Available in Russian
Author: Irina Galyaeva
DOI: 10.21128/1812-7126-2022-1-164-183
Keywords: preliminary constitutional control; preliminary constitutional review; Russian constitutional reform 2020; Governing Senate of the Russian Empire; Supreme Court of the USSR (1924–1933); Committee on Constitutional Review of the USSR; Constitutional Court of RSFSR; Constitutional Court of Russia; regional constitutionals (charter) courts; constitutional (charter) councils under regional legislative government bodies
Ascertainment of the historical basis of the 2020 Constitutional reforms is as important as studying the constitutional amendments themselves. In this connection it’s necessary to evaluate the experience of the functioning of preliminary constitutional control, authority for which is vested in the Constitutional Court of Russia. This research provides two main conclusions. First, even if this kind of control or review had been regulated by law, it was not exercised, either by the Governing Senate of the Russian Empire or the Committee of Constitutional Review of the USSR. Second, in the Soviet and Post-Soviet history of Russia there were cases of using preliminary constitutional control as special non-judicial methods of overseeing laws’ constitutionality, with control exercised by standing commissions of Soviet representative bodies and then formal preliminary oversight of laws exercised by the President of Russia in the 1990s). However, in Russia’s latest constitutional history this institution is not favored. There has been the direct prohibition of preliminary constitutional control in regard to the Constitutional Court of the RSFSR, the judiciary’s negative attitude towards this institution during drafting of the Law on the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, and the established practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the inadmissibility of preliminary control of federal and regional laws. At the level of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, despite the establishment of a sufficient number of constitutional (charter) courts and their relatively long-term activity, their preliminary constitutional control of the laws of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation has not happened. After the constitutional reform of 2020, preliminary non-judicial control or review of the laws of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation can be implemented when constituent entities of the Russian Federation create constitutional (charter) councils attached to regional legislative government bodies, but delineation by the Russian Constitutional Court of the relevant competence will be required. Concerning the factors reviewed here, it appears that preliminary constitutional control as introduced in our country does not have a historical basis in relation to our institutions. Moreover, it appears that the strong negative attitude to preliminary constitutional review that exists in our country can preclude its broad implementation.
About the author: Irina Galyaeva – postgraduate student of the Faculty of Law, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
Citation: Galyaeva I. (2022) Institut predvaritel'nogo konstitutsionnogo kontrolya zakonov v konstitutsionnoy istorii Rossii: est' li preemstvennost'? [Preliminary constitutional control of laws in the constitutional history of Russia: has there been continuity?]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 164–183. (In Russian).
References
Brezhnev O.V. (2020) Predvaritel'nyy konstitutsionnyy kontrol' i ego realizatsiya v Rossii: problemy teorii i praktiki [Preliminary constitutional control and its implementation in Russia: problems of theories and applications]. Aktual'nye problemy rossiyskogo prava, no. 10, pp. 36–43. (In Russian).
Gayda F.A. (2001) Mekhanizm vlasti Vremennogo pravitel'stva (mart–aprel' 1917 g.) [The mechanism of power of the Russian Provisional Government (March–April 1917)]. Otechestvennaya istoriya, no. 2, pp. 141–153. (In Russian).
Khabrieva T.Ya. (2018) Izbrannye trudy. Tom 2 [Selected works. vol. 2], in 10 vols., Moscow: Rossiyskaya akademiya nauk. (In Russian).
Khabrieva T.Ya., Klishas A.A. (2020) Tematicheskiy kommentariy k Zakonu Rossiyskoy Federatsii o popravke k Konstitutsii Rossiyskoy Federatsii ot 14 marta 2020 g. Nº1-FKZ “O sovershenstvovanii regulirovaniya otdel'nykh voprosov organizatsii i funktsionirovaniya publichnoy vlasti” [Thematic commentary to the Law of the Russian Federation on amendment to Russian Federation Constitution of March 14, 2020 no. 1-FKZ “On improving the regulation of certain aspects of the organisation and functioning of public authority”], Moscow: Norma: INFRA-M. (In Russian).
Korf S.A. (1915) Russkoe gosudarstvennoe pravo. Chast' 1 [Russian state law. Part 1], Moscow: Tovarishchestvo “Skoropechatni A.A.Levenson”. (In Russian).
Lazarevskiy N.I. (1910) Lektsii po russkomu gosudarstvennomu pravu. Tom 1. Konstitutsionnoe pravo [Lectures on Russian state law. vol. 1. Constitutional Law], 2nd ed., Saint Petersburg: Tipografiya Aktsionernogo obshchestva “Slovo”. (In Russian).
Mityukov M.A. (2000) Istoki konstitutsionnogo pravosudiya v Rossii [The origins of constitutional justice in Russia]. In: Pravovye problemy ukrepleniya rossiyskoy gosudarstvennosti: sbornik statey. Chast' 4 [Legal problems of strengthening Russian statehood: a collection of articles. Part 4], Tomsk: Tomskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet, pp. 178–188. (In Russian).
Mityukov M.A. (2012) Problemy predvaritel'nogo sudebnogo konstitutsionnogo kontrolya (po materialam podgotovki i prinyatiya proekta FKZ o KS) [Problems of preliminary judicial constitutional control (based on the preparation and adoption of the draft of the Federal Constitutional Law on the Constitutional Court)]. In: Lichnost', vlast', ekonomika: pravovye problemy: materialy X mezhdunarodnoy nauchnoy konferentsii po konstitutsionnomu pravu [Personality, power, economics: legal problems. Proceedings of international conference], Saint Petersburg: Sankt-Peterburgskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet ekonomiki i finansov, pp. 34–37. (In Russian).
Mityukov M.A. (2013) Prakticheskie shagi Vremennogo pravitel'stva k realizatsii idey sudebnoy okhrany budushchey Konstitutsii [Practical steps of the Russian Provisional Government towards the implementation of ideas of judicial protection of the future Constitution]. In: Pravovye problemy ukrepleniya rossiyskoy gosudarstvennosti: sbornik statey Chast' 57 [Legal problems of strengthening Russian statehood: a collection of articles. Part 57], Tomsk: Tomskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet, pp. 67–70. (In Russian).
Mityukov M.A. (2014) Konstitutsionnoe soveshchanie 1993 g.: rozhdenie Konstitutsii Rossii: stat'i, vystupleniya, interv'yu, dokumenty, dnevnikovye i bloknotnye zapisi (1993–2012) [Constitutional Conference 1993: the birth of the Russian Constitution: articles, speeches, interviews, documents, diaries and scratch pad (1993–2012)], Moscow: Prospekt. (In Russian).
Mityukov M.A. (2014) Shtrikhi k istorii Konstitutsionnogo Suda Rossii: iz dnevnikov, bloknotov, interv'yu, stenogramm i inykh dokumentov i materialov 1989–1996 godov [Details of the history of the Constitutional Court of Russia: from diaries, notebooks, interviews, transcripts and other documents and materials of 1989–1996], Moscow: Yustitsinform. (In Russian).
Nesmeyanova S.E. (2012) K voprosu o vozmozhnosti rasshireniya predvaritel'nogo kontrolya v deyatel'nosti Konstitutsionnogo Suda Rossiyskoy Federatsii [On the issue of the possibility of expanding preliminary control in the activities of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation]. In: Zor'kin V.D. (ed.) Konstitutsionnyy kontrol': doktrina i praktika: materialy mezhdunarodnoy konferentsii, posvyashchennoy 20-letiyu Konstitutsionnogo Suda Rossiyskoy Federatsii [Constitutional control: doctrine and practice. Proceedings of the international conference], Moscow: Norma. (In Russian).
Shershenevich G.F. (2016) Izbrannoe. Tom 4 [Selected works. vol. 4], Moscow: Statut. (In Russian).
Smykalin A.S. (2004) Etapy konstitutsionnogo stroitel'stva v dorevolyutsionnoy Rossii [Stages of constitutional construction in pre-revolutionary Russia]. Gosudarstvo i pravo, no. 3, pp. 79–84. (In Russian).
Starodubova A.L. (2000) Yuridicheskoe soveshchanie 1917 g.: osnovnye napravleniya deyatel'nosti: Avtoref. dis. … kand. ist. nauk [Legal conference of Russian provisional government of 1917: main directions of activity: Abstract of a dissertation … candidate of historical science], Moscow. (In Russian).
Yaruskin R.S. (2005) Sistema protsessual'nykh form federal'nogo sudebnogo konstitutsionnogo kontrolya v Rossii: sovremennoe sostoyanie, perspektivy sovershenstvovaniya: dis. … kand. yurid. nauk [The system of procedural forms of federal judicial constitutional control in Russia: current state, prospects for improvement: Cand. in law sci. diss.], Moscow. (In Russian).