Filing an Appeal - the Stage of Constitutional Legal Procedure for the Implementation of the Right to Appeal

Abstract

The Constitution of the Russian Federation establishes only two options for citizens to apply («apply personally» or «send appeals»), but does not specify them. At the same time, in practice there are a large number of ways of filing appeals, and their legal regulation is imperfect. This sometimes hinders the enjoyment of the abovementioned right by citizens. The aim of the article is to analyze the main stages of filing citizens’ appeals under the Russian legislation. The authors detect the following stages: understanding the need to implement a subjective right, legitimate interest or to safeguard them; formulation of the objective of the appeal; choice of the addressee; formulation and execution of the content of the appeal; presentation of the appeal to the addressee. Special attention is paid to the form of appeals, which is the a of mandatory elements: information about the applicant and the addressee, the content of the appeal, date and signature. On the authors’ opinion the last two elements may be eliminated, but it should be envisaged that a written appeal (including electronic one) contain the individual identification number in the register of individuals, which is likely to appear in Russia in the foreseeable future. In addition, it is proposed to establish the mandatory identification of citizens who file appeals remotely, and to provide an opportunity to send appeals to any state body (municipality) or organization that performs publicly important functions using the Internet portal of state services.