Who has the right to officially interpret constitutions (charters) of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation after the constitutional amendments of 2020?
Authors:   Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, Evdokimov Vyacheslav B. , Kozhevnikov Oleg A. ,   Ural State University of Law ; Ural State University of Economics, Savoskin Alexander V. ,   Ural State University of Law ; Ural State University of Economics
Published: October 2024

After the abolition of constitutional (charter) courts of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation the issue of official interpretation of constitutions (charters) of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation has become more relevant. The legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which gave the right of normative control of compliance with the Basic Law of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation only to the bodies of regional constitutional justice, now turned out to be unenforceable. The situation is aggravated by the fact that many constituent entities of the Russian Federation that abolished their constitutional (charter) courts have not transferred the right of official interpretation of constitutions (charters) of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to other bodies of state power. This situation has developed, for example, in the Sverdlovsk and Kaliningrad oblasts, the Republic of Karelia, the Chechen Republic and some other constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Thus, the purpose of the publication is to identify at the federal and regional level the circle of subjects authorised for official authentic interpretation and official delegated normative and casual interpretation of constitutions (charters) of constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Taking into account the peculiarities of the adoption of constitutions (charters) of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, it is concluded that only delegated, and not authentic (author's) interpretation of them is admissible, since they are either adopted by the people, or several authorities participate in the process of their adoption. Official delegated casual interpretation of constitutions (charters) of constituent entities of the Russian Federation is entrusted only to federal courts. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation interprets constitutions (charters) of constituent entities of the Russian Federation for compliance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Courts of general jurisdiction carry out interpretation when checking normative legal acts of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and local self-government bodies for compliance with constitutions (charters) of constituent entities of the Russian Federation as acts of higher legal force. The official delegated normative interpretation of the constitution (statutes) of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation is usually entrusted to the parliament of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation, or such authority is not assigned to any authority of the constituent entity of the Russian Feder ation at all. Other variants (as, for example, in the city of federal significance St. Petersburg, where the interpretation of the charter takes place in the same procedure as its adoption) are exceptions to the general rule. The currently established constitutional councils (in the republics of Adygea, Bashkortostan and Sakha (Yakutia)) have been given varying amounts of authority for normative and causal interpretation of their constitutions, but such interpretation is not official, as the decisions of the councils are only of a recommendatory nature.