Authorities and Officials of the Prosecutor’s Office as Subjects of Protection and Subjects of Violation of the Constitutional Right of Citizens to Petition

Abstract

The paper analyzes the status of bodies and officials of the prosecutor’s office as subjects of protection and subjects of violation of the constitutional right of citizens of Russia to petition as bodies exercising public power, whereas the very norm-principle of the basic Russian law on the right of citizens to petition is considered both as a constitutional right and as a constitutional safeguard. The author identifies the main practical problems, legal gaps and conflicts of law when citizens implement their constitutional right to petition and their reasons. The author proposes options for their elimination at the law-making and law-enforcement levels. It is noted that article 5.59 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences from 2011 providing administrative liability for violation of established procedure of consideration of citizens’ petitions, despite being a very effective instrument for the legal protection of the right under consideration, needs to be adjusted because its discretionary part contains only general language and does not reveal the objective side of this administrative offence. At the same time, prosecutor’s offices have long developed a certain practice concerning the application of Art. 5.59 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation as a means of public and legal protection of the violated right of citizens to petition. However, what should be done if the right of citizens to petition is violated by the prosecutors themselves with their special status as subjects of the offense, whereas it is the exclusive competence of prosecutors by operation of law to initiate cases under Art. 5.59 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation? The paper is devoted to the search for the answer to this question.