Geographical approach to determining access to justice in criminal cases (on the example of district courts of the Kurgan region)

Abdulvaliev Almaz Firzyarovich ORCID: 0000-0002-0390-393X PhD in Law Docent of the chair of criminal law disciplines, Institute of State and Law, University of Tyumen 38 Lenin Street, Tyumen, Tyumen region, 625000, Russia a.abdulvaliev@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The right to access to justice is a key requirement (and even a principle of constitutional law) in ensuring the participation of various participants in criminal proceedings in the consideration of criminal cases by the court, as many scientists say ^{[1, pp. 155-163; 2, pp. 340-342; 3, pp. 373-395; 4, pp. 177-192]}. The observance of his rights in a criminal case depends on how close the court is to the population, how easy it will be for a person to reach the appropriate judicial authority. Therefore, the location of courts of general jurisdiction plays an important role in criminal proceedings. Access to justice has been repeatedly studied by scientists from a criminal procedural point of view ^{[5, pp. 13-28; 6, pp. 212-216]}. There were even suggestions to recognize it as a principle of criminal procedure ^{[7, p. 55; 8, p. 564-593]}. However, few scientists have studied access to justice from a geographical point of view. Moreover, there may be a lot of actual problems hidden here.

In this regard, the aim of the study was to check to what extent the courts of general jurisdiction in certain regions of the Russian Federation located beyond the Urals are accessible to the population from a geographical point of view, and to what extent the courts have well-developed transport accessibility.

The object of the study was the district courts of general jurisdiction of the Kurgan region. At the same time, the study of pedestrian and transport accessibility (by road, rail and air transport) was taken as a basis, determined by the distance in kilometers in a straight line from the location of the court to the nearest infrastructure transport facilities, as well as the distance from the court to the nearest local government bodies, prosecutor's offices and investigators due to the fact that these bodies also they are directly involved in the investigation of a criminal case and its subsequent transfer to the court. This approach also makes it possible to trace the movement of a criminal case not only from a procedural, but also from a geographical point of view. The purpose of the study was not to study the location of the magistrates' plots, the location of the district courts of Kurgan and the Kurgan Regional Court, since a separate and additional scientific study is required for their study.

Having studied the conceptual apparatus, it is worth noting that transport accessibility is understood as a normative indicator of the time spent on transport links between various points within group settlement systems (A terminological dictionary on construction in 12 languages of the VNIIIS Gosstroy of the USSR). At the same time, it must be said that the level of transport accessibility, although it is measured by scientists in hours ^{[9, p. 257]} or by other parameters ^{[10, p. 63-70]}, including economic ^{[11, p. 42-53]}. But for the present study, it would be more expedient to determine accessibility in kilometers due to the use of a geographical method of investigating the location of judicial authorities using online maps, rather than a mathematical one. Moreover, scientists have different approaches to determining pedestrian and transport accessibility ^[12].

In addition, the study attempted to determine how far the court of general jurisdiction is removed from the local district administration of the municipality, since the specified local government body acts to a greater extent as the center of the settlement, and, often, geographically. And from this it is possible to trace where the court is located in the locality – in the center or on the periphery, on the main street or not. Such factors are important, indicating, in particular, the convenience of finding a court for nonresident persons who arrived, for example, to participate in a court hearing.

Before proceeding to the description of the results of the scientific research, it is necessary to clarify that not all municipal districts of the Kurgan region have district courts. So, only in one district of the Kurgan region – Chastoozersky – there is no court of general jurisdiction. The Chastozersky District Court existed earlier, but was abolished in May 2008; the corresponding Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 87-FZ of 11.06.2008 "On the abolition of the Chastozersky District Court of the Kurgan Region" was adopted, and all civil, administrative and criminal cases were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Petukhov District Court of the Kurgan Region.

In the Explanatory Note to the draft Federal Law "On the abolition of the Chastoozersky District Court of the Kurgan region", it was mentioned that the abolition of this court was caused by the small number of judges and the low burden on judges (the load on one judge was 2.71 criminal and 6.38 civil cases). "The abolition of the Chastoozersky District Court with the simultaneous transfer of its powers to the jurisdiction of the Petukhov District Court will make it possible to optimize the process of administration of justice, will balance the distribution of the burden between judges, will not disrupt the stability of the functioning of elements of the judicial system of the region and will not affect the constitutional rights of citizens living in the Chastoozersky district of the Kurgan region to their free access to justice."

The absence of a district court in this municipal district of the Kurgan region may be a problem related to ensuring access to justice, but it is worth noting the fact that the decrease in the population of the Chastozersky district (over the past 15 years it has decreased from 6,588 to 5,000 people), and the proximity to the neighboring Petukhov district (between the district centers is minimal the distance in a straight line is just over 50 kilometers), where the district court is located, to a relative extent levels the distance to the judicial authority. The short distance to the nearest district court is still not a significant obstacle for the population of the Chastozersky district, especially since there is a transport connection between the district centers. Moreover, there is a high probability that in the future, during the administrative-territorial reform, these municipal districts of the Kurgan region will be reunited, as it was before 1972. Moreover, there is already similar experience in other regions of the Russian Federation ^{[13, c259-264]}.

However, it is worth making a reservation here that such consolidation of municipal districts should not go to the detriment of justice. A balanced approach to the enlargement procedure should be organized so that residents of abolished (or annexed) municipal districts do not have to travel a long distance to the district court. Therefore, when carrying out administrative and territorial reforms related to the enlargement of districts, it is necessary to take into account the territorial remoteness and transport accessibility of urban and rural settlements relative to the district center and judicial authorities.

In the remaining municipal districts of the Kurgan region, in small urban and rural settlements that are district centers, courts of general jurisdiction are still preserved and continue to function.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to trace the location of the courts in the district centers, i.e. where are they located – in the center of the settlement, a little further away or on the very outskirts? It is also interesting to find out whether they are located on the central street or not? Since such urban features can also affect access to justice. Moreover, the concentration of various authorities in the center of the settlement plays not only a geographical (urban) role.

Another logical question arises, what is the center of a settlement and any settlement? How to define it? It is logical to assume that the center of the settlement is its geographical center. It doesn't have to be any specific point, it can also be a certain center with a radius of 200-500 meters. As a rule, the social and business center of the settlement is taken as a basis, where many institutions and authorities are located along with the judicial body. After all, district courts are essentially part of the social and business center of many localities.

The conducted research showed that in the Kurgan region, the majority of district courts of general jurisdiction (91.3% of the total number of district courts) are located directly in the center of the settlement itself and on the central street. The exceptions are the Ketovsky District Court and the Shadrinsky District Court, which are located not in the geographical center within the settlements, but relatively close to such a center. 

What is pedestrian accessibility? How is it determined? Pedestrian accessibility is movement through the territory carried out in conditions of standard weather for a given area (within the climatic norm) without the use of vehicles by a person capable of independent movement, the possibility of using the pedestrian accessibility indicator outside public spaces of settlements and (or) off public roads is recommended to be justified separately (The Order of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation from 02/15/2021 No. 71 "On approval of Methodological recommendations for the preparation of standards for urban planning design").

According to the set of principles of integrated development of urban areas ^[14], a pedestrian accessibility zone is an area within which an untrained person can walk to any point in 5-10 minutes with a calm step. The distance covered during this time is assumed to be 210-420 meters.  By other mathematical calculations, when walking at a calm pace, an average distance of 330-660 meters is obtained.  In some local regulatory legal acts, pedestrian accessibility is determined by the pedestrian accessibility index (dimensionless coefficient) as the average value of the values obtained from the calculation of the ratio of the length of the shortest pedestrian route to the length of the limit route to the points of attraction within the 800-meter zone, taking into account the topology of the road network (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 510-r of 23.03.2019 (ed. of 30.12.2020) "On approval of the Methodology for the formation of the urban environment quality index"). In the above-mentioned Methodological Recommendations for the preparation of urban planning design standards, for example, for law enforcement facilities, pedestrian accessibility is equal to the distance covered by a person in 15 minutes, which is equivalent to 1000 meters.

Based on this, it can be established that in our case, to determine pedestrian accessibility in this study, it is advisable to take a value equal to 1 kilometer, but in a straight line for simplified distance calculation. Also, in order to gradate the distances between the court and the authorities, it is necessary to establish its own "urban proxemics" in order to know which geographical objects are located at a close distance (i.e. up to 500 meters), and which are at a very close distance (i.e. less than 200 meters), thereby determining the convenience of the location of bodies for employees, participants in the process and for the general population.

Such close proximity of district courts, logically, should contribute not only to ensuring access to justice for participants in the proceedings, but also to ensure the rapid movement of the criminal case from the stage of preliminary investigation to the stage of preparing the case for trial, including also the accelerated transfer of all materials when returning the criminal case to the prosecutor on the grounds provided for in Article 237 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

The study showed that in the Kurgan region 95.6% of district courts (22 out of 23) are located within walking distance from the local district administration. Moreover, 7 district courts are located at a close distance, and 13 at a very close distance. Such a close location of executive authorities to justice has a noticeable effect when courts consider civil or administrative cases in which representatives of local self-government bodies (and representatives of other bodies) take part as one of the parties or a third party. In criminal proceedings, this is expressed to a lesser extent, but it can still occur during the consideration of criminal cases, if, for example, one of the representatives of these bodies acts as a witness, a specialist or even a defendant.

 Similarly, 95.6% of district courts (22 out of 23) are located within walking distance from the district prosecutor's office, with 15 district courts located at a close distance, and 5 at a very close distance. So small distances between these bodies undoubtedly play an important role in establishing procedural and other ties.

The proximity of the district courts of general jurisdiction to the investigative bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the IC of the Russian Federation also affects the quality of the investigation of criminal cases to a certain extent, for example, based on the requirements of Article 29 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, when deciding whether to initiate petitions before the court for the election of a preventive measure in the form of detention, house arrest, bail or prohibition certain actions in relation to the suspect. In addition, such a neighborhood is necessary for the investigation to quickly resolve the issue of initiating a petition before the court for an inspection, search or seizure of a dwelling, for the seizure of property and correspondence, for monitoring and recording negotiations, for the temporary removal of a suspect or accused from office, etc.

The study showed that 82.6% of district courts (19 out of 23) of the Kurgan region are located in close walking distance from the structural divisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, namely from the intermunicipal and district departments of internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (the distance to the departments of the district police commissioners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation was not taken into account). Moreover, 6 of them are located at a close distance, and 5 - at a very close distance. Such a close neighborly location also plays an important role in establishing procedural and other ties.

Unfortunately, in three districts of the Kurgan region – Almenevsky, Mokrousovsky and Pritobolny - there are currently no structural divisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, with the exception of the departments of the district police commissioners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Therefore, the burden of investigating crimes committed on the territory of these districts is also assigned to neighboring inter-municipal and inter-district departments of internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Similarly, the situation is developing with the presence of investigative bodies of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the districts of the Kurgan region, where in 6 districts - Belozersky, Zverinogolovsky, Mokrousovsky, Petukhov, Polovinsky, Tselinny - there are currently no investigative bodies of the SU IC of the Russian Federation.

There is every reason to believe that the reason lies not so much in the personnel problems of law enforcement agencies, as in the rapidly losing population of the municipal districts of the Kurgan region (over the past 15 years, the population decline has averaged 3,000-4,000 people in each municipal district). There is a high probability that in the future, during the administrative-territorial reform, some municipalities of the Kurgan region may be enlarged.

In general, in 17 districts out of 23 (73.9%), the investigative bodies of the SU IC of the Russian Federation are present and are located within walking distance from the district courts. Moreover, 8 of them are located at a close distance, and 5 at a very close distance, to the point that these bodies are located in neighboring buildings.

Separately, it is worth considering the issue of transport accessibility of district courts of general jurisdiction in the Kurgan region. The author previously conducted similar studies when the issue of determining the transport accessibility of remote settlements of the Nizhnevartovsk district of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra was studied ^{[15, pp. 117-126]}. True, in that scientific analysis, emphasis was placed on studying the coefficient of transport accessibility of certain remote settlements of the municipality, but through the prism of material costs and the total time spent on the trip. The present study involves studying the degree of remoteness of airports, railway stations and bus stations from district courts of general jurisdiction in order to determine to what extent existing transport communications in the region ensure transport accessibility to justice.

Based on the general established town-planning rules, passenger stations (railway, automobile, water transport and air terminals) should be placed, providing transport links with the city center, between stations, with residential and industrial areas (SP 42.13330.2016. A set of rules. Urban planning. Planning and development of urban and rural settlements. Updated version of SNiP 2.07.01-89 (approved by the Order of the Ministry of Construction of Russia dated 30.12.2016 N 1034/pr)).  To what extent these objects have a transport connection with the district courts of general jurisdiction, it remains to be seen.  It is worth adding that the use of personal transport by participants in criminal proceedings also plays a key role in transport accessibility, since in some cases it is easier to get to court by car than by public transport, train or plane.

Do not forget that there may be situations when nonresident participants in criminal proceedings living in other districts and regions of Russia are required to come to participate in a court hearing on criminal cases. This is clearly seen in cases when, for example, criminal cases are considered in district courts for crimes under Article 264 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, if the guilty person or victims or witnesses are non-local. Often such traffic accidents occur on federal highways passing through the Kurgan region.

An example of such a situation is the criminal case considered in 2019-2020 by the Lebyazhevsky District Court of the Kurgan region. The act described in the verdict occurred on the federal highway "Irtysh" (E-30) near the roundabout, when a traffic accident occurred on the road - three heavy trucks with semi-trailers collided, as a result of which one of the drivers was killed. The defendant himself, as well as other participants in this criminal case, lived in another region. But all the time, while the investigation and consideration of the criminal case were going on, he was in the Kurgan region, since after treatment, a preventive measure in the form of detention was subsequently chosen against him. But the victim and some witnesses had to get from Chelyabinsk more than once for personal participation in the court session. By the way, in this case, the parties had the opportunity to use Part 4 of Article 240 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and file a petition for consideration of the case using a video conferencing system, but for unknown reasons they did not use this right.

With regard to bus stations, it should be said that in many urban and rural settlements they should be located within walking distance for the population living in these settlements. At the same time, the time spent on access to the bus station, according to the Methodological Recommendations for the preparation of standards for urban planning design, should not exceed 45 minutes. If you translate these parameters to distance, you get 2-3 kilometers along the streets (or 1-2 kilometers in a straight line). As for district centers, bus stations should also be located within walking distance from government bodies and institutions, including district courts of general jurisdiction.

A study conducted in the Kurgan region showed that 14 out of 23 district courts are located within walking distance (less than 1 kilometer in a straight line) from the bus station. 3 more district courts are located a little further away – within 2 kilometers to the bus stations. The availability of three-quarters of bus stations for district courts is undoubtedly a plus for those persons who arrive at the district center to participate in a court hearing on criminal cases, for example, as a victim, witness, civil plaintiff or civil defendant, including their representatives, based on the requirements of Articles 249 and 250 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.

However, it should be taken into account the fact that there are no de jure bus stations in 6 districts of the Kurgan region. And this is despite the fact that all the district centers of the Kurgan region have regular bus service with the regional center. To a certain extent, such a gap may create difficulties in ensuring access to justice for those persons who live in rural settlements of a particular area.  Therefore, the population prefers to use personal vehicles to travel to district centers, especially since many localities in municipal ones are located relatively close to district centers. Plus, the district courts themselves in the Kurgan region (82.6% of the number of district courts) have a full-fledged car on-site guest parking next to the building for such cases. However, to what extent they are suitable, for example, for low-mobility groups of the population, it is still necessary to find out. Obviously, this requires separate independent scientific research, because it also affects access to justice to a certain extent.

From the point of view of railway transport infrastructure, the Kurgan region is relatively well developed. The Chelyabinsk—Kurgan–Petropavlovsk–Omsk railway and the Yekaterinburg–Kurgan–Novoishimskoye railway (Republic of Kazakhstan) pass through the region. Moreover, the last segment from Kurgan to the border with the Republic of Kazakhstan is not currently used for passenger traffic. In the remaining directions, passenger suburban, interregional and international railway communication is carried out, which also contributes to ensuring access to justice for participants in criminal proceedings, especially for those who need to come from remote settlements, or to participate in the review of a criminal case on appeal or cassation.

If we talk about access to the court through the prism of communication routes, the study was based on existing railway stations, where passenger trains and commuter trains stop for boarding and disembarking passengers. Sidings, freight stations, or stations for technical stopping of trains were not taken as the basis of the study, since they are not intended for passenger service and are not suitable for determining the transport accessibility of courts of general jurisdiction. Also important for the study is the moment that between the court (or the district center where it is located) there was a paved road to the railway station to ensure year-round vehicle traffic (i.e. unpaved roads, seasonal roads or winter roads were not taken into account, since they are not always able to provide year-round transport accessibility). At the same time, to determine the transport accessibility of railway stations, the distance in a straight line equal to 80 kilometers (or 100 kilometers along a broken line equivalent to 1-1.5 hours of traffic by motor transport) was taken into account.

The conducted research has shown that 22 out of 23 district courts of general jurisdiction of the Kurgan region have access and access to rail transport. Moreover, 11 district centers, where district courts are located, are themselves also large railway stations. The exception is the Zverinogolovsky district of the Kurgan region, located near the border with the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is the furthest from the railway than other district courts. But even this distance is not quite large by modern standards, and is 104 kilometers in a straight line.  Therefore, it can be stated that from a geographical point of view, the district courts of the Kurgan region have generally good access to railway communication.

Unlike motor transport and rail transport, aviation communication in the Kurgan region is not so well developed. Looking ahead, it should be said that the insufficient number of airports, coupled with insufficiently developed small aircraft, creates many problems for the development of transport communications in the region, and, moreover, negatively affects access to justice, including when considering criminal cases in the court of first instance.

In the course of the scientific research, the analysis of the remoteness of district courts from the nearest airports was carried out.  Moreover, Class A and Class B airports were taken as a basis, capable of receiving various types of civil aircraft, including modern airliners for flights no longer within the municipality itself or the Subject of the Russian Federation, but for air communication with other regions of our country. For the study, the moment is important that between the court (or the district center where it is located) there was a paved road to the airport to ensure year-round traffic. At the same time, in order to determine the transport accessibility of airports, in contrast to the distance to railway stations, the distance in a straight line up to 200 kilometers (or up to 240 kilometers along a conditional polyline equivalent to a maximum of 3-4 hours of traffic by motor transport) was taken into account. Such a parameter for determining the accessibility of airports for the population was established based on the positions of a number of scientists who calculated that if 4 hours and more are spent on the road, then it's time to talk about transport discrimination of the population in suburban communication ^{[16, pp. 78-89]}. If less than 4 hours are spent on the road, then such a distance to the airport is considered acceptable.  At the same time, their study was just about air transport accessibility.

Why do we need to know about the location of airports and their distance from district courts of general jurisdiction? The fact is that access to air traffic plays a huge role for nonresident participants in the trial, living in other regions of the Russian Federation, for whom aviation is an effective transport in order to quickly and promptly get to court. Moreover, air traffic also benefits foreign participants in criminal proceedings from countries near and far abroad, who, due to various objective and subjective reasons, are involved in the consideration of criminal cases. Therefore, like rail transport and motor transport, civil aviation is a key factor in ensuring access to justice, not only in criminal cases, but also in civil, administrative and arbitration cases.

The Kurgan region has the only federal airport in the city of Kurgan, capable of receiving aircraft for small medium-length airlines.

The airport, like the city of Kurgan itself, is located almost in the center of the region and has good transport communication with many municipal districts – a developed road network. According to the study, all municipal district centers where courts of general jurisdiction are located are located in the transport accessibility zone of the airport, at a distance of less than 200 kilometers. Moreover, out of this total, 11 district centers of the Kurgan region are located at a distance of less than 100 kilometers, that is, even closer. This fact may indicate that the location of the airport in the Kurgan region is successful and favorable for ensuring the transport accessibility of participants in criminal proceedings, especially for those persons who need to get to the local district courts of the region from other Subjects of the Russian Federation, using civil aviation for this.

However, there is a problem of a non-procedural nature, which to a certain extent complicates interregional transport accessibility for participants in criminal proceedings. The fact is that today there are regular and charter flights from Kurgan airport only to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Surgut. Such a weak geographical coverage of the regions of Russia serves as an obstacle for the population, limiting residents of the Kurgan region in the opportunity to visit directly certain Subjects of the Russian Federation, or forcing them to use transfer hubs in Moscow or St. Petersburg.

Therefore, in such situations, the population uses the airports of neighboring regions. The location of the Kurgan region is relatively successful, since large international airports are located nearby in neighboring regions – Roshchino (Tyumen), Balandino (Chelyabinsk), Koltsovo (Yekaterinburg). A significantly larger number of flights are carried out from these airports than from the Kurgan airport, both to different parts of Russia and to countries near and far abroad.

Moreover, the above-mentioned air harbors for a number of courts of general jurisdiction (for example, in Dalmatovsky, Kataysky, Safakulevsky, Shatrovsky, Shumikhinsky, Shchuchansky districts) are much closer (less than 100-120 kilometers) and are preferable for operation than their regional airport in Kurgan. Thus, it is easier and more profitable for residents of these municipalities, as well as law enforcement officers of the district level and participants in criminal proceedings to use neighboring airports.

These types of transport in the Kurgan region play an important role in criminal proceedings, in particular, with regard to ensuring access not just to justice, but access of participants in criminal proceedings to appeal and cassation courts of general jurisdiction located in other regions of Russia, and then provided that these persons have expressed a desire to personally and directly participate in the court session, and not using a video conferencing system. The author has already conducted research on this topic ^{[17, pp. 59-69]}. Then it was possible to establish that for many regions of Siberia and the Far East, some appellate courts of general jurisdiction are difficult to access for the population. In this connection, it was proposed to create its own court of appeal for the territory of Western Siberia, which would simplify access to justice for the local population.

What conclusions were reached based on the results of the study? One way or another, but more than 9/10 district courts of general jurisdiction in the Kurgan region have access to justice from a geographical point of view. First of all, this concerns the pedestrian accessibility of district courts in relation to local self-government bodies and law enforcement agencies located on the territory of one municipality. In some cases, rural specifics and the small size of some district centers only contribute to this, simplifying access to justice.

Most district courts of general jurisdiction (about 9/10 of the total number of district courts studied) are located in the center of settlements and on the central street, which also contributes to some extent to improving access to justice and simplifies in some cases the search for the location of the judicial authority.

In other district centers, pedestrian accessibility is complicated by the absence of the courts of general jurisdiction themselves (due to a decrease in the population in municipal areas) and also the absence of investigative bodies, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor's Office in some municipal areas, which to some extent may negatively affect the quality of the preliminary investigation.

As for the transport accessibility of courts of general jurisdiction, many district centers where the relevant judicial authorities are located have well-developed transport communications, including access to the railway and airports. The only exceptions are those municipal district centers that are removed from these transport communications for a considerable distance.

From a procedural point of view, one of the solutions to the described problems related to ensuring access to justice is, although there are a number of problems ^{[18, pp.73-76]}, the use of modern digital technologies, for example, video conferencing systems ^{[19, pp. 103-106]} in accordance with the requirements of Part 4 Article 240 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, but only if there is access to a high-speed Internet line and if it is possible to participate in the court session online directly from home or work, and not from a judicial authority.

Despite the massive digitalization of society, authorities and the state, which also implies the creation of a digital justice system, it is worth noting that "judicial migration" of participants in criminal proceedings will still occur in the near future, since everyone has the right to personal participation in a court hearing (including also participation in the administration of justice), and the state has an obligation to ensure the requirement of immediacy and oral proceedings in accordance with Article 240 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

In the end, it is worth saying the following. If we move a little away from criminal proceedings and look at the development of accessibility to justice from the point of view of geo-economic and geo-legal aspects of the development of the region, then the Kurgan region, as a suburbanized zone, fits very well into the "Trans-Ural Conurbation quadrangle", the vertices of which are polycentric agglomerations of Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen and Kurgan with branches to the Perm Territory and autonomous districts. In this space, taking into account historical, geographical, economic and legal features, it is more expedient to create interregional investigative and federal judicial bodies, in particular its own court of Appeal of general jurisdiction (the Court of Cassation of general jurisdiction has already been established and is based in Chelyabinsk), as well as new forms of federal judicial bodies.