Grounds for the Specialization of Courts and Judges in Russia

Abstract

This article touches upon the different ways of specialization of courts and judges that exist under the legislation of the Russian Federation. The lack of a unified and circumspect approach is noted. The formation of specialized courts, according to the national legislation, takes the form of their establishing within the existing subsystems of regular and arbitration courts. As for the specialization of judges, it is more diversified and is presented by either creation of separate types of procedure (special proceedings, proceedings on cases arising from public relations and some other), or by introduction of special rules on jurisdiction that establish competence of specific courts to consider cases of a particular category: on the compensation for the excessive time taken to consider a case, on the adoption of a child by a foreign national and others.An analysis of existing literature on the issue in question shows that Russian scholars support the idea of judges’ specialization. Against specialization of courts the following arguments are brought: significant material costs, not being in accordance with the small number of cases decided by specialized courts; problems with access to justice; and the necessity to give special training to narrowly specialized judges.