Visit of American experts to Russian arbitration courts

On May, 12-15 2009, American experts on access to court information and judicial transparency visited several Russian arbitration (commercial) courts. It was the first visit within the partnership between the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation (the SAC) and the U.S. Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law.

The goal of the visit was to assess the current state of IT technology in Russian arbitration courts, and to exchange opinions and share experiences on improving access of general public to court records.

The team of American experts consisted of Peter G. McCabe (Assistant Director for Judges Programs, Administrative Office of the United States Courts), Judge James B. Haines, Jr. (United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Main), and Norman H. Meyer (Clerk of the Court of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Mexico).

On May, 12 2009 there were meetings at the Supreme Arbitration (Commercial) Court of the Russian Federation. Mr. Igor Soloviev, head of IT at the SAC, delivered a presentation on various information systems at the SAC available for general public. Then during the roundtable experts from both sides shared their opinions on the most problematic issues of judicial transparency.

On May, 13 2009 experts visited the Federal Arbitration Court for Moscow Arbitration Okrug. On May, 14 2009 they visited two courts in Saint Petersburg: the Federal Arbitration Court for the North-Western Arbitration Okrug and the trial arbitration court for Saint Petersburg and Leningrad oblast. Thus, the team had a chance to compare IT systems and access to court records regulations in courts of different levels.

During all the meetings experts discussed such questions as:

Can third parties (not involved in a case) have access to case materials?
What court documents and records can be published on the Internet?
How IT can be used for case management?
How private data, trade and state secrets should be protected when publishing court records?

Experts from both sides agreed that there were no easy answers to these questions. Both American and Russian systems of general public access to court records should be improved to meet new challenges. However, American experts noticed that arbitration courts in Russia had really made a huge step to become more open and transparent within the last two years.

In the nearest future Russian experts will visit the U.S.A. to learn more about access to court records there.