Unification of Fair Trial Guarantees in Proceedings as Reliable Means of Human Rights Protection

Abstract

Updating the procedural legislation: adopting the Russian Federation Administrative Procedure Code, drafting a single code of civil procedure, reforms in the common jurisdiction courts and arbitration courts, influence of legal opinions of the European Court of Human Rights on the national legal system determined the indispensability of a single level of legal guarantees as an integral part of court proceedings. Implementing the requirements of this conception in procedural legislation is a guarantee of complying with the Russian Federation's international obligations in the field of human rights and fundamental freedoms. As the requirements to fair trial apply to all stages of the process and all its forms (civil law, administrative, criminal, constitutional), and they meet the criteria of the right to sufficient governance, it can be stated that the level of legal guarantees is unified in the European legal family. However, this level is inconsistent within Russian legislation: in judicial and non-judicial process, which poses a challenge requiring urgent solution. A special concern is caused by the legal regulation of inspecting judicial acts in general jurisdiction courts where the higher judicial instance is, the lower is the level of legal guarantees in a procedure. Hence, it is urgent to develop a common approach to ensure a single level of legal guarantees in procedural legislation and to approve it as a prerequisite for real insuring a person, citizen or organization with rights, freedoms and legal interests. The examination of the applicable approaches may help to conclude that we are still at the beginning of the path of realizing, developing and setting a single level of legal guarantees of fair trial in procedural legislation.