Constitutional Court of Russia

Coordinates: 59°56′07″N 30°18′05″E / 59.93528°N 30.30139°E / 59.93528; 30.30139
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Constitutional Court of Russia
Конституционный суд Российской Федерации
Established12 July 1991
LocationSaint Petersburg
Composition methodConstitutional court
Authorized byConstitution of Russia
Number of positions11
Websiteksrf.ru
President
CurrentlyValery Zorkin
Since2003
Politics of Russia
Law
  • Constitution
  • Russian Criminal Code
  • Tax Code
  • Mental Health Law
Presidency
Executive
Federal Assembly
Judiciary
  • Prosecutor General
Elections
  • Central Election Commission
  • Electoral geography
  • Political parties
Federalism
  • Local government
Foreign relations
Related topics

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (

Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
.

History

Before the 1980s in the

Constitution of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was amended with provisions which provided for creation of Constitutional Court (whereas a similar USSR body was called a Committee, not a Court). On July 12, 1991 Constitutional Court of the RSFSR Act was adopted. In October the Fifth Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian SFSR has elected 13 members of the Court and the Constitutional Court de facto started functioning. From November 1991 till October 1993 it rendered some decisions of great significance. For example, it declared unconstitutional certain decrees of Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, which were adopted ultra vires
, and forbade the practice of extrajudicial eviction. More often, however, it declared President Yeltsin's decrees unconstitutional, leading critics to argue it took the side of the Supreme Soviet in the power struggle.

Main article:
Russian constitutional crisis of 1993

On October 7, 1993 Boris Yeltsin's decree suspended work of the Constitutional Court. According to the decree, the Constitutional Court was "in deep crisis". On December 24 another presidential decree repealed the Constitutional Court of the RSFSR Act itself. In July 1994 the new Constitutional Court Act was adopted. However, the new Constitutional Court started working only in February 1995, because the

Federation Council of Russia
refused several times to appoint judges nominated by Yeltsin.

Marian Peretiatkovich and Fyodor Rerberg

In 2005 the federal authorities proposed to transfer the court from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. The transfer, involving controversial allocation of land on Krestovsky Island for cottages of the judges and relocation of the Russian State Historical Archive from the former Senate and Synod Building, now occupied by the court headquarters, had been completed by 2008.

President Dmitry Medvedev on May 8, 2009, proposed to the legislature and on June 2 signed a law for an amendment whereby the president of the court and his deputies would be proposed to the parliament by the president rather than elected by the judges, as was the case before.[1][2]

Constitutional Court Judge

judiciary in Russia and criticized the new amendments concerning appointment of the court president as undemocratic.[4] The Constitutional Court forced Kononov to step down from the Constitutional Court on January 1, 2010, 7 years ahead of schedule.[5][6][7]

Composition

Some of the judges of the Constitutional Court (including court president Valery Zorkin) with President Vladimir Putin, December, 12, 2023

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation consists of 11 judges (with the quorum of 8), one being the President (currently Valery Zorkin) and another one being Deputy President (currently Sergey Mavrin). The President presides over the court's sessions, represents the court in its relations with state bodies, has considerable powers in the matters of appointment, and makes the initial recommendation for disciplinary measures, in particular dismissal.[8]

The judges are nominated by the

citizen of Russia
, at least 40 years of age, have legal education, have served as a lawyer for at least 15 years and have "recognized high qualification" (quotation from Constitutional Court Act) in law.

Constitutionality of laws, disputes concerning competence of governmental agencies, impeachment of the president of Russia and the Constitutional Court's proposals of legislations must be dealt with in plenary session. The Constitutional Court also may by its discretion submit to plenary sessions any other issue.

Powers

Certain powers of the Constitutional Court are enumerated in the

Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court of Arbitration of Russia, or a legislative body of a Federal subject
. Any federal court may request the Constitutional Court to judge on the constitutionality of a law if the law is to be implemented in a case, and a judge of the federal court is in doubt about whether the law is contrary to the Constitution. Also, any private citizen may submit in the Constitutional Court a claim challenging constitutionality of a particular law if that law was implemented in a particular case and thus violated rights of that citizen.

Another power of the Constitutional Court is to resolve disputes concerning competence of governmental agencies. Whenever the President of Russia is impeached, the Constitutional Court renders a resolution concerning complying with the due order of indictment.

Procedure

The Constitutional Court deals with cases either in chambers or in plenary sessions. All judges must be present unless they are sick or may have interest in the case; they must not abstain from voting on the resolution. Apart from judges, claimant, his representatives and governmental agencies involved are present. In order for resolution or decision to pass two-thirds of judges must be in favor of it.

Presidents

Main article: President of the Constitutional Court of Russia

Current judges

Judge /
birthdate and place 		Alma mater Appointed by Age at start /
present 		Start date /
length of service 		Succeeded
(President)
Valery Zorkin
February 18, 1943
Konstantinovka, Primorsky Krai
LL.D.
) 		Congress of People's Deputies of Russia 48 81 October 29, 1991
32 years, 178 days 		Vacant
(Deputy President)
Sergey Mavrin
September 15, 1951
Bryansk, Bryansk Oblast
LL.D.
) 		Vladimir Putin 54 72 February 25, 2005
19 years, 59 days 		Viktor Luchin
Lyudmila Zharkova
September 3, 1955
Petrozavodsk, Karelia 		Saint Petersburg State University Faculty of Law Boris Yeltsin 41 68 June 11, 1997
26 years, 318 days 		Vladimir Tumanov
Sergey Kazantsev
September 16, 1955
Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg)
LL.D.
) 		Vladimir Putin 46 68 March 29, 2002
22 years, 26 days 		Tamara Morshchakova
Larisa Krasavchikova
March 21, 1955
Sverdlovsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast (now Yekaterinburg)
LL.D.
) 		Vladimir Putin 47 69 February 12, 2003
21 years, 72 days 		Nikolay Vitruk
Nikolay Melnikov
May 27, 1955
Irkutsk, Irkutsk Oblast
LL.D.
) 		Vladimir Putin 49 68 February 25, 2005
19 years, 59 days 		Vacant
Sergey Knyazev
February 15, 1959
Pavlovsky Posad, Moscow Oblast
LL.D.
) 		Dmitry Medvedev 49 65 October 15, 2008
15 years, 192 days 		Vacant
Alexander Kokotov
January 15, 1961
Ufimka, Sverdlovsk Oblast
LL.D.
) 		Dmitry Medvedev 49 63 March 3, 2010
14 years, 52 days 		Anatoly Kononov
Andrey Bushev
February 12, 1966
Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg)
Ph.D.
) 		Vladimir Putin 56 58 June 8, 2022
1 year, 321 days 		Vladimir Yaroslavtsev
Vladimir Sivitsky
October 2, 1974
Moscow
Ph.D.
) 		Vladimir Putin 48 49 June 21, 2023
308 days 		Konstantin Aranovsky
Mikhail Lobov
February 1, 1971
Chelyabinsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast 		Moscow State Institute of International Relations Vladimir Putin 52 53 September 25, 2023
212 days 		Gadis Gadzhiev

Presidential Envoys to the Constitutional Court

Governmental Envoys to the Constitutional Court

See also

References

  1. ^ "Russian parliament votes to reform judiciary". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-12. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  2. ^ "Dmitry Medvedev made amendments to the Federal Constitutional Law On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation". President of Russia (in Latin). 2009-06-02. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  3. ^ Bonet, Pilar (2009-08-31). ""En Rusia mandan los órganos de seguridad, como en la época soviética"". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  4. ^ "Судья Кононов: Независимых судей в России нет | Политика | Sobesednik.ru". Archived from the original on 2009-12-08. Retrieved 2009-12-15.
  5. ^ "Конституционный суд теряет особые мнения". Kommersant (in Russian). 2009-12-02. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  6. ^ RFE/RL (2009-12-02). "Top Russian Judges Quit Posts After Critical Comments". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  7. ^ White, Gregory L. (2009-12-03). "Judge Set to Retire Amid Kremlin Row". WSJ. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  8. ^ Despouy, Leandro (23 March 2009). "A/HRC/11/41/Add.2 Promotion and Protection of All Human Rights, Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Development, Addendum: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers" (PDF). United Nations Human Rights Council. p. 17. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  9. ISBN 978-1-59345-612-2
    .

External links

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