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"Состязательный процесс не допускает участия суда ни в направлении дела, ни в изыскании доказательств в пользу той или другой стороны». Аналитический комментарий к решению Гражданского кассационного департамента Правительствующего Сената № 48 за первое полугодие 1869 г. (дело Варвары Даниловой против Николая Ремера)
The paper is devoted to one of the Central principles of modern civil procedure – the adversarial principle. On the example of the Judgement of the Civil cassation Department of the Government Senate, issued 150 years ago, the limits of the court's intervention in the legal process are considered. It is shown that the arguments justifying such intervention have not changed over the years. The main arguments - the protection of the weak side in the process, the suppression of unfair behavior, the need to find the material truth - are considered in detail. A critique of these arguments is proposed. Special attention is paid to the search for material truth as the goal of the process. The continental approach and the Anglo-American common law approach to the court's assessment of evidence are compared, and it is shown that the Civil cassation Department of the Governing Senate 150 years ago was more inclined to use the Anglo-American approach than the continental one. The role of judges in ensuring the principle of competition was also noted.