule, the appellate instance will consider cases collegiately, consisting of three professional judges. And a judge who disagrees with the majority opinion has the right to write a special opinion, which is attached to the case materials.

The developers promise not to change the existing jurisdiction of disputes to arbitration courts and courts of general jurisdiction. A restriction is being introduced: arbitration courts, international commercial arbitrations and foreign courts will not be able to consider cases within the special jurisdiction of arbitration courts, unless this is permitted by an international treaty, the Civil Code or federal law. The rules of jurisdiction within one branch of courts (territorial, contractual, exclusive, alternative) are proposed to be made general. The defendant will be able to object to jurisdiction only at the first statement on the merits of the case.

According to the Civil Code, legal costs actually incurred by a party will be reimbursed “in full”, in contrast to the currently existing “reasonable limits”. The court can reduce them only if the losing party proves the bad faith of the winning person - for example, his affiliation with the representative. If the dispute arose due to a person’s violation of the pre-trial procedure for resolving the dispute, legal costs are charged to him. This may become a popular liability measure, since on October 21 the Supreme Court proposed introducing mandatory pre-trial appeal for all arbitration cases. Like the Supreme Court, the developers of the concept support the introduction of a court order into arbitration courts, adding to it absentee proceedings, also borrowed from the Civil Procedure Code.

“There is no other reason explaining the need for a global revision of the agrarian and industrial complex and civil procedure code right now, other than judicial reform,” believes Dmitry Chernyakov, managing partner of the Muranov, Chernyakov and Partners bar association. According to him, the authors of the concept are not pursuing unification, but are rather trying to “shove into one code” the norms of the Code of Civil Procedure, the Agrarian Procedure Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses, and the latter is seen as superfluous there. Sergei Sorokin, a lawyer from the Yukov and Partners bar association, believes that the concept “is aimed at improving and clarifying most of the controversial issues existing in the Civil Procedure Code and the Arbitration Procedure Code,” and hopes that “the sound and progressive view of the authors will be reflected in the final edition of the code, which will be presented to the State Duma." Lawyers note that the concept does not sufficiently reflect the principle of adversarial litigation, and call the introduction of an exhaustive list of evidence unsuccessful. “Taking into account the development of science and technology, it is impossible to predict how in a couple of years we will be able to prove certain circumstances,” says Dmitry Chernyakov.

However, the concept is still unfinished; the authors only pose some problems, noting the differences in the regulation of arbitration and civil processes, but do not offer their solutions. Pavel Krasheninnikov admitted this yesterday: “The code is supposed to have 59 chapters, although so far the concept is ready for only 51 chapters. However, we plan to approve the concept in December.”

Anna Zanina; Igor Lesovskikh, Ekaterinburg

Uniform rules are being prepared for courts