Constitutional and Statutory Courts of Constituent Entities of Russia in the National Judicial System: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

The regional bodies of constitutional control have existed for more than 30 years, and during their work, they caused heated debates among legal scholars regarding their necessity. From January 1, 2023, these courts will cease to exist throughout the country because the wording of the federal Constitution and the law “On the Judicial System of the Russian Federation” has been changed. The researchers consider the legal regulation of the activities of constitutional and statutory courts and the history of their activity, draw parallels with the legal regulation of such instances abroad, analyse the problems of the “high cost” of the functioning of constitutional and statutory courts, and propose approaches that could significantly optimise the financing of the constitutional and statutory courts of the subjects. The authors present a comparative table on the number of cases considered by the courts, analyse their competence, consider the problematic issues of its differentiation from the competence of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the possibility of assigning consideration of matters under the jurisdiction of the constitutional (statutory) courts to the courts of general jurisdiction.