An Overview of the Constitution as it relates to the Judiciary

Section 1 Chapter 7 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation ("RF") covers the judiciary. While this translation is not perfect, (please see previous pots), it relays the information relevant to our discussion.

There are several points to consider here. Notice Article 120 which provides for the independence of judges in the courts of the RF. Article 122 grants immunity to judges. These provisions spark a very interesting discussion; one that has received much attention in the past few years. However, we will consider these issues in a later post.

The structure of the judicial system is not similar to that of the United States. In the RF, there is a Constitutional Court which resolves "disputes over jurisdiction: a) between the federal state bodies; b) between state bodies of the Russian Federation and state bodies of the subjects of the Russian Federation; c) between supreme state bodies of subjects of the Russian Federation." (Article 125).

Next, the Constitution provides for the Supreme Court of the RF, which is the final authority on "civil, criminal, administrative and other matters tried by the Courts of General jurisdiction." (Article 126).

Finally, as we have already mentioned, the Supreme Arbitrazhnii Court is the "highest judiciary body resolving economic disputes and other cases considered by arbitrazhnii courts, and shall carry out judicial supervision over their activity in line with federal legal procedures and shall offer explanations on questions of judiciary practice." (Article 127).

The Arbitrazhnii Court is the most relevant to non-Russians because it has jurisdiction over economic disputes with some minor exceptions. Therefore, we will focus our discussion on the Arbitrazhnii Courts. The website of the Supreme Arbitrazhnii has a nice chart of the Arbitrazhnii Court's federal structure, although the images cannot be translated using any browser known to me. (If this link reveals question marks instead of English text, just revise the drop down menus at the top of the screen to reflect "Russian" as the original language, and "English" as the target language.)

Keeping in mind the limitations of the translation tools in the browser, you should still be able to acquire some familiarity with the structure of the Arbitrazhnii Courts in the RF by clicking on the links and scanning these pages. Notice that there are four levels to the structure. The lowest, at the bottom of the pyramid are the Arbitrazhnii Courts of the "Subjects" of the Russian Federation. For a quick list of the subjects, just click on that level. You will see a group of Russian letters to the left with a list of offices. Subjects means essentially an administrative division and does not necessarily mean a province.

The next to lowest level of the pyramid is first level of appellate court, known in Russia as the Appellate Instance, denoting level of authority or chain of command in the Russian language. The Arbitrazhnii Procedural Code ("APC") allows for appeals at this level that are very different from the first level of appeals in the United States. We will discuss in much greater detail, the rules governing procedure of this appellate court at a later time.

By clicking on the third level on the pyramid, you will see a map of the Federal Arbitrazhnii Courts. These courts can most easily be compared to Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States. You will notice that there is one court for every region. Click on the map over each region for more information about its Federal Court. At a later time, we will provide more information about the procure governing these courts.

Finally, at the top of the pyramid is the Supreme Arbitrazhnii Court which is in Moscow, and reviews questions of law and procedure. Its holdings are binding on every other Arbitrazhnii Court in the RF and enter into effect immediately. We will, of course, discuss more in due time.

As an illustration, we will start at the bottom of the pyramid and ascend to the Supreme Court. The Arbitrazhnii Court of the Primorsky Krai sits in Vladivostok. The building next door, is the Appellate Instance, the second step on the pyramid. All matters that are heard in any other area of the Primorksy Krai must be upheld in Vladivostok before an appeal to the Federal Arbitrazhnii Court. The Federal Arbitrazhnii Court for Vladivostok is in Khobarovsk, which presides over all courts in the Far Eastern Region. The decisions of this court are binding on all other cases in this Far Eastern Region and an appellant may only appeal these rulings to the Supreme Arbitrazhnii Court in Moscow.

Translation and Browser Notes

I would like to make a couple of recommendations for those of you who take an interest with Russian law, but do not read or speak Russian. There are several tools available to translate web pages. Google offers several tools on their language tools section. I also used Lingvo for single words. Another options that is very similar to these is available at freetranslation.com.

These tools are not very useful when exploring Russian websites. One can always use the translation functions that are built into your browser. At the risk of a shameless plug, I am particularly impressed with Avant's contribution to the world of browsers. It incorporates a seamless translation with Google and Lingvo to give a serviceable translation of Russian texts. Having said that, nothing I have ever found is even close to perfect, so any translation tool is going to bring with its share of unorthodox syntax and grammar structure.

Welcome!

Before we begin the substantive posts, we would like to introduce ourselves. We are both attorneys in the Seattle area, and have extensive but very different experience with Russia.

Lana Kurilova Rich was born and raised in Vladivostok, Russia. After graduation from the Far Eastern National University law school located in her hometown, she practiced in the area of commercial transactions and environmental law. She also clerked for a chief judge of a superior court in Vladivostok. Lana maintains her license to practice law in Russia.

Lana is also licensed to practice law in Washington state. She concentrates her practice on general business law, including business and commercial transactions, business planning, real estate, contracts, as well as corporate formation and governance. She assists in new business entity formations and in resolving business-related disputes regarding commercial leases, ownership issues, real estate and other issues. She also provide estate planning services and handles immigration and employment-related matters of her clients.

Mark Derricott practices immigration and business law. While devoting much of his practice to Russia and Russian clients, he also advises clients with the organization and operation of non-profit entities. His interest with Russia began when he started taking high school Russian classes. His first visit was in 1995 and he has returned several times over the last ten years. Mark has interned for a large Western firm its Moscow branch, and as well as with the Arbitrazhnii Court of the Primorksy Krai in Vladivostok, Russia.