A precedent is a term widely used in journalism, statements by public figures. More often than not, he is still associated with the courts and law enforcement agencies. Consider the types of precedents. Do they exist in Russia and what is their significance?
Terminology Issues
A use case is a situation the resolution of which is an example for similar cases. If we talk about the law, its application applies primarily to countries where the basis of dispute resolution is the established judicial practice. In Russia, such a concept does not exist in the legislation. In reality, however, precedents in Russian practice exist.
Use Case Categories
In life, there are two main types of precedents:
- Administrative.
- Judicial.
Allocate also the parliamentary form. The assertion of its existence is debatable.
Administrative precedent is a practice of resolving issues that has developed in the executive branch. This includes the methods and approaches used by those in charge. For example, the established practice of compiling protocols for administrative violations. It is associated with a certain understanding of the law.
Judicial Precedents
As noted above, their active application is common to common law countries, where judicial practice plays a significant role. In the course of the proceedings, lawyers directly refer to past decisions in similar cases. What is the situation in Russia?
Despite the denial of judicial precedent, it exists. The clearest example is the acts of the Constitutional Court. Clarifications of the rules of law set forth in them, including in the refusal definitions, are mandatory. This means that the understanding of the court of a particular norm should be taken into account by both authorities and courts.
The second group of judicial acts, which has a certain weight, is the practice of the Supreme Court. It is formulated in disputes reviews by the presidium of the court. We must not forget about generalizations. Courts, including at the subject level, are studying the practice of resolving disputes in a certain category: they identify which approaches are correct and which are wrong.
The RF Armed Forces makes decisions of the plenum. It includes general explanations. Decisions are issued on industry issues: labor or criminal law (for example, fraud cases are discussed in one of them). Specific cases are not addressed here. However, these explanations may be taken into account and ignored. Interestingly, there is still a debate about the binding nature of Supreme Court rulings for lower courts.
Many judges are guided not only by the highest courts, but also by colleagues of their level, studying decisions on such disputes. So a precedent is sometimes not a rule, but a hint or landmark in the work.
