Basmanny justice


"Basmanny justice" is a term used to characterize the judicial system that emerged in the 2000s in Russia and is distinguished by a low degree of independence of the judiciary in decision-making. The decisions made by the dependent judiciary are considered convenient for the authorities or necessary for them, but run counter to the rule of law.
Sometimes it is used in a semantic meaning as a custom-made court, an instrument of political repression, synonymous with the lack of independence of the court as a whole. The term got its name from the name of the of the city of Moscow, known for its high-profile and controversial trials, which caused many-sided criticism of the Russian judicial system, in particular, in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Yukos shareholders v. Russia. The term and the phenomenon it describes have been the subject of debate among journalists, lawyers and authorities, including former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Moscow City Court chief judge.

Origin

The term was introduced by the editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow Alexei Venediktov and, who called the Basmanny court and its justice Basmanovsky, which caused Venediktov to associate the term with the oprichniks and Fyodor Basmanov. In November 2003, the term was used, inter alia, by Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Nemtsov.

Opinions

In 2004, the President of the High Arbitration Court of Russia Veniamin Yakovlev, expressed the opinion that the presence of a stable label "Basmanny justice" contributes to a critical assessment of the work of Russian judges:
In 2005, the chief judge of the Moscow City Court, Olga Yegorova, confirmed that "the term really exists," and the book "Basmanny Justice" published by Yukos' lawyer Karinna Moskalenko and her colleagues contains "interesting additional information" that prompted the chief judge of the court to remind the judges subordinate to her demands "clearly comply with the procedural and substantive law, promptly and competently consider each case, since behind each of them are people, their interests, rights, destinies." In 2011, Yegorova argued: "There is no longer either Mosgorshtamp or Basmanny Justice."
In December 2009, this term was commented on by the then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev:

Examples of using the term

By analogy with the expression "Basmanny justice", journalists used similar phrases containing the names of other courts to characterize the non-legal nature of their decisions.