Роль Конституционного Суда Российской Федерации в достижении определенности уголовно-правового запрета

Abstract

The article explores the activities of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation as a means of achieving certainty of the criminal law prohibition. Three approaches to «reduce» uncertainty are considered (wherein, the impossibility to reach absolute certainty is proclaimed). The author proposes to distinguish three such approaches enforced by the Constitutional Court: 1) recognize the contested provision as compliant with the Constitution of the Russian Federation (through a «refusal» ruling); 2) to indicate the constitutionality of the norm, while revealing its obligatory legal meaning (thus, correcting not the rule itself, but the practice of its application); 3) to decide the unconstitutionality of the normative act examined in the process of constitutional production in whole or in part. It is argued that the way to «reduce» uncertainty, by adjusting judicial practice, cannot be considered efficient with the preservation of an uncertain norm defective in its core (the criminalization of the act was made unreasonably).