The institution of jurisdiction in civil cases has undergone significant changes over the past 20 years with numerous additions been made to it, which indicates a change in the concept of distribution of cases between courts, developed during the preparation of the Civil Procedure Code of the RSFSR in 1964. A complicated judicial system, as well as an increase in the variety of cases submitted to the courts, required new rules establishing the relevance of a particular case to the court. However, as the analysis of the changes that took place showed, the most of the changes were made to resolve current problems beyond any general concept replacing the Soviet one. In order to improve the institution of jurisdiction in civil cases, an integrated approach is needed that will allow us to elucidate the meaning of the norms of jurisdiction at the present stage of the development of civil procedure law; to develop reasonable criteria for the distribution of cases between different courts; to increase safeguards of the interests of persons involved in the case when transferring cases from one court to another; to improve the mechanism for transferring cases; to resolve the question of admissibility and boundaries of the agreement on jurisdiction; to substantiate the criteria of insignificance of cases to determine jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace; to update the grounds for alternative, exclusive jurisdiction.