The issue on discretionary powers of officials of courts in modern Russia is discussed in our legal literature in connection with the legal position of the European Court of Human Rights, which negatively assessed powers of chairmen (and alternates) of courts of subjects of the Russian Federation at a protest under the supervisory proceedings. Since then many years have passed, similar powers of officials of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation enshrined in rules of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. There are no special publications on this issue, there are only a few judgments. Understanding of discretionary powers of officials of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation as provided for in Part 3 of Art. 381, Part 3 of Art. 391.5 and Art. 391.11 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and Part 8 of Art. 291.6, Part 7 of Art.308.4. and 308.10 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, is important for legislators and for judicial enforcement. For the first it matters in the aspect of the implementation of the legal regulation corresponding requirements of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in its understanding of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in its interpretation of the European Court of Human Rights. For the second it is actual, in particular, when the legislator not only refuses to empower officials of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation causing doubt discretionary powers, initially appeared in civil procedure, but instead embeds them in arbitral procedure. Meanwhile, there is a need to summarize existing legal approaches of the European Court of Human Rights, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the procedural doctrine, to identify the most relevant aspects of the problem and to consider possible options to resolve them. 

Keywords: discretionary powers of officials of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation; cassation proceedings; supervisory proceedings; civil procedure; arbitral procedure; Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation; Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.

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Information about the author 

   Patsatsia M.Sh. (Moscow) – Doctor of Legal Sciences, Partner of the NP «The First Bar of Moscow», Leading Researcher of the Russian University of Justice (117418, Moscow, Novocheriomushkinskaya St., 69; e-mail: [email protected]).