ОСОБЕННОСТИ ОПРЕДЕЛЕНИЯ ЮРИСДИКЦИИ ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ СПОРОВ

Abstract

This article deals with the problems of establishing jurisdiction over environmental disputes. The issues under consideration are relevant in the context of Russian regulation because both commercial courts and courts of general jurisdiction could be competent to hear the disputes, which inevitably entails difficulties for both the applicants and the courts themselves as the provided case law demonstrates. Besides, the issues are topical because of the numerous changes of Russian supreme courts’ approaches towards them, and also due to the procedural reform of 2019. Relevance in the context of international regulation is due to lack of specialised rules for establishing international jurisdiction over environmental disputes, while the rules on international jurisdiction over tort disputes are not fully effective. The article also analyses the rules on jurisdiction over tort disputes provided for by Russian procedural codes. The article concludes that in the absence of clear rules on the competence of arbitration and general courts to hear environmental disputes, significant differences between the rules of the codes affect the implementation of the principle of legal certainty in considering this type of disputes.