The Presidential Council for Codification and Enhancement of Civil Legislation is a consultative body ensuring coordination the interaction between the federal state bodies, state bodies of the regions of the Russian Federation, public organizations, research and other organizations in matters related to enhancing civil legislation, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and organisations on the issues related to enhancement of civil legislation.
The Council was incorporated as per the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin dated 5 October 1999 № 1338 «On the Presidential Council for Codification and Enhancement of Civil Legislation» in order to bring civil legislation in line with the needs of the economy and social life and its further improvement. The functions of the secretariat of the Council as well as its organizational and informational maintenance of its activity are assigned to the Private Law Research Centre named after S.S. Alexeev.
The President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin as per the Order dated 29th October 2003 No.1267 “On Ensuring the Activities of the Presidential Council for Codification and Enhancement of Civil Legislation” substantially amended the operation of the Council by making a provision that the draft federal laws in the field of civil law drafted by the federal bodies of executive authority are to be submitted to the Council for an expertise before their submission to the Government of the Russian Federation.
The present composition of the Council was approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin of 18th September 2018 No. 525. It comprises 40 members including the leading Russian academics in the field of civil law, doctors and candidates of legal sciences, the active justices of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, employees of the State Duma, the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, representatives of leading law universities and academic institutions, business associations and reputable public organizations. The members of the Council do not receive remuneration for their work at the Council.
Since the moment of its incorporation the Council uninterruptedly provided independent expertise of the draft legislation in the field of private law and its concepts. In addition, the Council on its own initiative takes part in drafting of the legislation.
In furtherance of the Order of the President of the Russian Federation dated 18th June 2008 “On Enhancement of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation” the Council together with the Research Centre drafted the Concept of the development of the civil legislation in the Russian Federation. Upon the public discussion with participation of the academics and professionals in the field of private law the Concept was undersigned by the President of the Russian Federation. In pursuance of the Concept the Council prepared the draft of the fundamental amendments to the Civil Code (the draft of the enhancement of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The draft legislation upon the publication and wide public discussion was submitted by the President to the State Duma and was adopted in its first reading on 27th April 2012. On the basis of the mentioned draft legislation eleven federal laws modernizing the text of the Civil Code, were adopted, however, the most significant part of the text of the draft bill – the new version of section II of the Civil Code “The Property Law” – has yet not been considered and adopted.
At present four working groups operate within the Council:
- regarding enhancement of the legislation concerning the property rights;
- regarding the preparation of the concept regarding enhancement of the part II of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation regarding the insurance contract
- regarding enhancement of the legislation regarding the joint ownership of exclusive rights;
- regarding enhancement of the legislation of the Russian Federation regarding the insurance.
The expert opinions of the Council after their finalization are submitted to the President of the Russian Federation, to the chambers of the Federal Assembly, the supreme judicial authorities and to the state officials in pursuance of the Order of the President of the Russian Federation dated 5th October 1999 N 1338. All expert opinions of the Council are updated to the database “Consultant Plus” (the section “The drafts of the legal acts”) and some of them most important opinions are published in the law journal “The Herald of the Civil Law”.
The agenda of the sessions, drafts of the expert opinions and monthly reviews of the activity of the Council may be found at the web-site of the Research Centre.