Legal Positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Fe­deration on the Guarantees of Protecting the Attorney-Client Privilege

Abstract

The authors analyze the theoretical and practical problems of protecting the attorney-client privilege in criminal proceedings in light of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. The analysis of investigatory practice shows that violations of the attorney-client privilege are now quite a commonplace phenomenon. One of the ways of violating the attorney-client privilege widely used by the bodies of preliminary investigation is calling the attorney for interrogation, sometimes even using compelled attendance, and further interrogation. The position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is that the attorney, the defense lawyer for the suspect, or for the accused or the person who received legal assistance, can only be interrogated under certain conditions stated in Art. 56 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. Although the Constitutional Court provided quite clear guidance multiple times, some law enforcers often ignore them thus violating the rights of not only the attorneys, but also their clients and trustees. The current criminal procedure law does not provide a mechanism of protecting attorney’s work and the associated attorney-client privilege, which would exclude ungrounded calls for interrogation and interrogations of attorneys. The authors present suggestions on improving this law aimed at ensuring the protection of the attorney-client privilege.