Application by arbitration courts of foreign private law: legislative regulation and legal positions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation

The subject of consideration in this article are the legislative provisions and legal positions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the implementation of which aims to establish the content of the rules of foreign private law in the arbitration courts of cases on economic disputes from legal relations with a foreign element. As it is known, one of the main features of law enforcement in the resolution of courts, including arbitration courts, cases from private legal relations "with a foreign element" is the need to apply conflict of laws rules that allow to elect a competent law and order. In turn, the binding of the conflict-of-laws rule may point to the applicable substantive law of a foreign state. The possibility and necessity to apply foreign private law are provided directly by the provisions of article. 1191 civil code, Art. 14 of the APC and, of course, due to the action of numerous conflict of laws rules contained in various legislative acts and international treaties. The need for the courts of the Russian Federation to apply foreign private law creates a paradoxical acceptance when the law enforcement officer, without being obliged to know foreign law, must apply it. In this regard, the Russian legislation provides rules on the procedure for the application of foreign law.In this context, the subject of the analysis are the legislative provisions and legal positions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the implementation of which makes it possible to establish the content of the norms of foreign law and to apply them correctly. Fundamental importance here are the rules of paragraph 1 of article 1191 of the civil code, paragraph 1 of article 14 of the APC, providing criteria for establishing the content of foreign law: "the Court establishes the content of foreign law in accordance with their official interpretation, practice and doctrine in the relevant foreign state." It is obvious that the legislator makes quite high demands on the activities of the court. In order to comply with them, the court must be able to obtain information about foreign law. Therefore, the next step of the legislator could not but be the consolidation of procedural forms of obtaining information about foreign law to be applied in the case. The first stage of the research is the analysis of legal norms providing for the possibility of court imposing on the parties (plaintiff and defendant) the obligation to provide information about the content of foreign law. The following is a discussion of the guidance provided by the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the relevant issues. On the basis of the arguments given in the article, conclusions and proposals aimed at improving the existing civil and arbitration procedural legislation are formulated.

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