Transformation of the Status of the Constitutional Court: Search for a New One or Return to the Past?

Abstract

2020 was the year of a major constitutional reform in Russia, which affected various aspects of the state structure. The Constitutional Court of Russia was no exception. The Russian Constitution has been amended to change the composition, powers, principles and guarantees of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. These amendments have been concretized and significantly deepened by the amendments to the Federal Constitutional Law “On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation”. This article attempts to analyze the constitutional and legislative changes in the status of the Constitutional Court and determine whether the new regulation is completely new or whether it continues and consolidates the already established trends in the development of the Court, and, possibly, returns the Constitutional Court to its origins. In the course of the study, methods of formal legal analysis were applied, as well as elements of historical and legal analysis. The main result of the study was the conclusion that the reform of 2020 consolidated and continued trends noticeable over several years in the practice of the Constitutional Court, namely, the strengthening of the Court in the system of public authorities, a decrease in the composition, a decrease in publicity and openness, as well as the formalization of the process. Positive innovations should be considered the constitutional consolidation of the Constitutional Court as the highest judicial body of constitutional control, the expansion of the subjects of complaints about the violation of constitutional rights and freedoms, the constitutional consolidation of the status of interpretations in the decisions of the Court and the legislative consolidation of the foundations of the mechanism for systematic execution of decisions. At the same time, the reduction of the composition, the transformation of the Court’s powers into the sphere of preliminary control, the reduction of guarantees of the independence of the Court and constitutional judges, and the strengthening of written procedures appear to be controversial and undesirable. In general, the constitutional and legal status of the Court has not under gone significant cardinal changes in the course of the reform and is, perhaps, not the beginning, but the result of there forms taking place since 2009.