Chief editor’s column
Interview of the issue
Topic of the issue
Sergey A. Khalatov The Trend Towards Changing the Timeframes for Consideration of Cases by Courts of First Instance in Civil Proceedings in Russia The article analyses the legal regulation of the terms of consideration
of cases by Russian courts at first instance. The author identifies
a tendency to increase the normative terms of consideration and
resolution of cases by courts. The methods of increasing the
terms used by the legislator are established. The article names
the categories of cases least susceptible to the general trend.
Based on the research of judicial statistics, the author comes to a
conclusion about the reasons for the shortness of the actual terms
of consideration of cases.
Keywords:
terms, procedural terms, terms for consideration of cases, civil procedure, arbitrazh procedure, administrative proceedings
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Leonid V. Golovko The Institute of Procedural Time Limits in Criminal Proceedings: Legal Nature and Dynamics of Development The regulation of the institute of procedural time limits at the level
of general norms (Chapter 17 of the CPC of the RF) continues to
be carried out on the basis of the approach proposed more than
a hundred years ago by Professor I.Ya. Foinitsky. It is about the
processualisation of only those terms that are addressed to private
persons (terms of appeal, etc.), and attributing the rest of the terms
to the category of business (purely technical). However, many other
deadlines have appeared in Russian criminal proceedings over the
past time, in particular, deadlines for the application of procedural
coercive measures (detention, remand in custody, etc.), deadlines
for stages of pre-trial proceedings. In addition, in recent decades, the
doctrine of reasonable time for criminal proceedings, implemented
in Russia by the efforts of the ECtHR, has been actively developing.
What is the nature of all these terms taking into account the concept of
I.Ya. Foinitsky and are they subject to common trends of development?
Keywords:
procedural terms, criminal procedure, term of detention, term of remand in custody, term of preliminary investigation, reasonable term
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Kristina V. Ivasenko The Beginning and End of Procedural Terms In Criminal Procedure: The Intricacies of Law and Practice The article is devoted to the study of the legal regulation regarding
general provisions on procedural terms in criminal procedure. The
author analyzes the nature of differentiation of «beginning of the
duration of the term» and «beginning of term calculation» and its
manifestation in procedural legislation. It is concluded that there is
no system and clear criteria for exceptions to the general rule on
counting periods by months. There is a legal uncertainty about the
beginning of the calculation of time in days and hours, as well as
difficulties and discrepancies arising in practice from the grammatical
interpretation of rules on time apart from general provisions.
Keywords:
criminal procedure, procedural terms, start of the term start of term calculation
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Arkady V. Bryzgalin Terms and Taxes: Problems and Solutions In the article the author investigates the institute of terms in tax law,
reveals the shortcomings of its regulation and law enforcement.
Particular attention is paid to the statute of limitations for compulsory collection of taxes, which is not fully established at the
normative level. The term of bringing to tax liability is imperative,
terminable and not subject to restoration, but the tax authorities
in practice try to increase this term by suspending it, broadly
interpreting the grounds for this. Discussion in theory and in
practice remains the issue of terms of tax control and proceedings
on tax offences. The author comes to the conclusion that the terms
should be clearly regulated by tax legislation and for tax authorities
all terms should be preventive in nature, and for taxpayers as a
general rule restorative. Unfortunately, at the present moment of
time judicial practice doctrinally professes a softer approach for
tax authorities.
Keywords:
tax terms, limitation period, limitation period, term of bringing to responsibility, term of tax audit, limitation period for appointment of tax audit
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Mikhail V. Bando On the Limitation Period in Housing Disputes The article analyses various aspects of application of limitation
period in housing disputes. It substantiates the principal applicability
of both subjective and objective limitation period, as well as the
current provisions of the Civil Code on limitation for claims related
to the invalidity of transactions. The importance of qualification of a
claim in a housing dispute for the purposes of correct application of
the rules on limitation is shown, various variants of qualification of
a claim for eviction on specific examples are considered, including
as a negatory and restitutionary claims. The importance of the
consequences of the expiration of the limitation period related to the
impossibility of extrajudicial protection of the right is emphasised.
The problem of applying the limitation period only at the request of
the plaintiff is characterised.
Keywords:
limitation of claims, housing law, social rent of residential premises, eviction from residential premises, exercise and protection of housing rights
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Alena A. Kirilina Time Limits for the Protection of Personal Rights The article systematically criticises the false thesis about the indefinite
protection of personal non-property rights. For this purpose, the author
considers the concept of personal non-property rights and comes
to the conclusion that the legislation and doctrine mix the concepts of
immateriality and non-property, which predetermined the incorrect
definition of personal rights as rights protected indefinitely. Because of
their inalienable nature, they are inextricably linked to the personality
and are therefore not protected indefinitely, but only during the life of the
holder of the right. This term is indefinite, but it is there and this should
be reflected in the text of the Civil Code. Accordingly, it is true that after
the death of a close relative or spouse, relatives have their own right, for
example, to a good memory, and they protect it and not the rights of the
deceased, since rights belong only to the subjects of law. In the article the
extensive foreign experience of legal regulation of terms of protection of
personal rights is given, their classification for the purpose of improvement
of domestic legislation in the corresponding sphere is offered.
Keywords:
limitation period, personal rights, moral harm, non-material benefits, judicial defence
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Discussion Board
Andrey V. Egorov VAT and Contract Price: a Civilist’s View In the article the author discusses the relationship between the price
of the contract and the amount of VAT from the position of private
law, answering the questions of Vadim Zaripov, which he posed in
his article ‘The relationship between the price of the contract and VAT:
a new statement of an old problem’ and comes to the conclusion that
the price of the contract is a single and includes VAT paid by the
seller at that the indication in the contract on the amount of VAT has
an informational nature.
Keywords:
contract price, VAT, method of tax calculation, freedom of contract, stability of civil turnover, subject of civil law, subject of tax law
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Anton A. Ivanov Ratio of Contract Price to VAT In the May issue of «Zakon» an article by V.M. Zaripov was published
in which the author, being a specialist in tax law, posed a number of
questions to civilists concerning the relationship between the price
of a contract and VAT. This commentary contains answers to the
questions posed.
Keywords:
contract price, VAT, method of tax calculation, freedom of contract, stability of civil turnover, subject of civil law, subject of tax law
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Anton V. Ilyin Great Unifi cation: Challenging Normative Legal and Administrative Acts in Court According to the Same Procedural Rules Is there a need to establish two procedural procedures for
challenging acts of authority: one for normative legal acts, the other
for administrative acts? Are there any fundamental differences
between them, on the one hand, explaining such a division, and
on the other hand, preventing the unification of procedural rules?
The article examines the main parameters of the procedural differentiation carried out today: jurisdiction, term of appeal to the
court, subject of judicial activity, retrospective and prospective
substantive and procedural effect of the validity of a court decision
in these categories of cases.
Keywords:
normative act, administrative act, procedural form, jurisdiction, term of appeal to the court, legal force of court decision
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Vadim A. Belov, Oleg Yu. Skvortsov Justice and Arbitration: A Discussion The discussion offered to the readers’ attention was composed of the
opinions expressed (at the initiative of the authors of the material)
by representatives of modern domestic jurisprudence (V.N. Anurov,
A.V. Asoskov, V.A. Belov, S.A. Kurochkin, Y.E. Monastyrsky,
M.E. Morozov, A.I. Muranov, O.Y. Skvortsov) on a number of key
issues raised in the article by V.A. Belov on the legal nature of
arbitration agreement published in the 6th issue of the “The Herald
of Economic Justice of the Russian Federation” for 2024 — on
the concept of justice, on the meaning of the constitutional norm
according to which justice is carried out only by a court, and on
how (under which preconditions) the activities of private artitration
courts are possible, etc. Comparison of the judgments made on
these issues (which can be done by the readers themselves), allows,
as it seems to us, not only to summarise the intermediate results of
the discussion on those scientific problems, which have the status
of ‘eternal’ in our country (outlining, by the way, new approaches to
the solution), but also to make a number of proposals, very relevant in practical terms, including in the context of the recent ‘reform’ of
arbitration justice in our country.
Keywords:
justice, arbitration, arbitration court, constitutional norm, judicial system, private rights
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Sofya Yu. Filippova Legal Responses to Destructive Ideologies. Common Good and Private Interest In the article, the author reflects on the limits of state intervention in
individual choice of one’s life strategy. The author critically assesses the
possibility of the existence of a general ban on destructive ideologies in
general, noting the importance of developing specific ideas, the spread
of which should be limited by analogy with the existing regulation of the
ban on extremist activities. In the author’s opinion, the state is interested
in mature individuals, which can be ensured only if the individual retains
the possibility of moral judgement and his own choice.
Keywords:
private law, destructive ideology, propaganda, freedom of choice
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LEGAL CHRONICLE In the June Legal Chronicle read comments on the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation’s
ruling of 30 May 2025 No. 25-P regarding the possibility of confiscating a vehicle owned by
spouses and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation’s resolution of 14 April 2025
No. 913-O on the application of the statute of limitations; the 17th package of EU sanctions
against Russia; the court’s verdict on holding the owner of an aggregator website criminally liable
for posting information about tourist services that resulted in the deaths of tourists; and judicial
practice concerning the recognition and enforcement of foreign court decisions.
Keywords:
confiscation, joint ownership, sanctions, criminal liability, aggregator website, recognition of foreign court decisions, enforcement of foreign court decisions
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Press Release
Theory and practice
Alexander A. Yagelnitsky Overcoming the Rule of Not Accumulating Interest on Non-Contractual Damages in Case Law In Russian law, there is an established view that charging interest
under Article 395 of the Civil Code on the amount of damages
before a judgement is excluded. The author criticises this view and
analyses the ways in which this rule has been overcome in certain
cases: compensation for damage caused by a crime; compensation
for damage caused by acts of public authority; compensation for
damage to shareholders in connection with the buy-out of shares at
a reduced price.
Keywords:
torts, liability, interest
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Vsevolod V. Baibak Force Majeure as a Ground for Exemption from Contractual Liability (A Comparative Legal Essay) Force majeure circumstances (force majeure) are considered in
many legal sources as a limit on liability for the breach of contract.
Russian civil law does not pay much attention to this factor. Courts,
as a rule, adhere to the strictest possible criteria when assessing
certain obstacles to the fulfilment of a contract as force majeure.
In this regard, it is particularly interesting to compare the criteria
for assessing force majeure and the standards of behaviour of the
parties to a contract with international sources, in particular, such as
the UN Convention on International Contracts for the Sale of Goods,
the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, the
Model Rules of European Private Law, and the International Chamber
of Commerce’s Model Force Majeure Clause. In many aspects, the approaches used in international practice not only contradict the
domestic ideas of force majeure, but also can be productively used
to develop the most balanced solutions.
Keywords:
force majeure, liability, damages, breach of contract
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Pyotr N. Matskevich On the Possibility of Supplementing Claims in Arbitrazh Proceedings The article analyses the explanations of the Resolution of the Plenum
of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 23 December
2021 No. 46 ‘On the Application of the APC RF in the Consideration
of Cases in the Court of First Instance’ on the admissibility of
additional claims brought by the plaintiff within the framework of the
initiated proceedings. The grounds allowing such a possibility and
the limits at which the court has the right to accept such claims for
proceedings are considered. The author also raises the question of
correlation of the right to declare an additional claim with the right to
increase the amount of claims in connection with the increase in the
period of delay of monetary obligations.
Keywords:
claim, subject of claim, cause of action, identical claims, additional claims
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Vadim G. Borodkin Protection of Property Interest of a Spouse (Former Spouse) in Corporate Confl icts: Analysis of Key Positions of the Russian Supreme Court The present article is devoted to the analysis of the problems of
protection of property interests of a spouse (former spouse) of a
corporate participant in the framework of corporate conflicts. In the
article the author studies the issues of important theoretical and practical
importance. In particular, attention is paid to the issue of determining
the legal status of the spouse of a participant of a corporation and an
attempt is made to consider such status as a limited corporate status
during the period in which the second spouse is a registered shareholder
(participant) of the company, and the shares (share) themselves belong
to the common joint property of the spouses. As a result of the analysis
it was concluded that the spouse of the participant of the corporation
has no right to the shares (share), but only by virtue of Article 34 of the
Family Code of the Russian Federation has a property claim (interest)
in respect of the shares (share), which are subject to the regime of
common joint ownership, which allows such a person in certain cases
to challenge corporate decisions. Conditions necessary for granting the
spouse of the participant of corporation the right to challenge are given
in the article on the basis of actual practice of the Supreme Court of the
Russian Federation.
Keywords:
status of a corporate participant, spouse, contestation of corporate decisions, family-corporate disputes, regime of common joint ownership of shares (share)
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