Institution of regional constitutional (charter) justice in Russia: end of story?

Abstract

The constitutional reform that took place in 2020 affected many aspects of public and social life. One of these aspects was the functioning judicial system in the Russian Federation. In particular, the unified federal judicial system has lost one of its elements — the constitutional (statutory) courts of the subjects. It seems that such legislative transformations can be considered as a kind of finale of the history of regional constitutional control in the Russian Federation, which was discussed for quite a long time in the domestic legal doctrine. However, the format chosen by the federal legislator for the abolition of regional constitutional courts was actually aimed at transforming rather than eliminating the existing system, which is confirmed by the mention in the text of the relevant law of bodies completely new to the domestic system of public power — constitutional (charter) councils under the legislative body of the subject of the Russian Federation. The article provides a critical analysis of the transformation of the regional system of constitutional control, in particular, draws attention to two key problems: 1) inconsistency of the federal legislator in the organization of a new (reorganization of the old) system of regional constitutional control; 2) low interest of the regions in the development and strengthening of their own autonomous system of regional control. In conclusion, the author’s analysis of the current regional practice of the activities of regional constitutional (charter) councils is proposed.

References

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