The powers of presidents of general jurisdiction courts in the Russian Federation: Classification issues

Abstract

Based on the practical experience of the retired court president, the article covers the issues of systematizing the powers of presidents of general jurisdiction courts in Russia through creating their classification. The material is presented in a problematic manner. The author identified four key issues related to the powers of presidents of general jurisdiction courts: the compliance of powers with new tasks and challenges that arise before the justice system; the binding nature of the powers of presidents of general jurisdiction courts; differences in the powers of presidents of general jurisdiction courts, despite the consolidation of the principle of unity of the system of general jurisdiction courts; distribution of powers between, on the one hand, the court president and, on the other hand, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, bodies of the judiciary and administrator — a professional manager, who is not a judge. It is shown that the powers of presidents of general jurisdiction courts are governed by various regulatory sources, which differ considerably in terms of their legal nature: the Constitution, federal constitutional laws, federal laws, presidential decrees, orders of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and decisions of the Council of Judges of the Russian Federation. The author considers the procedural powers divided into general powers and special procedural powers and the nonprocedural powers of presidents of general jurisdiction courts which are grouped into the powers related to personnel matters, the powers broken down by subjects and the powers categorized by the nature of actions. The article promotes the idea of interaction between the court president and judges following the principle of primus inter pares (first among equal) and the partnership model in the distribution of powers between the court president and the court administrator (professional manager), who is offered to take over all operational functions.