S.F. Afanasiev, 

Doctor of Legal Sciences, Professor of the Department of Civil Procedure 

In the article, in the light of the historical context, the problem of substantial procedural errors or unconditional grounds for reversal of judgments in civil cases is analyzed. It is noted that for a long period of history countries of the Roman-Germanic legal family are searching for such substantial procedural deviations that would always and unequivocally indicate the insignificance of judicial proceedings, as well as of a judgment in the civil case. Such a search is peculiar for Russia, where this problem was studied and studied comprehensively, namely in terms of links and relations of substantial procedural errors with the authority of the court of second instance, which currently can operate in full and part of the appeal. In general, it is concluded that it is necessary to increase the resistance of material legal relationship to less substantial procedural errors, otherwise the appellate court has to overrule decisions by duplicating their resolute content without changes in their decisions. As for the truly weighty procedural errors, then it is necessary to apply a differentiated legislative approach to them: some can be corrected by using the full appeal, the other should cause the transfer of the case to the court of first instance.

Keywords: court; civil procedure; substantial procedural error; unconditional ground for reversal of a judgment; nullity of the process; the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation; the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

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Information about the author

Afanasiev S.F. (Saratov) – Doctor of Legal Sciences, Professor of the Department of Civil Procedure of the Saratov State Law Academy, Judge in Retirement (410056, Saratov, Chernyshevsky st., 104, Department of Civil Procedure of the Saratov State Law Academy; e-mail: [email protected]).