On Some Disagreements between the European Court Of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation Concerning the Protection of Rights and Freedoms of Russian Citizens and the Ways to Resolve them

Abstract

In this article, the author analyses the problems associated with current differences between the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in interpreting the rules relating to the protection of rights and freedoms of Russian citizens. The paper deals with the approaches that have developed in domestic and foreign science and jurisprudence to the applicability of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in the territory of Russia in the context of safeguarding the State sovereignty and protecting constitutional order (if there is a conflict between such decisions and the national Constitution). The author provides examples of in which European countries and how the issues are resolved when the decision of the European Court of Human Rights contradicts the constitutional orders in the countries. The article provides an assessment of the legal standing of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation concerning the balance between the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as the law that authorized the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation to make decisions concerning the recognition and enforcement of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. It is noted that this Federal Law was ambiguously perceived by domestic and foreign scholars. Individual scholars and lawyers had welcomed the adoption of the Law in the context of the fact that Russia remained under the jurisdiction of the European Court and its decisions remain binding for Russia. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation concerning the Decision of the European Court in the case Anchugov and Gladkov v. Russia," elucidates the views of a number of renowned scholars supporting the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, as well the legal standing of the opponents of the decision of the Constitutional Court. The author concludes that a balance must be struck between the European values expressed in the approaches of the European Court of Human Rights and the traditional values of the Russian society and the State embodied in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The article proposes certain ways of overcoming contradictions arising between the inter-state bodies of human rights judicial protection and the supreme body of constitutional review by means of improving the legislative framework for the implementation of the Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Russia and by different mechanisms for adjusting the text of the Russia's Fundamental Law.