Human Rights: the Integrity of Russian and International Law and the Competition of Court Decisions
https://doi.org/10.24833/RJWPLN-2022-1-2-227-242
Abstract
The amendments to the Russian Constitution in 2020 challenged de novo the prevalence of international law and led Russia to search for its own perception of international law. Although the amendments did not introduce drastically substantive modifications to the international law modus operandi in the national legal system, they nevertheless shifted the constitutional focus. The previous version of the Constitution of the Russian Federation was built on the presumption of the juridical consistency of the constitutional order and Russia’s international commitments. Today there is the a priori suggestion of possible conflicts between the requirements of the Constitution and the judgments of international courts. The paper comprises a short historical analysis of the internationally meaningful rules of the Constitution in its comparison to the current legal situation in Russia. A relatively superficial but illustrative juridical overview of the relevant constitutional provisions with their domestic legal counterparts demonstrates the significance and practical efficiency of the concomitant interpretation of the constitutional rules and Russia’s international obligations. Paradigmatically, such a shift is still awaiting a new interpretation of the fundamentals of the Constitution. At the very least, they need to be constructed differently in order to be concomitant with the refusal mechanism (as regards international judgments). Still, unchanged, the constitutional fundamentals verbatim provide for a proliferated mechanism of human rights protection under international law within domestic order and still require the concordant interpretation of the international commitments and constitutional rules. The modified constitutional landscape drastically shifted the priority of international law in the Russian legal system. Although international law leaves it to the State to determine the status of its international commitments, the constitutional fundamentals (left untouched verbatim) still require international law to be the priority. The constitutionally enclosed human right protection mechanism emphasizes such a priority.
About the Authors
L. A. Lazutin
Ural State Law University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Lev A. Lazutin – Dr. Sci. (Juridical Sciences), Professor, Head of the Department of International and European Law
21, Komsomolskaya ulitsa, 620137, Yekaterinburg
M. A. Likhachev
Ural State Law University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Maksim A. Likhachev – Cand. Sci. (Law), Associate Professor, Associate Professor in the Department of International and European Law
21, Komsomolskaya ulitsa, 620137, Yekaterinburg
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Review
For citations:
Lazutin L.A., Likhachev M.A. Human Rights: the Integrity of Russian and International Law and the Competition of Court Decisions. Russian Journal of World Politics and Law of Nations. 2022;1(1-2):227-242. https://doi.org/10.24833/RJWPLN-2022-1-2-227-242
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