Russian Law Week 2012: everything you should know of Russian law

The international conference “Russian Law Week” opened in London on November 5. The event was traditionally organized by the Law Society of England and Wales together with the Bar Council of the great Britain, the Federal Chamber of Advocates of the Russian Federation, the Chamber of Advocates of the city of Moscow, the British-Russian Law Association and the English-Russian Law Association. Alexander Yakovenko, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the great Britain, addressed those present at the opening reception of the Conference with a welcoming speech and had a conversation with Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling, Minister of Justice of the great Britain. They discussed the future development of the Russian British juridical cooperation.

The three-day program of the Conference included such topical items as the suggestions of amendments to the Civil Code of Russia, the trends of development of the Russian judicial practice, investment climate in Russia, Russia’s integration into the WTO, commercial arbitration etc. (for more details see here).

On November 6, Evgeny Zhilin, Associated Partner of the Law Firm "YUST", acted as a co-speaker of the inaugural session of the conference “Suggested amendments to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation”. Andrey Yegorov, Head of Chancellery – Administrator of the Higher Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation, Artem Zhavoronkov, Partner of Salas Law Firm, Maria Starostina, Advocate of the Chamber of Advocates of the city of Moscow, Mikhail Galperin, Director of Economic Legislation Department of the Ministry of Justice of Russia discussed the topical issues with him.

E.Zhilin told of the key changes, which are planned for introduction into the current Civil Code of Russia. According to him, the Code is losing in topicality, because much of it has been inherited from the Soviet legislation, which contained too many imperatives. As a result, the “exportation of jurisdiction” occurs, when many issues of corporate transactions are governed by foreign law.

Approximately one third of the provisions are marked for replacement in the new version of the Civil Code, which currently faces the second reading in the State Duma. Where possible, the priority will be given the dispositive regulation, and a part of the provisions of Anglo-Saxon legal system will be incorporated. The important changes, which are planned, include the following:

• Division of companies into public and private;
• Introducing of options and shareholders’ agreements;
• Potestative conditions, escrow etc.

It is also quite possible that a revolution may occur in the area of regulation of immovable property titles. This will happen if the State Duma adopts the recommended amendments introducing the notarial certification of deals and the expansion of the list of property titles.

E.Zhilin pointed out that the divergences between the developers of the draft law and practicing lawyers. Such divergences concern the issues of absence of the criteria of affiliation, permission to vote with quasi-treasury stock, exclusion from the draft law of the provisions on “piercing the corporate veil” and on fixing the amount of the charter capital.

In this connection, he believes that there is a risk of the Russian companies leaving for foreign jurisdictions in order to resolve corporate disputes, a large volume of discretion provisions, low level of Russian judicial practice etc. Therefore, the modernization of only the Civil Code of the Russian Federation could possibly be insufficient: many corresponding norms should also be reformed.

E.Zhilin continued discussing those problems as a member of the section “Corporate management and the rights of the shareholders in the Russian legislation”.

Russian Law Week ends on November 7^th.

For more details on the event see the organizers’ website.