The Duma will support the Presidential draft law of merging the supreme courts

President Vladimir Putin declared during the Economy Forum that he will submit to the State Duma the draft law on the merger of the Supreme Court and the Higher Court of Arbitration. Vladimir Pligin, Head of the Duma Committee on constitutional legislation and construction of State explained during a briefing how the Duma will adopt the law.

First of all, the deputies will have to amend the Articles of the Constitution that deal with the Constitutional (Art. 125) and the Supreme Court (Art. 126), the procedure of nominating of the judges of the higher courts and their authority (parts 1 and 3 of Article 128). The Article on the Higher Court of Arbitration (Art. 127), according to V.Pligin, will “lose its function” due to the new law. This is about the seventh chapter of the Basic Law, therefore, pursuant to Article 136 of the Constitution, the procedure of adopting a federal constitutional law (support of over 300 deputies and over two thirds of the units of the Russian Federation is required) is applicable. Not only will the law “On the Supreme Court” change in the part on the SC competency, but also the procedural codes.

V.Pligin promised: “The President pointed out that the project will be submitted in the nearest future and considered during the autumn session. There is much to do: a unified judicial body is created. In the future, this will require the reevaluation of the legislation, which regulates the activity of the judicial system. The work on the procedure of resolution of those disputes, which are settled within the system of the courts of arbitration, will have to be structured. The suggestions will not affect the protection of the rights and liberties of the citizens and entrepreneurs”. He says that the reform will make the courts of arbitration more accessible to the citizens: “Citizens often cannot reach a court of arbitration, and the justice of peace is everywhere”.

V.Pligin’s deputy Dmitry Viatkin assures: “Consideration of cases in common law courts or in courts of arbitration will not slow down. Justice will be served the way it is served now. The uniform practice of application of the law will be an important result of the merger of the two supreme court instances”. And Vladimir Ponevezhsky, representative of the State Duma in the supreme courts, declared that the merger is “timely and justified”. The deputy is convinced: “The existing collisions between the interpretation and application of the laws by the Supreme Court and the Higher Court of Arbitration will be eliminated”.

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Tamara Morschakova, a retired Judge of the Constitutional Court, also criticized the idea of the merger: “Concentration of the highest authority of the judicial system within a single body enables arbitrariness, prevents the positive tendencies of the court practice development, when they come from the lower instances, from making their way”.

Anna Kotova-Smolenskaya, Associated Partner of the Law Firm "YUST", agrees with the supporters of the merger that the court practice in the sphere of civil proceedings is not uniform enough. Ensuring the uniformity will mean strengthening of the judicial power’s authority, and may become a positive result of the reform. “Still, - she believes, - a certain slowing of the development of the courts of arbitration system may be a negative factor. In general, much will depend on the person who heads the unified court”. Anna Kotova-Smolenskaya is convinced that the merger of the courts will definitely increase the chances of implementation of the advocate’s monopoly.

The complete version of the publication is available here.