The judicial system in our country is a whole complex of courts, created in accordance with their competence and the problems and goals set before them. At the moment, Russia has developed a court system, or rather the exact structure of the court. They can be divided into 3 large and most basic areas - arbitration, courts of general jurisdiction and constitutional. In this article, we will analyze in detail each of these groups.
Constitutional Courts
Let's start with the Constitutional Court, it is one of the most important courts in our state. Rather, the only one of the most important. Only the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has the opportunity to publicly interpret the Constitution of the state, to resolve disputes on the division of competence of bodies and to verify compliance with the Constitution of various documents and regulations. Another of its functions is the presentation of official reproaches to the President of the country for high treason or another no less serious offense.
The structure of the constitutional court includes the constitutional (charter) courts of the subjects. They may or may not be, that is, their existence is determined depending on the subject of the Federation itself. In independent republics they are called constitutional, in other subjects (because they do not have constitutions, but Charters), respectively, are called statutory. Their functions are identical with the Constitutional Court, but their powers are still limited by the territory and location of the subject.
Courts of general jurisdiction
An important note: in Russia now the court structure also includes military bodies, however, they are very similar to civilian ones. The only difference is that they are aimed at the deployment of army units (the military unit court - the district military court - the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court), so it makes no sense to write about military courts in more detail.
The main court of our country and its varieties
Supreme Court - The main court is the final court in absolutely all criminal, civil and administrative proceedings. According to the first instance, this court considers an extremely small area of cases. The body consists of 4 colleges - civil, administrative, criminal and army colleges.
The structure of the courts of the Russian Federation implies that the Supreme Court is the most important in our country. And the Supreme Court of the subject (republican, regional, local court) is the highest court of the subject. He is evaluating everything that the lower courts are not entitled to consider. Most often, he plays the role of the court of appeal and deals with the appeal of lower courts. The subjects court deals with an extremely narrow number of cases. For example, it considers criminal proceedings relating to deputies of the Federal Assembly, as well as proceedings that have a state secret, any confidential information and are not allowed for general disclosure. The structure of the Supreme Court indicates that the jury operates at the same level.
City and district courts
District (citywide) court - the jurisdiction of the civil and criminal cases of these courts is subject to relevant acts and laws. However, speaking generally, the regional courts assess material disputes, the estimated value of which is more than 50 000 rubles, disputes (with a division of property), appeals of the authorities, as well as most criminal cases.
Judges
Justices of the peace - justices of the peace in the Russian Federation are represented by judges of the general jurisdiction of the constituent entities of Russia and enter the unified judicial system of our state. World courts are created by the constituent entities of the federation personally, and magistrates are elected to the post by the representative body of the national government of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. In addition, they can be elected to the post by the public of the relevant judicial section in the manner established by the Russian legislation of the subject. At the same time, there is not a single entity on the territory of the Russian Federation that would allow, for example, the structure of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to be changed at the request of citizens or that magistrates' courts should also be formed taking into account the opinions and direct participation of local residents.
Magistrates' courts assess material discussions up to 50,000 rubles, and also deal with certain groups of non-property disputes (in the form of divorces, if there is no dispute about property), small-criminal proceedings, and they also take up the resolution of cases relating to the involvement of individuals or legal entities in administrative responsibility. Their findings may be challenged in the Federal Court.
Arbitration Courts
The structure of arbitration courts consists of the following types:
Arbitration court of the district - in accordance with the arbitration justice, our country is divided into certain districts, in the territory of which there are proper courts. It should be noted that the federal and arbitration districts (as well as the army, of course) are completely different territorially and numerically and there are only 10 of them.
Arbitration courts of appeal - appear as control courts in the appellate court. They check the judicial actions of the arbitration courts of the constituent entities of the country for legality, reliability and validity. The rights of the arbitration court of appeal include:
- conducting checks in the appellate court for the legality and justification of court orders and acts that have not entered into legitimate force by the processes reviewed by the arbitration courts of the constituent entities of our country;
- review, for newly discovered reasons, of judicial acts generally accepted by them and entered into legal force.
Arbitration court of the subject - there are no regional courts in the system of courts of this group, in them everything starts precisely from the courts of the subjects. Arbitration courts, however, evaluate mainly financial litigation, as well as litigation regarding the bankruptcy of both legal entities and individuals.
Legal status and position of judges in accordance with the Russian Constitution
The law establishes that judges are individuals who are empowered in a constitutional order to exercise justice and who perform their own direct duties in a professional base. The conditions and orders of judges in the exercise of their powers are binding on absolutely all, without exception, state organizations, public associations, officials, other legal and physical persons. Demonstration of disrespect for the court or judges, non-compliance with the conditions and decisions of judges entail liability defined by law.
Judge Requirements
All judges have a single status. Some distinctive features fix the legal status of judges of army (military) courts and judges of the Russian Constitutional Court. Since the position of judges is considered high regardless of the structure of the court, certain specific requirements and requests are presented to them, which are prescribed in Art. 119 KRF: “Judges can be only those individuals who have citizenship of the Russian Federation, have reached the age of twenty-five years, have a higher education (mandatory legal) and work experience in accordance with the legal profession for at least 5 years.”
Along with these constitutional conditions, the legislation defines a number of additional requirements:
- Judges must adhere to the structure of the court; they must follow the Constitution of the Russian Federation and other laws;
- Judges, in the exercise of their own powers, as well as in extra-judicial relationships, should avoid everything that could belittle the authority of the judiciary, humiliate a judge or provoke suspicion of his competence, objectivity, fairness, responsibility.
Judges are forbidden to simultaneously be deputies, arbitrators, mediators, belong to socio-political parties and movements, carry out entrepreneurial activities, as well as combine serving as judges with other paid work, so that the composition and structure of the court is not violated. However, there are exceptions. For example, judges are allowed to engage in scientific, teaching, writing and other creative work. The law also calls for persons who have not committed defamatory acts to be appointed as judges. Among other things, the person applying for the post of judge must pass a qualifying state exam.