Evolution of ideas about the direct action of the norms of the Constitution in foreign and Russian legal doctrines

The author carried out a comparative legal analysis of domestic and foreign experience and outlined the main trends in understanding the direct action of constitutional norms that emerged during the Soviet period and when discussing drafts of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The aim of this study is to develop an original approach to a modern interpretation of the terminological phrase "direct action of the Constitution of the Russian Federation" based on previous achievements of law and clarify its components, which is reasonably required in connection with the absence of a final legal interpretation. The study is based on the theoretical and empirical material. In particular, the former is works by G. Jellinek, G. Kelsen, F. Lassalle, C. Hesse, A.B. Vengerov, Yu.P. Eremenko, S.L. Zivs, A.I. Kim, Yu.A. Tikhomirov, B.N. Topornin, I.E. Farber, N.A. Bobrova, N.V. Vitruk, Yu.I. Grevtsov, E.V. Gritsenko, I.A. Kravets, A.N. Kokotov, M.A. Mityukov, T.Ya. Khabrieva (Nasyrova) and others, as well as materials of the Constitutional Commission and the Constitutional Conference. The latter is the previous national Constitutions, the Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993 and constitutions of foreign countries. The methodological basis of the research was dialectical, historical-legal and formal-legal methods. In particular, the use of the dialectical method contributed to the study of the direct action of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in its formation and development. The use of historical-legal and formal-legal methods helped to substantiate the historical significance of consolidating the direct effect of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in the modern constitutional law of Russia as a characteristic feature of the rejection of the Soviet and Russian (early 20th century) traditions of non-application of constitutional norms. As a result, the author came to a conclusion that the science of Soviet state law, despite the absence of appropriate constitutional formulas, prepared a solid theoretical basis for understanding the design of the direct action of the Russian Constitution. This material proved to be in demand when developing a new constitution for democratic Russia, which is confirmed in the materials of the Constitutional Commission and the Constitutional Conference. It is due to the fact that the Constitution of 1993 was conceived, unlike the constitutions of the Soviet period, as "working", really functioning. In this context, it was impossible to do without the design of "direct action", because it is the legal guarantee of the reality of the Constitution. The foregoing determines the regularity of the idea of the need to consolidate the direct action of the Constitution within the framework of its planned evolutionary development that passed stages from complete denial to the consolidation of this formulation, which, according to the founders of the 1993 Constitution of Russia, could change the national legal reality and ensure the reality of the norms of the Basic Law.

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