Candidates for judges are limited in their place of work

Yesterday, the State Duma adopted in the second reading amendments concerning the rules for passing the exam for the position of judge and the composition of examination commissions. According to the document introduced by the Supreme Court (SC) of the Russian Federation, only a specialist or master of law can now become a judge, and it will be possible to occupy a judicial chair only in the region where the candidate passed the exam. The developers explain this by established practice, but lawyers object to its legalization.

The bill on examination commissions for judges and conditions for candidates for judicial positions, introduced by the Supreme Court back in 2013, finally passed its second reading yesterday. The document amends the laws “On the status of judges in the Russian Federation” and “On the bodies of the judicial community in the Russian Federation.” The Supreme Court told Kommersant that the bill was developed jointly with all bodies of the judicial community, including the High Examination Commission (HEC) and the High Qualification Board of Judges (HQJC).

According to the bill, only specialists or holders of a master's degree (if they have completed a bachelor's degree in jurisprudence) have the right to participate in the exam for the position of judge. Questions for the exam (practical part) will be able to be prepared by regional examination commissions, but they will have to be approved by the EEC. The composition of the EEC will also be updated, among its 21 members there will now be 15 judges (five representatives each from the Supreme Court, courts of general jurisdiction and arbitration courts), four representatives from teachers of legal disciplines at universities and researchers with a candidate or doctorate in legal sciences, two from public associations of lawyers.

All candidacies for members of the EEC, as before, will be proposed by the chairman of the Supreme Court (two people per seat), and they will be elected by secret ballot at the All-Russian Congress of Judges. The difference is that previously, from associations of lawyers, the EEC included only one representative, there were 16 judges, and representatives from the Supreme Court were among the eight judges from all courts of general jurisdiction. However, as part of the judicial reform, a new law on the Supreme Court was adopted, according to which it is no longer a court of general jurisdiction (it also has jurisdiction over arbitration disputes), therefore the old version of the law “On Bodies of the Judicial Community” deprives the Supreme Court of the opportunity to send its representatives to the EEC.

The most controversial innovation was the restriction of the possibility of occupying a judicial chair exclusively by the subject of the federation in which the candidate passed the exam. To participate in a competition for the position of judge in another region, you will need to take the exam there again. The Supreme Court explained to Kommersant that “the practice has long been established and proven that candidates for judges take exams exactly where they plan to work.” Member of the Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation Tamerlan Aguzarov (United Russia) called on his colleagues to approve all amendments. At the same time, at previous discussions of the project, Mr. Aguzarov, who headed the Supreme Court of North Ossetia before being elected as a deputy, was against this proposal. He noted that the candidate may not have time to pass the exam within a month in another region where he is ready to move for work. However, yesterday he no longer had any objections. “I agreed with the opinion of the Supreme Court,” he said. To Kommersant's question "why?" Mr. Aguzarov replied that “this is more correct.”

Managing partner of the Bartolius law office, Yuliy Tai, believes that this does not correspond to the federal structure of the state: “There should be no restrictions on working in another subject, especially since the status of a judge is not tied to one region. It’s one thing when this is an unwritten practice, and not at all.” It’s another thing to legitimize this order of things.” A source close to the RF Armed Forces explained the need to introduce restrictions due to different levels of education in the regions, as well as the fact that a candidate who passed the exam in another region will not know the laws of the subject in which he is going to work. “This applies primarily to cases of administrative offenses and appeals against regulatory acts of constituent entities of the Russian Federation,” added Kommersant’s interlocutor. “Given how quickly our legislation changes, in any case it has to be studied anew every week. Moreover, there are not many disputes related to local legislation in the courts,” objected Yuliy Tai.

Difficulties for those wishing to become judges also lie in the fact that recently qualification colleges have become less and less willing to give recommendations to candidates without judicial experience. Let us remind you that so far none of the candidates for the positions of judges in the new Supreme Court of the Russian Federation who have successfully passed the exam have received the approval of the Higher Qualification Committee.

Anna Zanina, Viktor Khamraev

Where I passed the exam, I was accepted there