New developments in civil and arbitration proceedings
On 22 May 2015, in the first reading, the State Duma adopted two bills, relating to the Supreme Court of Russia, that amend procedural law. The first bill introduced simplified procedures into the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) of the Russian Federation, and the second provides for reasoning by analogy within the procedural rules of the Arbitrazh Procedure Code (APC). Simplified procedure is adjudication carried out without having the parties present during the court’s review of the materials that they had submitted. This arrangement is possible at the request of one party and with the consent of the other.
According to the first bill, the courts will be able to apply simplified procedure for examining claims related to the recovery of money, the recovery of property, and the recognition of ownership. The bases for these proceedings are to be documents the claimant will provide that establish the monetary obligations of the defendant. In turn, the defendant must recognize the documents but not their implementation. The value of the claim must not exceed RUB 500,000. The courts cannot consider cases arising from administrative legal relations connected with the state secrets, disputes involving the rights of children, and separate proceedings.
Since the aim of summary proceedings is to accelerate the judicial process, a tight deadline avoids delays. There will be 15 days from the date of the claim to submit evidence and objections and 30 days to provide additional documents. The court will have 15 days to review the case. Judges will reserve the right not to prepare a rationale for the judgment if the parties do not ask them to do so. Judges must receive requests to prepare a rationale within five days from when the judges sign the operative part of a decision.
The bill also introduced changes to the writ of proceedings. It will cap the scope of an injunction at RUB 500,000. Such a limit does not yet exist. The State Duma Committee on Civil, Criminal, Arbitration and Procedural Legislation staunchly criticized this proposal. According to the parliamentarians, the need for such a restriction is incomprehensible and unfounded; moreover, they claim it can lead to an increase in the number of cases the courts deal within the usual manner.
The full text of the bill is available (in Russian) here
Changes will occur, in the near future, in the arbitration process. On 22 May 2015, the State Duma adopted, in the second reading, a draft amending the APC that strengthens the arbitration procedure. In January 2015, deputies of United Russia, Irek Boguslavsky, Rinat Hayrovym, and others, introduced the bill to the State Duma. They justified their proposed legislation on the basis that the APC does not have reasoning by analogy within its procedural rules, in contrast to the CCP.
According Part 4, Article 1 of the CCP, “in the absence of rules of procedural law governing the relations arising during the course of civil proceedings, the federal courts of general jurisdiction and magistrates are to apply the norms regulating similar relations (analogy of the law), and in the absence of such rules, the basis is to be the principles of justice in the Russian Federation (analogy by law).”
The current APC provides only for the possibility of applying analogy by law in arbitration proceedings to substantive rules. The plan is to include the wording and meaning of Part 4, Article 1 of the CCP in the APC.
The full text of the bill is available (in Russian) here
