On the role of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the formation and development of Russian constitutionalism

The purpose of this article is to explore the main forms of influence of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the system of the Russian constitutionalism, by means of judicial constitutional control, constituonalization of the existing legislation and judicial practice, solution of constitutional disputes about competence and grounds of constitutional liability, interpretation of constitutional statements and development of constitutional ideology. The author uses different general (logical, dialectic, comparative) and specific (technical, complex, historical) scientific methods of research to analyze the influence of the Constitutional Court on the development of Russian constituonalism. Based on the analysis of the practice of the Constitutional Court, the author comes to a conclusion that the main direction of its influence on Russian constituonalism is its activities in constitutional control, providing displacement from legal ground of constitutional acts considered unconstitutional and becoming invalid. At the same time the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation influences in the most essential positive way on the development of Russian constitutionalism when it helps the legislator in the improvement and development of the existing legislation by means of elaboration of suggestions and recommendations to fulfill gaps and collisions in legislation. Another important aspect of influence of the Constitutional Court on Russian constitutionalism is its participation in the constituonalization of the existing legislation, providing legal consciousness and legal application of these acts in the constitutional interpretation of given decisions and legal statements by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. The activity of the Constitutional Court over constituonalization of judicial legal practice, directed to correct judicial powers over application of departmental acts in constitutional meaning and content, has the same value for further development of Russian constitutionalism. Another independent direction of influence of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on Russian constitutionalism is consideration of constitutional disputes on competence, providing creation of constitutional contentious pre-norms, disclosing concrete extent and content of powers of public authorities in law enforcement and legislative activities. Besides, an urgent problem of the Constitutional Court in the development of Russian constitutionalism is grounds of constitutional liability as a special type of legal liability fixed for violation of constitutional norms by subjects of the constitutional relations. Other perspective directions of influence of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on Russian constitutionalism are the fulfillment of regulatory and interpretative functions over constitutional interpretation and extension of the constitutional doctrine. The author concludes that the practical meaning of consideration of legal positions and judgments of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation assumes the possibility to modify the Constitution into a "living" General Law.

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