Les cours militaires russes : juridictions de droit commun, juridictions spécialisées ou juridictions d’exception ? [Russian Courts-Martial: Courts of General Jurisdiction, Specialised Courts or Extraordinary Courts?]

According to the classical concept accepted in procedural doctrine of civil law countries, courts-martial, when they exist, are considered specialised or extraordinary courts, but never courts of general jurisdiction, even the criteria that distinguish specialised and extraordinary courts needs theoretical clarification. Beginning in 1992 the Russian military jurisdiction system, created in Soviet era and evolved from extraordinary to specialised justice, underwent several reforms, which reduced and even eliminated certain aspects of their specialisation. Thus the new law on courts-martial passed in 1999 was the culmination of this process: according to its surprising first Article, courts-martial are no longer considered specialised courts, but courts of general jurisdiction. However, the question arises that if courts-martial are considered courts of general jurisdiction, which is paradoxical enough, why does Russia need to preserve the system of courts-martial, if the latter have lost almost all their particularities? In other words, is there an internal rationale for the reforms of military justice in today’s Russia?