Grounds for canceling or modifying enforceable sentences in exceptional procedures: the position of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) does not rule out a possibility of canceling or modifying enforceable sentences. For these purposes, ECHR provides a renewal, as an exclusive procedure, which can be implemented for two purposes: first, to remedy wrongful judgments and judicial errors of essential (fundamental) and compelling character and, second, to take account of any new and newly discovered circumstances. ECHR does not specify the name of the procedures which revise sentences for these purposes. It does not specify whether it should be two independent procedures, or these purposes can be achieved within a single procedure (for example, the resumption of the procedure in view of new and newly discovered circumstances). However, regardless of how this type of revision of the final decision is procedurally regulated at the national level, it should be subject to certain requirements due to the nature of the final decision. Evaluating the possible limits of fluctuations of a final judgment in these exceptional procedures, in its decisions ECHR formulates a number of requirements which are able to provide a reasonable balance between the irrevocability of a final judgment and the need to eliminate the circumstances in the form of fundamental errors and abuses of justice.

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