Draft laws on the Supreme Court and selection of its judges

It follows from the draft laws that commercial courts are likely to remain as a separate branch of judiciary

Draft laws on the Supreme Court and on the procedure for selection of judges for the future Supreme Court has been introduced by President Putin into the State Duma. It reveals the basic structure of the Court. It appeаrs from the draft law that after the abolition of the Supreme Commercial Court the inferior commercial courts may continue to exist as a separate branch of judiciary, being subordinate to the newly established Division for Economic Disputes - one of seven divisions of the Supreme Court. There will be 30 judges in this division.

The Disciplinary Judicial Department will cease to exist. Its powers will be concentrated in the Disciplinary Division of the future Supreme Court, consisting of 7 judges.

Other divisions will be: 

- Administrative Division (33 judges)
- Civil division (32 judges)
- Criminal Division (60 judges)
- Military Division (5 judges)
- Appellate Division (the number of judges is unknown)

Each division will be headed by a Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court. 

The Plenum (Plenary Session) of the Court will retain its traditional function of giving interpretation of laws in abstract form. The Presidium will be, as formerly, the highest instance for consideration of concrete cases. It is unclear wthether its decisions will serve as precedents binding upon courts below. The Presidium, as well as divisions, will be able to carry out "generalisations" of court practice. The role and force of such generalisations are not yet clear as well.

The seat of the Supreme Court shall change - it will be Saint Petersburg instead of Moscow. 

The draft law on the Supreme Court can be found here.

The draft law on the selection of Supreme Court judges can be found here.