Proportionality of Restrictions on Socio-Economic Rights and Freedoms of Citizens

Abstract

The area of socio-economic relations is the most popular in the life of citizens. Thus, a person perceives every restriction of his socio-economic rights in a more sensitive way. The restriction itself, in the positive meaning of this term, is a consequence of the collision of different principles and values when it is necessary to solve any state tasks and issues of public administration. Restrictions exist both in law enforcement and law-making, while the problems of restrictions in lawmaking have become especially relevant in connection with the activities of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the European Court of Human Rights. Proportionality of restrictions on human rights and freedoms forms the most serious problem. The paper analyzes the practice of the Constitutional Court in assessing the proportionality of legislative restrictions on socio-economic rights and freedoms of citizens. Attention is drawn to the fact that not all aspects of these restrictions can be assessed by the Constitutional Court in terms of their compliance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Thus, as a legislative discretion, the court recognizes the establishment of quantitative criteria or economic indicators that are not correlated with the relevant constitutional provisions. In this case, the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights can only offer abstract tools that is advisable for the legislator to be guided in its lawmaking. The author concludes that the socio-economic sphere regulation should be based on the people’s trust in professional managers, which does not prevent them from exercising control over them and changing their team in case of insufficient realization of their socio-economic interests.