Constitutional Justice in Russia

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Henderson ◽  
Marina Lomovtseva
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Federal System ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Russian Constitution ◽  
Federal Constitutional ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe 1993 Russian Constitution and 1994 Federal Constitutional Law “On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation” define the jurisdiction and activity of the Federal Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. However, these pieces of legislation do not comprehensively address all the issues, and there has been some broadening of the Court's power through interpretation and the effect of some other legislation. This article examines the Court's jurisdiction and some of the issues that arise in the exercise thereof, as well as the relative role of the constitutional or charter courts of the subjects of the Federation, and the relationship between the Constitutional Court and the other courts in the Russian federal system. Issues of the methods of constitutional interpretation are addressed. The importance of the Constitutional Court as the federal agency of constitutional court supervision (review) in ensuring the effective application of the Russian Constitution is highlighted in the context of this growth of a comparatively new branch of law in the Russian legal system.

The Letter and the Spirit of the Russian Constitution: 20 Years' Experience of Harmonization in the Light of Constitutional Justice

10.12737/1141 ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 5-17
Author(s):  
Николай Бондарь ◽  
Nikolay Bondar
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Legal Positivism ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional Development ◽  
World Outlook ◽  
Russian Constitution ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
The Russian Federation

Based on 20-­year­-old experience of the constitutional development of Russia and the generalization of practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the article there revealed the interrelation between external, formal-­legal and internal, sacred principles of the Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993 and its spirit. In accordance with the methodology of world outlook and legal pluralism, a combination of legal positivism and natural law in the Constitution, and with regard to the legal and doctrinal nature of decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, there revealed the role of constitutional justice as an institution of social and cultural harmonization of its letter and spirit, the formation of a «live» (court) constitutionalism.

scholarly journals Constitutional Justice in Russia: History and Modern Times

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolay Taskayev ◽  
Anna Oleynik
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
System Structure ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
Federal Constitutional ◽  
Governmental Power ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Right

The article examines the process of emergence, formation and development of the constitutional justice institution in Russia. It carries out an analysis of organization and activities of the USSR Constitutional Control Committee, the RSFSR Constitutional Court and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. The authors draw a conclusion of the need of conducting constitutional and legal reforms in Russia, introducing amendments and additions to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. In order to increase efficiency of the constitutional jurisdiction, improving the organization and activity of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the General Prosecutors Office of the Russian Federation, the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation, the Executive Office of the Human Rights Commissioner in the Russian Federation, the authors offer proposals of introducing amendments and additions to Articles 104, 125, 129 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Federal Constitutional Law of 21.07.1994 № 1-ФКЗ «On Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation» in terms of authorizing the above-mentioned office-holders with the right of legislative initiative and making inquiries to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. In particular, on issues of constitutionality of the laws, normative legal acts of the supreme bodies of the governmental power and office-holders of the Russian Federation and the entities of the Russian Federation; on solvation of disputes in terms of competence between the supreme bodies of the governmental power and office-holders of the Russian Federation and the entities of the Russian Federation; on violence of citizens constitutional rights. The authors also offer to expand the Article 129 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation up to a separate chapter of the Constitution in which to establish the place in the system of the governmental power the designation, system, structure, principles of organization and activity, the authorities of the prosecutors office bodies, including in the sphere of constitutional jurisdiction.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF DECISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEGISLATION ON MASS MEDIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 59-62
Author(s):  
D. Sh. Pirbudagova ◽  
◽  
A.M. Omarova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Media Society ◽  
The Relationship

The article examines the legal positions of the constitutional control bodies regarding the legislative regulation of the status of mass media. The authors note that the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has made decisions on the issues of financing, ownership and legal regulation of mass media, the relationship between the mass media, society and the state, the content of the constitutional prohibition of censorship and its correlation with restrictions on freedom of mass media, etc. Conclusions are drawn about the conceptual nature of the decisions of the constitutional Court of the Russian Federation aimed at clarifying the constitutional and legal status of mass media and contributing to filling legal gaps in this area

The Role of the Russian Constitutional Court in «Constitutionalizing» Procedural Legislation (on the Example of the Principle of Adversarial Proceedings and Equality of the Parties)

2018 ◽  
pp. 58-63
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
Meta Level ◽  
Russian Constitution ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Russian Federation

Using the example of the principle of adversarial proceedings and equality of the parties, the author discusses the Russian Constitutional Court’s activities on the non-textual development of provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The author analyzes the constitutional law-making tools of the Court and the mechanism of its influence on legal rules at the constitutional level, and finds that the norms of the Russian Constitution have a huge regulatory potential, but are not able to express the will of the constitutional legislator in relation to each specific situation. In turn, the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation are an instrument of a more subtle (substantive, targeted, dynamic) constitutional and legal impact. They reveal the semantic values of the norms of the Basic Law, summing up the constitutional legal basis under the provisions checked for compliance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The author concludes that the norms of the Basic Law taken in unity with the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation provide the necessary regulatory effect and form an integrative constitutional and legal regulator at the meta level.

scholarly journals Review of a Case on Constitutional Changes of 2020 by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation: Substantive and Procedural Peculiarities

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 34-38
Author(s):  
Oleg V. Brezhnev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Relationship

For the first time in the history of Russian constitutional justice the Law of the Russian Federation on the amendment to the Constitution of the Russian Federation of March 14, 2020 No. 1-FKZ “On improving the regulation of certain issues of the organization and functioning of public authorities” provided for as part of the mechanism for its entry into force a special authority of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation related to mandatory checking the new constitutional regulation for compliance provisions of chapters 1, 2 and 9 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The article reveals substantive and procedural features of this authority of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, concerning the subject and criteria for checking the legal provisions under consideration, the organizational form of constitutional proceedings used in this case, the legal force of the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, etc. Disclosed the relationship of this regulation and already formulated legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on certain aspects of the implementation of constitutional justice. In the prognostic plan, the need for more detailed legislative regulation of the procedure for exercising powers associated with mandatory constitutional control is shown.

scholarly journals Loyalty to a Constitution and the Problem of Harmonizing the Ideas of Constitutionalism and the Fulfillment of International Obligations in the Field of Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-180
Author(s):  
I A Kravets
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
International Obligations ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

The article discusses the theoretical foundations of the concept of fidelity to the Constitution and judicial constitutionalization of the supremacy of the Constitution, the circle understanding of constitutional hermeneutics, the problem of the relation of constitutional justice and supranational jurisdiction, the role of the new authority of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (consideration of cases on the possibility of enforcing the decisions of the intergovernmental body for the protection of human rights and freedoms) in the system for ensuring the rights and freedoms of man and citizen.

Constitutional justice and civil society in search of dialogue

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-40
Author(s):  
Armen Dzhagaryan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Public Power ◽  
Judicial Control ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Government ◽  
Unique Potential

The Russian constitutional justice is going through a stage of deep reforming. Both the nature of the participation of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the constitutional reform of 2020, as well as the content itself and regulatory consequences have exposed a serious value and institutional crisis of the identity of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the State-legal system. The main vector of the reform declared in order to “strengthen the role of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation” is essentially resulted from the authoritarian, not humanistic paradigm, and leads to the development of the integration of constitutional justice into a unified system of public power remaining without proper legal deterrence. The noted crisis of the identity of the constitutional justice, which reflects the general problems of Russian constitutionalism, is to a large extent a product and expression of a fundamental communicative constitutional crisis, failures in establishing a constitutional dialogue between the government and civil society. At the same time, constitutional justice is not only the object of this communication with its defects and dysfunctions but should act as one of its main subjects, it has a unique extremely important potential for implementing the values and practices of constitutional dialogue with civil society, especially in the conditions of post-socialism. The constitutional dialogue also characterizes the content side of the constitutional justice itself in its modern understanding. In this context, the article discusses both general issues related to the understanding of constitutional dialogue itself and its importance for constitutional justice, as well as some more specific problems of implementing the dialogic model of constitutional-judicial control in Russian realities. Determining the direction of the further evolution of the constitutional justice, which has a unique potential for self-transformation, in any case, is an important area of responsibility of civil society, which itself must remain resolute in organizing the constitutional dialogue, not avoid attempts to initiate it and insist on it.

scholarly journals Constitutional justice: on some amendments to legislation

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Nadezhda N. Tarusina
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Court ◽  
Federal Constitutional ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Public Character

The article analyzes the 2020 constitutional amendments on constitutional justice. Among them are provisions on the formation of the composition of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, expanding its powers in terms of checking the compliance of the Constitution of the Russian Federation with draft laws, clarifying the competence on the issue of the possibility of executing decisions of interstate bodies (primarily the European Court of Human Rights), adjusting the institution of dissent judges of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. Positive and critical considerations regarding the above constitutional amendments and the corresponding amendments to the federal constitutional law “On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. In particular, concerns are expressed about ensuring the proper degree of democracy in the formation of the Court, guaranteeing its independence in cases where the provisions of a particular draft law have been previously assessed by him as complying with the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and subsequently he will have to consider complaints about the constitutionality of the same legal norms, the validity of the refusal of the public character of the dissenting opinion of the judges of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

scholarly journals THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT IN THE SYSTEM OF JURISDICTIONAL BODIES (OF GODLY SINS OF CONSTITUTIONAL JUSTICE)

2017 ◽  
pp. 0-0
Author(s):  
Николай Бондарь ◽  
Nikolay Bondar
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
World Order ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Government

Analyzing the place and role of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the institutional system of national and supranational jurisdictions, there is the author’s approach to the study of this institution in particular through the prism of the so-called constitutional paradoxes (“godly sins”) of the constitutional justice. Among them: legal involvement of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the resolution of important constitutional questions at the intersection of law and policy; entering into the system of justice and at the same time transcending it as the trial of the government and the law; the legal force of the final acts, which are not laws, can be above the law; the stability of the Constitution in conjunction with socio-historical dynamism, the problems of guaranteeing its supremacy in collaboration with supranational jurisdiction, the need to ensure by the constitutional justice of the Constitutions’ supremacy in collaboration with the international-legal regulation and supranational jurisdictional practices. The article explains that the status characteristics of the national organs of constitutional justice, manifested in the contemporary world order and in relations with bodies of international jurisdiction, have a constitutional good nature and serve as a confirmation of the special role of these bodies in the justice system in modern constitutional democracies.

scholarly journals Russian President and local self-government: the evolution of relationships

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-86
Author(s):  
M. Yu. Dityatkovsky
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Single System ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Russian Constitution ◽  
Russian President ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Relationship

The subject. An attempt is made to analyze the evolution of the relationship between the Russian Presidents and local self-government in modern Russia over the past 30 years.The methodology of the research is based on the application of the historical method and the method of comparative legal analysis of normative legal acts of the Russian Federation of different years.The purpose of the article is to confirm or dispute hypothesis that the President's relations with local self-government developed non-linearly and contradictory on the different stages.The main results, scope of application. The paper examines the dynamics of the relationship between the Russian Presidents and local self-government, determines the five stages of the development of such relations and their characteristic features, as well as the prospects for these relations after the adoption of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 2020.Stage 1. The absence of specific regulatory legal provisions on the participation of the President in local self-government issues and the actual practice of their interaction (July 1991 – October 1993).Stage 2. Arbitrary or authoritarian President’s participation in local self-government issues (October 1993 – August 1995). This stage is connected with the period of the constitutional crisis of 1993 and is characterized, first of all, by two decrees of the Russian President directly changing the provisions of the Law of the Russian Federation on Local Self-Government of 1991.Stage 3. Bringing the powers of the President in the field of local self-government in accordance with the Russian Constitution of 1993, the approval by the President of the main directions of state policy in the field of local self – government development in the Russian Federation, the creation of the Council for Local Self-Government under the President of the Russian Federation (August 1995 – August 2000).Stage 4. Strengthening the role of the President in the field of local self-government. The beginning of this stage is connected with the coming to power of the new Russian President (August 2000 – July 2020). So far, this is the longest stage in our chronology. This stage is characterized by additional regulation by the President of certain point issues in the field of organization and implementation of local self-government, directly provided for by federal law. Stage 5. The integration of local self-government bodies into a single system of public power and the receipt by the Russian President of hidden, virtually unlimited powers in the field of local self-government (from July 2020 to the present). The starting point of this stage was the adoption of amendments to the Russian Constitution in 2020.Conclusions. The interaction between the Russian President and local self-government developed in a zigzag pattern: from the complete absence of contacts to the direct intervention of the Russian President in the legal regulation of relations in the field of local self– government, violating and actually canceling the legislative regulation of these relations in 1993-1995. From bringing these relations into line with the Russian Constitution of 1993, which proclaimed the organizational independence of local self-government, to strengthening the role of the Russian President and regulating certain issues in the field of organization and implementation of local self-government. The expansion of the powers of the Russian President in connection with the amendments to the Russian Constitution in 2020 actually means an aside from the organizational independence of local self-government and the integration of local self-government bodies into a single system of public authorities. In this regard, the question arises: do the above amendments mean an actual return to the second stage of the development of relations between the Russian President and local selfgovernment in the period of 1993-1995, when the use of "hidden (implied)" powers of the President was allowed, and, consequently, theoretically unlimited participation of the Russian President in local self-government issues?

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