To Achieve Rule of Law, Russia Needs Older Judges Who’ve Worked as Lawyers, Filippov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 12 – Most Russians, the Levada Center finds, “prefer to have at the head of the country a ruler ‘from God’ …. who isn’t subordinate to parliament or the results of elections, Petr Filippov says; but if Russia is to make progress, it must have effective property rights and that requires the establishment of a rule of law especially via the courts.

            In Yezhednevny zhurnal, the Russian commentator says that the need to make the transition from a rule based on force to one  based on law is increasingly being discussed in Russia because people can see  that it is the foundation of property rights and they require an effective court system (ej.ru/?a=note&id=33530).

                Filippov lists some of the proposals Russian analysts and academics have made to move in that direction. Most of them are familiar because they focus on the need to decrease or even eliminate the power of the presidency and officials to control judges and thus the outcome of cases. But one idea seems particularly important even if it seldom attracts much attention.

            Russia desperately needs its judges to be older and to have experience in the legal profession. That is the case in most countries, and Russia needs to emulate what they do, the commentator says. Unfortunately, at present, Russia’s judges are extremely young and lack the authority that experience as lawyers can provide.

            In the United States, the average age of judges when they are elected or appointed is 40 to 45 and almost all of them have extensive legal experience prior to that time. The situation in Russia is different: the average age when Russian judges are first selected is 31, and 57 percent of all judges are enrobed before 30.

           

            That means they do not have the experience or gravitas that might allow them to do a good job. Instead, in many cases, they have never worked as lawyers, have no reputation in the legal fraternity, and thus behave more like minor bureaucrats who can be ordered about than like independent judges.

            Before appointment as judges, 30 percent have been aides to other judges or as court officials, 17 percent have come from the ranks of prosecutors, and 16 percent are former policemen.  Most are anything but well-trained. Sixty percent of Russian judges receive their legal training on external basis after they’ve gone to work.

            Those concerned about promoting rule of law in Russia argue that the country must raise the minimum age for judges from 25 to 35, that nominees must have “no less than five years” experience as lawyers, and that they show they have had some experience working in non-governmental structures.

            Those steps by themselves will not guarantee an independent judiciary, but without them, Filippov suggests, an independent judiciary will probably remain beyond Russia’s reach.