СПЕЦИАЛИЗАЦИЯ СУДЕБНОЙ СИСТЕМЫ НА ВЫСШЕМ УРОВНЕ: РЕТРОСПЕКТИВА

Abstract

The authors of the present article demonstrate that, during the constitutional process of 1990-1993 in the Russian Federation, specialized judicial system evolved as a result of serious discussion between prominent scientists of the time, representatives of the various segments of the people and the institutions of civil society, politicians, bureaucrats, judges. In the course of this debate the proposal to create a single Supreme Court with constitutional and arbitration chambers and the idea of the Supreme Bench, which would be "superstructure" of the judiciary, have been rejected. The authors cite and consistently analyze each of the arguments which was put forward in this debate. In the absence of such a discussion prior to elimination of the Higher Court of Arbitration and establishment of the new Supreme Court during 2013-2014, some of the previous arguments are of special value and, on the contrary, some have discredited themselves during the past 20-odd years. In particular, the article examines the arguments such as the need to appeal to the American experience of building a unified higher federal court and the German experience of decentralization of the judiciary at the highest level, the problem of ensuring uniformity of judicial practice and avoidance of unfair denial to protect the rights by reason of jurisdictional dispute, the form, in which it would be possible to decide particularly important constitutional issues by representatives of all higher courts. Finally, in the concluding part of the paper, the authors make some observations concerning further discussion on specialization of judiciary.