Limitation periods for bringing a judge to disciplinary responsibility: legislative and law enforcement problems

The subject. The existence of limitation periods for bringing to any type of legal liability is intended to ensure legal certainty and stability of legal relations, aimed at protecting a person from the threat of being subject to adverse consequences for an unreasonably long time.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the provisions of the Law of the Russian Federation “On the Status of Judges in the Russian Federation” establishing limitation periods for bringing a judge to disciplinary responsibility, and the practice of their application by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and qualification boards of judges. Objective of the study is to identify legislative and law enforcement defects of the institute of statutes of limitations for bringing judges to disciplinary responsibility; to formulate proposals aimed at solving these problems.

Methodology. General scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction and specific scientific methods – logical, comparative and systemic were used. The achievement of the set objectives was facilitated by the use of special legal methods – the formal-legal method and the method of legal modeling.

Main results. Statutory limitation periods for bringing a judge to disciplinary responsibility are also an additional guarantee of ensuring their immunity and independence. The lack of uniform law enforcement practice on the issue of calculating these periods and legislatively defined legal consequences of their expiration in the form of termination of disciplinary proceedings, non-application of limitation periods in case of early termination of powers of judges for violation of anti-corruption restrictions, prohibitions and requirements that are not recognized as disciplinary offenses, do not contribute to the implementation of the purpose of the institute of limitation periods in disciplinary proceedings.

Conclusions include the author's proposals for amendments and additions to the Law of the Russian Federation “On the Status of Judges in the Russian Federation” and the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation “On the judicial practice of applying legislation regulating issues of disciplinary responsibility of judges”, the implementation of which will ensure the fairness and predictability of decisions on the disciplinary responsibility of judges, which will ultimately guarantee their independence. 

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