Development of Procedural Law Foundations of Justice in Administrative Cases in the Context of the New Codification of Administrative and Tort Legislation

Abstract

The paper analyzes the necessity of a fundamental reform of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation with its division into two codes (a substantive part — the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, and a procedural part — the Procedural Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation). With regard to the problem of modernization of procedural administrative and tort legislation, the author questions the main directions, objectives and prerequisites of the third codification in this field and draws the conclusion that the fundamental reform of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation with the division of it into two codes — material and procedural — is premature and, in fact, political decision not grounded by feasible research results. The author highlights that the Concept of the new Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation approved at the meeting of the Government of the Russian Federation in June 2019 primarily deals with the issues of reforming mainly substantive administrative and tort legislation, while proposals for the improvement of procedural regulation of administrative responsibility are not covered in details. The Concept does not contain information concerning the fact that instead of the current Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation two new codes — the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (CAO) and the Procedural Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation (PCAO) — will be adopted.The author focuses on the analysis of the draft of the PCAO published on the website of the Ministry of Justice of Russia. Primarily, the paper highlights such provisions that deserve an affirmative response. However, the author devotes the most significant part of the study to the analysis of the conceptual shortcomings of the PCAO of the Russian Federation. Without elimination of these shortcomings, it can hardly been concluded that a complete and qualitative procedural and legal mechanism for the implementation of justice in the field of administrative and tort relations is established in the courts of general jurisdiction.