Searching for Truth in Civil Process: The Netherlands and Russia

Abstract

This article examines the search for truth by the civil law courts in The Netherlands and Russia, and elucidates three basic questions in that respect: 1) should civil law courts seek for truth in civil process; 2) how must this truth be perceived; and 3) how do courts seek for truth? The Dutch approach to these questions is basically that no justice can be done when there has not at least been undertaken a serious effort to find out the truth, while at the same time acknowledging that seeking for truth has less to do with the final result than with the attitude of the court in its quest for a just decision. In their search for truth – by establishing the correct facts – Dutch courts apply a balanced methodology. Russian civil courts take the position that, although are not required to, they think they should search for truth in the sense that it correctly reflects objective reality. It may well be that Russian civil procedure puts in theory a goal of finding objective truth but, while having no objective instrument for that, does so in the most subjective way possible. Dutch methodology may well be the one needed for the Russian courts.