Examination of Facts in Reviewing Instances of Civil Procedure (by the Example of Courts of General Jurisdiction)

This graduate paper is aimed at analysis of powers of courts of appeal, cassation and supervision instances of civil procedure regarding examination of facts focused on determination and resolution of theoretical and practical problems connected with this question. The main objectives of the paper are: 1) analysis of powers of courts of appeal, cassation and supervision instances connected with examination of facts; 2) consideration of the problem of differentiation of legality and validity of a court decision aimed to specify powers of cassation and supervision instances in terms of examination of facts; 3) consideration of the problem of differentiation of issues of fact and issues of law as well as consideration of the problem of questions of «mixed» nature and its influence on the possibility of revision of such questions in higher instances of civil procedure. The following conclusions were made on the basis of this research: firstly, all check instances have powers in examination of facts although these powers are different due to the purpose of each check instance; secondly, the appeal combines the check of a court decision and a new trial in the court of second instance, therefore, the appeal instance has a power to establish new facts and examine new evidence in order to correct a mistake made by a lower court; thirdly, the cassation instance controls the accuracy of establishing of facts by means of control of correct application of procedural norms (rules about proof and evidence) and substantive norms; fourthly, the decision about revision of questions of «mixed» nature is taken by the cassation instance applying to the circumstances of each particular case; fifthly, due to the absence of independent meaning of the grounds of revision in supervision instance the powers of this instance regarding examination of facts are similar to the powers of cassation instance.