Precedent in the Russian legal system contemporarily
Mai Văn Thắng

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Abstract

The Article focus on analyzing the fundamental reasons fostering the creation and progress, the nature, the position and value of precedent as a source of law within the Russian legal system contemporarily. Accordingly, the construction of a state in which the rule of law, the democracy, the integration, the recognized of fundamental legal principles such as the court must not deny resolving cases, the guardian of the court to the basic human rights as well as citizen rights, the judges do not rely solely on the laws but also on their conscience to accomplish the mission of protection of justice, the existence of a  constitutional federal court, have been considered the main reasons promoting the creation of caselaw in Russia in reality at the period after Soviet. However, there is not any official legal documents governing precedent in Russia so far. Unlike the "stare decisis" principle in the Common law system, precedent in Russia only plays an inferior role which is a supplement source considered legal interpreting in the system. 


Precedents in Russia are also not granted an official authorization as well as not selected or published, instead of that, case laws are the opinions, decisions from the superior courts which are believed to be trustworthy, outstanding, valuable and appropriate. These case laws would be cited in the lower courts although some of them which were granted by Constitution Federal Court may not follow previously mentioned principle because of their own binding rules. The opinions, legal reasonings considered the content of the precedents are not the laws.