2001 a law clerk of the Commercial Court of the Sverdlovsk Region informed the applicant association of the annulment of the decision of 17 June 1999, as upheld on 18 October 1999. On 22 October 2001 the applicant association wrote a letter to the President of the Supreme Commercial Court asking for a copy of the decision of that court. The applicant association received it on 28 November 2001.
13. Shortly thereafter the applicant association challenged the refusal of the Department of Justice before the courts of general jurisdiction. By a final decision of 1 August 2002 the Sverdlovsk Regional Court allowed the applicant association's claim, ordering the Department of Justice to register the applicant association.
14. In 2003 the applicant association challenged the relevant provisions of the Code of Commercial Proceedings before the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. On 18 December 2003 the Constitutional Court declared this complaint inadmissible. The Court found that, although the provisions challenged did not establish any time-limits for bringing an extraordinary appeal, the time within which the appeal was brought in the applicant's case had not exceeded the "reasonable time", and, therefore, the applicant's rights had not been breached by it.
II. Relevant domestic law
15. The Law On Public Associations (No. 82-FZ of 19 May 1995, as amended), concerning non-profit NGOs, provided that the refusal of the competent Department of Justice to register a public association could be challenged before a court (Section 23 of the Law).
16. Since the 1990s the Russian judicial system has comprised of three elements - courts of general jurisdiction, commercial courts and constitutional courts. The Code of Commercial Procedure of 1995 (No. 70-FZ of 5 May 1995, in force at the material time but repealed on 1 September 2002, hereafter "the old Code") stated that the commercial courts could determine "economic disputes arising from civil, administrative and other legal relationships... between legal persons..." (Section 22 § 1 of the old Code). Article 22 § 2 of the old Code provided that "economic disputes... include disputes... challenging the refusal of a State body to register a legal person where such registration is required by the Law".
17. The Code of Commercial Procedure of 2002 (in force from 1 September 2002, hereafter "the new Code") contains a similar provision which defined the competence of the commercial courts based on two criteria: the subject matter of the dispute ("economic disputes") and the status of the litigants ("legal persons"). Article 33 of the new Code stipulates that disputes concerning the creation, reorganisation and liquidation of legal persons was within the competence of the commercial courts.
18. Under section 9 of the Law On Commercial Courts of the Russian Federation (No. 1-FKZ, of 28 April 1995, as in force at the material time), the Supreme Commercial Court had, inter alia, the right to issue recommendations deriving from case-law (разъяснения по вопросам судебной практики). On 9 December 2002 the Supreme Commercial Court issued Recommendation No. 11, "On certain issues arising in connection with the enactment of the Code of Commercial Procedure", which interpreted inter alia Article 33 of the new Code. In Section 5 of the Recommendation, the Supreme Commercial Court specified that the disputes concerning registration of non-profit organisations fall outside the competence of the commercial courts.
19. The Code provided that the judgments of commercial courts of first instance could be appealed within one month of the date of their adoption (Article 147). Decisions of the courts of appeal were amenable to appeal to the court of cassation also within one month of the date of their adoption (Article 164).
20. Chapter 22 of the Code also established that any ju
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