Handling the Economic Disputes in Russia: The Impact of the 2002 Arbitrazh Procedure Code

Kathryn Hendley

Handling the Economic Disputes in Russia: The Impact of the 2002 Arbitrazh Procedure Code

August 10, 2005

Abstract

The paper explores how two critical reforms to the procedural code governing the Russian arbitrazh (or economic) courts are working. Based on field research in four courts during the summer of 2003, the paper argues that both litigants and judges have resisted these reforms. The reasons for their resistance include a lack of clarity in the statutory language as well as the conservative nature of trial judges. A fuller investigation of the realities of trial court practice by elites before drafting the new code might have made them more aware of the lurking difficulties (economic courts, transition, debt-collection).

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