The Phenomenon of Model Legislative Acts of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Decisions of Courts of the Russian Federation

This study is focused at studying decisions of courts of the Russian Federation, containing references to model legislative acts and other documents of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (hereinafter referred to as the IPA CIS). Aim . Determine the types of appeals by courts of the Russian Federation to the texts of the recommendatory acts of the IPA CIS, adopted for the purpose of forming and implementing coordinated legislative activity on issues of common interest to the member states of the organization. Tasks . Collect and study acts of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, as well as the system of federal courts of general jurisdiction and arbitration courts headed by it. Methods. The disclosure of the main trends in the courts’ resort to model laws and other documents of the CIS IPA occurred according to the following criteria: level and type of court that adopted the decision; the entity on whose initiative the appeal to the model act of the CIS IPA took place, as well as the consequences of the initiative on the part of the applicant or other participant in the process; the meaning (variant of manifestation) of the model document in the court ruling. Results . The study showed that courts at all levels of the judicial system of the Russian adopted decrees, rulings and decisions adopted in constitutional, civil, criminal and administrative proceedings, the content of which included references to model legal provisions. The initiative to use model legal norms came both from the court and from other participants in the process. Conclusion . The court decisions collected for the study presented different options for the use of model laws and other documents of the CIS IPA by courts, which provides grounds for redetermination of the nature of model legislative acts of the CIS IPA.