This very technical program was organized in the framework of the Joint Program between the European Commission, the Council of Europe for the Russian Federation, with the Russian Legal Academy. It concerned organizational aspects and the functioning of enforcement procedures under the direction of the representatives of the Enforcement service of the Russian Federation.
Respect of the right to enforcement
Kaluga and its suburbs are located at a distance of 180 Km west of Moscow and include around 1 million inhabitants. Kaluga is also the cradle of the Russian Space conquest (Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky - 1857/1935 - who lived in Kaluga is known as the father of the Cosmonautic) that was held the seminar which was attended by the high representatives of the profession of Judicial Officers in Russia.
Alexey Kojemiakov, Head of the Private Law at the General Directorate I (Legal Affairs) of the Council of Europe insisted in his welcome speech in the high level of competence of the Russian participants. He presented the three experts of the Council of Europe: Dorothee Weckerling-Wilhelm, head of the Enforcement Department at the Federal minister of Justice of Germany, Mathieu Chardon, Judicial Officer in France, member of the Committee of UIHJ and co-author of the report on the efficiency of civil enforcement procedures in the Russian Federation, following his fist mission in Russia in October 2000, and Jos Uitdehaag, Judicial Officer in the Netherlands, also a member of the committee of UIHJ and who participated in a Council of Europe seminar in the republic of Karelia in June 2005. Mr Kojemiakov thanked the Russian Legal Academy (RLA) and its rector, Mr Igor Zvecharovsky for its logistic support which was essential in the organization of the seminar.
Mr Kojemiakov insisted on the importance for the Member of the Council of Europe to respect the European Convention on Human Right, and in particular Article 6.1 relating to the right to a fair trial in a reasonable time and its jurisprudential consequence, a right to a efficient enforcement in the same conditions. The seminar was placed under the chair of Mr Zvecharovsky who thanked the participants and whished everyone fruitful works.
The special means Department
The Federal Service of Judicial Officers of the Russian Federation has created a service destined to take care of certain sensitive cases, in order to ensure a better enforcement of court decisions and to limit citizens to apply to the European Court of Human Rights. Mr Alexander Gerasimov, Director of the of the Organization Department of the Service of Judicial Officers of the Enforcement Department of the Russian Federation, dealt with the development of special enforcement procedures on a federal level. Under this somehow mysterious denomination, hides a service in charge of deciding, at federal level, what are the cases that need to be dealt with the highest possible efficiency and to supervise enforcement at local level. A commission was created to this end by Mr Nikolay Vinnichenko, Head of the Enforcement Department of the Russian Federation. The Commission can ask for any documents and give recommendations on how to enforce the decision in the entire territory of the Russian Federation.
The members of this Commission can travel locally to the enforcement activities. However, on the field, this has proved to be still inefficient. Through a reorganization of the service, local controls have been reinforced and give better results, according to Mr Gerasimov.
To this end, Mr Andrey Belyakov, Head of Department of organization of the Enforcement procedures of the Russian federation, evoked in details the controls on enforcement measures of local entities by the Federal service of Judicial officers of the Russian Federation, in particular legal and methodological problems relating to enforcement. Mr Belyakov said that the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the right for the Judicial Officers' Department to organize the control of enforcement procedures in the Russian Federation (The Russian Federation includes 89 subjects, which are territorial entities). “The head of enforcement, he said, must know about the cases where there are risks of violating the rights of the citizens and we must anticipate all cases that could end up in the condemnation of the Russian Federation in front of the European Court of Human rights”.
Enforcement against the State
Mrs Yulia Krokhina, co-rector of the Scientific Section of the Federal Service of Judicial Officers at the Ministry of Justice, spoke about the question of enforcement of enforcement titles against the State and ways of improving the situation. Mrs Krohkina recalled the seminar that took place in June, in the Republic of Karelia. According to the Russian Constitution, all judgements must be enforced and there should be no violations of the rights of the citizens. If the enforcement of a court decision cannot be implemented, there is a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The lack of budget made enforcement difficult but this lack of funding does not stand as an excuse. Mrs Krohkina underlined that the European Commission for Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) proposed recommendations relating to the enforcement of court decisions against a State, through the vote of budget.
In the same sence, Mrs Valentina Martinova, Head of the Legal Department of the Central administration of the Enforcement Department of the Russian Federation, talked about the questions of enforcing court decisions relating to debt owed by the Budget. Then, Mr Vladimir Karpov, Head of the Administrative division of the Federal service of Judicial Officers, mentioned the questions of administration of criminal procedures in the enforcement process. In particular, Mr Karpov insisted on how the administration dealt with the enforcement cases. Since 2002, the responsibility of enforcement is incumbent to its service.
Boris Rossinsky, Head of the Legal administrative Department of the Service of Judicial Officers at the Ministry of Justice, presented the propositions contained in the Code of administrative infringements in order to improve activities of Judicial Officers in case of such infringements. Judicial Officers have the possibility to impose fines which are immediately enforceable against those who oppose to the enforcement of court decisions. They are also in charge of enforcing these fines.
Enforcement against legal entities and insolvency
The problems relating to enforcement of court decisions against legal entities in a state of insolvency were dealt with by Mrs Svetlana Gatzoeva, Head of the Enforcement procedures section at the Central administration of the service of Judicial Officers. Mrs Gatzoeva indicated that her service was now preparing a report on the problems relating to this question.
Then it was the turn of Vladen Egorov, followed by Igor Korsakov, both Heads of divisions of the Federal Service of Judicial Officers, to present the questions pertaining to the seizure and the sale of secured assets in the case of special procedures, and enforcement procedures against debtors in the case of bankruptcy. Mrs Korsakov said that the number of Bankruptcy cases was constantly increasing which caused enforcement to be stopped.
Finally, criminal aspects of enforcement were developed by Mikhail Risinov, Head of the Enforcement Department of the Krasnodar Oblast.
Round tables were discussions followed each of the interventions, during which large exchanges were possible between the participants and the Council of Europe experts who could present the situation in their respective countries.
After two days of intense discussions, Mr Kojemiakov expressed in his closing speech, the general satisfaction of the audience, indicating that fragments of solutions were now found on many problems. He added that a plan was going to be adopted for the future cooperation between the Council of Europe and the System of forced enforcement in the Russian Federation.
