The active role of the court and the independence of judges in administrative proceedings: problems of legal regulation and guarantees of implementation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17308/law/1995-5502/2026/2/206-214Keywords:
administrative proceedings, Code of Administrative Procedure of the Russian Federation, active role of the court, judicial independence, adversarial principle, principles of procedure, evidence, extraterritoriality, jurisdiction, procedural guarantees, digitalization of justiceAbstract
The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the dialectical relationship between two fundamental principles of administrative proceedings – the active role of the court and the independence of judges. Based on the provisions of the Code of Administrative Procedure of the Russian Federation, a comparative legal analysis of the experience of Germany, Georgia, Latvia, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as recent doctrinal sources, the authors substantiate the thesis that the active role of the court is not an independent principle but an immanent element of judicial management of the process, functionally aimed at compensating for the actual inequality of the parties in a public law dispute. The article systematizes the procedural manifestations of judicial activity in the field of evidence. Special attention is paid to identifying systemic conflicts: the lack of a legal definition and limits of court activity; the imperfection of territorial jurisdiction, which creates risks for independence; and the debatable issue of the compatibility of court activity with the adversarial principle. As a solution, the authors propose a set of measures to improve the administrative-procedural mechanism, including: 1) normative specification of the concept and criteria of court activity; 2) reform of jurisdiction in cases under Chapters 21, 22 of the Code of Administrative Procedure of the Russian Federation based on the principle of extraterritoriality; 3) introduction of digital technologies (videoconferencing) to ensure access to justice; 4) strengthening special procedural guarantees of judicial independence. The conclusion is made about the need to harmonize the court's activity and its independence as two sides of a single mechanism of fair justice in administrative cases.
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