RUSSIA’S PARTICIPATION IN THE ACTIVITIES OF INSTITUTES OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND THE POSITION OF DOMESTIC JUDICIAL DOCTRINE

The article contains a comprehensive review of the participation of Russia in the activities of international courts. The author analyses the court cases with involvement of Russia, starting from the 19^th century; characterizes the contribution of Russian politicians, diplomats and lawyers to the formation and development of international courts; comments on individual court decisions and positions of the highest courts of the Russian Federation. Particular attention is paid to the activities of the EAEU Court and its contribution to the development of the Eurasian legal order. The author highlights the main parameters of state policy in the field of the international judicial system: the focus on conciliation procedures; the division of competence to conduct trials between various bodies; the appointment of career diplomats as judges; the politicized attitude towards international courts; the orientation towards «principled resistance», etc. The author characterizes the general state of domestic doctrinal research in the field and examines discussions on specific issues (a role of international courts, normative significance of judgments, appropriateness of dissenting opinions, etc.). On the whole, the Russian doctrine provides answers to most of the acute questions related to international courts and international jurisprudence; moreover, in some cases, it is not limited to compiling or commenting on the positions of Western authors but offers its own solutions. At the same time, there are several systemic problems: a rather narrow group of specialists is interested in these problems; many important judgments rendered in cases involving Russia are not commented on; doctrinal researches are not in demand by state bodies and international courts; Russian doctrine is not a full-fledged participant in Western discourse; a general situation in Russian universities is not conducive to serious research work.