Some decisions of Constitutional Court of Russian Federation on constitutionality of normsof Criminal Procedure Code of Russian Federation and development of right of person to judicial protection

In the article the analysis of decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on constitutionality ofnorms of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation (CPC) is carried out. The given problem is considered in the context ofdevelopment of the right of the person to judicial protection. In contemporary history of Russia a tradition has developed that theconstitutional changes and innovations frequently advance due to changes in the branch legislation corresponding to them. It can beclearly noticed in the practice of solving the cases on conformity of the constitutional norms with the positions of the criminal procedurelegislation. It was observed that conformity with the constitution of norms of CPC reduces from the former CPC of the RSFSR (1960) tothe current CPC of the Russian Federation, passed in December, 2001 and put into execution on July 1, 2002. Regretfully, it is necessaryto note that almost 8 years passed between introduction of the current Constitution of the Russian Federation (December 12, 1993) andthe current CPC (July 1, 2002) with a constantly operating Parliament in the country. CPC came into action on July 1, 2002, but in 2003the Constitutional Court started receiving inquiries of different level of courts and complaints of citizens doubting the conformity ofCPC positions with the Constitution of the Russian Federation. One of the first inquiries was the case of December 8, 2003 on checkingthe constitutionality of positions of Articles 125, 219, 227, 229, 236, 246, 254, 271, 378, 405 and 408, as well as Chapters 35 and 39 ofCPC. It included inquiries of Vologda and Kurgan Regional Courts, Kurgan and Podolsk City Courts and the Soviet District Court ofChelyabinsk, and the complaints of nine citizens. As all inquiries of courts and complaints of citizens concerned the same subject, thecourt considered them in one process. The analysis of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation concerningcriminal legal proceedings and, in particular, the right of persons to judicial protection clearly testifies that the court consistently andsteadily spends a firm line of protection, deepening of understanding and provision of rights of the human and the citizen in a criminaltrial at all its stages and in different directions concerning separate institutions of procedural law, investigatory and judicial actions.Thus, the predominating position of the court as the body of justice invariably affirms.

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