The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and Protection of Rights and Freedoms

Abstract

The main objective of the Constitutional Court is to protect rights and freedoms within its jurisdiction. The implementation of this objective is illustrated by the analysis how frequently the Court cited constitutional provisions concerning rights and freedoms in its decisions during the period of its work until 1 June 2020. The paper contains analysis of the data mentioned above. In a problematic way, the author demonstartes his approach to the understanding of the purpose of rights and freedoms in their relation to the duties of people. Theoretically, the intended purpose of rights and freedoms is to ensure the social freedom of people who are anxious for a fair social order, their full self-determination and the self-development of society. This implies that the Constitutional Court focuses not merely on the current protection of certain rights and freedoms, but on ensuring their priority in general in social and legal regulation, creating and maintaining a spirit of priority and overcoming the paternalistic order in the country. The priority of rights and freedoms extends not only to rights and freedoms expressly enshrined, but also to other people’s claims (legitimate interests, legitimate expectations). The latter are intended to guide implementation of other rights and freedoms, and, at the same time, to serve as the basis for the allocation of new rights. One of the manifestations of the priority of constitutional rights and freedoms is the direct application of rules that enshrine rights and freedoms by the Constitutional Court to the sectoral regulation, expanding the scope of rights and freedoms, particularly through the interpretation of constitutional concepts on the case-by-case basis. Particular attention is paid to the doctrinal views and approach of the Constitutional Court to the role of the category of human dignity in the systematic application of rights and freedoms. The paper has analysed how the Constitutional Court applies a well-known construction of a strong and weak entity in legal relations in its application to public power relations. Another aspect of the subject matter is the Court’s approach to securing the balance between different rights and freedoms.