The Limits of Power of the Court of Cassation to Review Judicial Decisions

This dissertation research is devoted to the analysis of the powers of the court of cassation and their limits. The jurisprudence of the arbitration courts of the district and the Judicial Chamber for Economic Disputes of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Judicial Chamber) indicates the lack of a common understanding of the limits of cassation authority, which creates instability of procedural relations arising from reviews of judicial acts in cassation. The study showed that the current uncertainty is due to the lack of a general concept of what is subject to verification of cassation: the legality of the reviewed judicial acts, or the legality, coupled with justification. A double understanding of the subject of cassation verification is also the reason for the ambiguous understanding of the limits of consideration of the cassation appeal in the court of cassation. Particular attention in the dissertation is given to the expanded powers of the Judicial Chamber to go beyond the arguments of the cassation appeal, in particular, which is understood as “the interests of legality”. The issue of the powers of the court of cassation could not have been left unattended to give mandatory instructions to lower courts when referring the case for new consideration. Despite the practical significance of this institution, is its existence justifiable within the framework of the adversarial process of arbitration proceedings? In pursuit of uniformity of law enforcement and procedural economy, is the existence of an institution of mandatory indications, not an excessive measure that is disproportionate to the harm that is inflicted on the independence of judges and the establishment of the judiciary.