Problems of implementation of the principle of legal certainty in the judicial verification activities in the civil process

Abstract

The article examines the problems of doctrinal approaches and practical implementation of the principle of legal certainty at the stage of verification of judicial acts in civil process. The principle of legal certainty was accepted by the Russian judicial system with Russia’s accession to the Council of Europe. The development of this principle has been continued with the assessment by the European Court of human rights on the effectiveness of verification courts in civil procedural law. The criteria proposed for compliance with legal certainty have come into conflict with the need to correct erroneous judicial acts. The extension of the application of the principle of legal certainty has limited the procedural regimes of the supervisory and then cassation courts. Such a situation creates the possibility of ignoring judicial errors only on the grounds that the appealed judicial act has entered into legal force. The author analyzes the current domestic conditions of judicial verification and the revision of court decisions that have entered into force. The domestic judicial verification activity is of an urgent nature, which excludes the indefinite review of the judicial acts that have entered into force, since the implementation of such a review takes place within a single cycle, involving strict deadlines for appeal and its consideration. Verification of judicial acts in any member state of the Council of Europe, including the Russian Federation, is intended to correct significant judicial errors, and only on the initiative of the persons involved in the case. Given these circumstances, the conclusion can be made about the inapplicability of the principle of legal certainty as the evaluation of the effectiveness of the entire system of verification of judicial acts, or parts of its procedural means, and by the courts in the revision of court decisions that entered into legal force.