Definition of the Concept of Judges' Assessment of Legally Significant Circumstances of the Case in Contemporary Russian Legal Proceedings

The article considers the explication of the concepts of legally significant circumstances of the case and the judges' assessment of the legally significant circumstances of the case. Explication is carried out mainly through the formal legal method based on the analysis of the norms of the current Russian procedural legislation, primarily the Civil Procedural Code of the Russian Federation. In the first part of the article, the author formulates an integral definition of the concept of legally significant circumstances. He shows that this concept, despite its widespread use in scientific literature and legal practice compendiums, occurs in such a linguistic form in the norms of Soviet procedural law and does not occur in the norms of the current Russian legislation. At the same time, the concept has clear correlates in the current procedural codes of the Russian Federation. Based on the analysis of these correlates, the author concludes that legally significant circumstances are specific life or procedural circumstances, which are determined by the court and need to be proven within the framework of the case, except when according to certain procedural norms these circumstances are accepted as proven or without proof, and information about them, received in the procedure prescribed by law, is necessary and sufficient for a comprehensive objective consideration and resolution of the case by the court. In the second part of the article, the author shows the difference between the concepts of legally significant circumstances and legal facts, which are sometimes incorrectly identified or unnecessarily brought together by some researchers. In particular, the author stresses that traditionally researchers represent legal facts as certain phenomena that lead to the movement of legal relationships. At the same time, legally significant circumstances may not always lead to the movement of legal relationships. In the third part of the article, the author gives an integral definition of the concept of the judges' assessment of legally significant circumstances. He shows that this concept should be represented as a set of mental operations of a judge aimed at ensuring the relationship between legally significant circumstances, evidence, and conclusions of the court. Moreover, as follows from Items 1-3 of Part 1 of Article 330 of the Civil Procedural Code of the Russian Federation, the assessment of legally significant circumstances consists of three key elements: determination of the range of circumstances which are important for the case; establishment by the court of an unambiguous connection between evidence and circumstances which are important for the case; establishment by the court of an unambiguous connection between circumstances which are important for the case and conclusions of the court. In the conclusion, the author shows practical consequences that follow from the results of the study.

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