On the Requirements for Court Judgments of Public Interest and on the Types of Judgments

Abstract

The article raises the question of how relevant the Soviet requirements to court judgments are to current court judgments in cases involving the public interest protection. The environmental protection cases show that sometimes it is appropriate to deviate from the requirement of unconditional judgment, in particular, when deciding on such cases. In this regard, so-called conditional judgments should be allowed, as this may contribute to the effective protection of both the public interest and various other interests, including those of the defendant.

The author also concludes that in such cases it should be allowed to issue so-called partial and intermediate judgments, the necessity of which was denied by the Soviet doctrine, but is recognized by some researchers nowadays. Although the author’s conclusions are based on environmental cases as an example, the court judgments in such cases are quite appropriate for many other public interest cases that are either already before the courts or are expected to be before them in the future (with the expansion of judicial competence). However, it does not mean that such a derogation, in particular from the requirements for a judgment (e. g. the unconditionality requirement), should become the general rule. It should be considered possible primarily in cases where such protection would be equally achieved by applying different means of protection, which at the same time do not have the same impact on the interests of the defendant, whose activities may also be of public importance.