Russia
Constitutional Court
Reference period: 4 February 1992-1 October 1993

Important decisions

I.

Identification: a) Russia / b) Constitutional Court / ñ) / d) 4 February 1992 / e) / f) / g) Bulletin of the Congress of the People's Deputies of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, 1992, No. 13, Art. 669.

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:

Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Equality.
Fundamental Rights - Economic, social and cultural rights - Right to work.
Fundamental Rights - Economic, social and cultural rights - Right to just and decent working conditions.
Sources of constitutional law - Categories - Quasi-constitutional legislation and norms.
Sources of constitutional law - Categories - Other international sources.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Employment contract / Dismissal.

Summary:

A judgment of the Constitutional Court found unconstitutional the practice of dismissing workers entitled to a full old-age pension upon attainment of retirement age, without taking other circumstances into account.

This practice was based on the provisions of the Labour Code which granted the management of a company (institution or organisation) the right to dismiss workers. The Court found these provisions incompatible with the Constitution and with the 1991 Declaration of the Rights and Freedoms of the Individual and the Citizen; they also run counter to international texts on individual rights and freedoms, by bringing about discrimination and compromising equality of opportunity and promotion in the field of labour and human activities.

Supplementary information :

The Russia Federation Act of 12 March 1992 repealed the provisions at issue. The persons concerned were reinstated and received back payment of their average wage for the period of enforced unemployment.

II.

Identification: a) Russia / b) Constitutional Court / c) / d) 23 June 1992 / e) / f) / g) Bulletin of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, 1992, No. 30, Art. 1809.

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:

Constitutional Justice - The subject of review - Court decisions.
Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Right of access to courts.
Fundamental Rights - Economic, social and cultural rights - Right to work.
Sources of constitutional law - Categories - Quasi-constitutional legislation and norms.
Sources of constitutional law - Categories - Other international sources.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Right of appeal.

Summary:

The Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation is contravened by Article 211 paragraph 5 of the Labour Code of the RSFSR, Section 90 paragraph 4 of the Basic Labour Laws, and point 27 of the plenary session decree of the Supreme Court of the USSR, interpreting the above-mentioned provisions; the latter laid down excessively short time limits for appeals against decisions by courts or higher authorities which refused reinstatement, thereby infringing the right of citizens to judicial protection of their rights and freedoms: no exception to this constitutional right is tolerable. Nor were they compatible with the corresponding provisions of the Declaration of the Rights and Freedoms of the Individual and Citizen of the RSFSR.

The judicial practices based on the application of the norms in question are incompatible with the Constitution and with international standards and norms concerning human rights.

Supplementary information:

The provision in question (Article 211 of the Labour Code of the RSFSR) was amended in September 1992.

III.

Identification: a) Russia / b) Constitutional Court / c) / d) 27 January 1993 / e) / f) / g) Bulletin of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, 1993, No. 14, Art. 608.

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:

Constitutional Justice - Constitutional jurisdiction -Relations with other institutions - Courts.
Constitutional Justice-Types of litigation - Litigation in respect of fundamental rights and freedoms.
Constitutional Justice -The subject of review - Court decisions.
Constitutional Justice -The subject of review - Administrative ads.
Constitutional Justice - Common principles or techniques of interpretation - Principle of equality.
Constitutional Justice - Common principles or techniques of interpretation - Principle of fairness.
Constitutional Justice - Constitutional proceedings -Decisions - effects.
Fundamental Rights - Economic, social and cultural rights - Right to work.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Unemployment / Compensation for damage.

Summary:

Authorities which had dealt with a number of labour disputes acted on citizens' requests for reinstatement after unlawful dismissal and ordered compensation for the period of non-employment (three months or one year, as appropriate), without however taking account of the actual length of the period of enforced unemployment for the persons concerned. In their decisions, they conformed to a number of rules contained in labour legislation.

The Constitutional Court found these practices to be in violation of the general principles of fairness, equality before the law and the state's duty to guarantee the rights and freedoms of individuals and citizens and to make amends for any damage caused to the individual by unlawful acts of public entities or agents, this set of principles being defined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The judgment of the Constitutional Court restored the infringed rights of citizens. In its capacity as the supervisory authority, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in turn reviewed all court decisions challenged by the complainants.

IV.

Identification: a) Russia / b) Constitutional Court / c) / d) 5 February 1993 / e) / f) / g) Bulletin of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, 1993, No. 12, Art. 445.

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:

Constitutional Justice - The subject of review - Administrative acts.
Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Equality.
Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Right of access to courts.
Fundamental Rights - Economic, social and cultural rights - Right to housing.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Unlawful occupation of buildings / Eviction.

Summary:

A judgment of the Constitutional Court deemed constitutional the customary practice of referring to the ordinary courts disputes concerning the assignment of housing only in cases where the application is based on civil law obligations. However, if the dispute goes beyond the sphere of civil law, the application is not amenable to judicial review.

The same Court judgment describes as unconstitutional the practice of administrative eviction of citizens spontaneously occupying residential premises: these were evictions sanctioned solely by the public prosecutor, with no right of judicial appeal for the persons evicted, and the Constitutional Court considered that such practices violate the principle of equality for all before the law and before the courts and restricted the right on citizens to judicial protection.

V.

Identification: a) Russia / b) Constitutional Court / ñ) / d) 26 February 1993 / e) / f) / g) Bulletin of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, 1993, No. 19, Art. 702.

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:

Constitutional Justice - Types of litigation - Electoral disputes - Parliamentary elections.
Institutions – Principles of State organisation – Separation of powers
Institutions – Legistative bodies.
Fundamental Rights – Civil and political rights – Electoral rights.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Incompatibility.

Summary:

By virtue of the separation of powers, if a people's deputy of the Russian Federation is appointed to exercise a function incompatible with the fulfilment of the duties of a people's deputy of the Russian Federation (particularly in the case of federal ministerial posts), his term of office as a deputy must be cut short. The disputed practice of revoking a deputy's right to sit in parliament is compatible with the Constitution.

VI.

Identification: a) Russia / b) Constitutional Court / ñ) / d) 16 April 1993 / e) / f) / g) Bulletin of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, 1993, No. 29, Art. 1141.

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:

Constitutional Justice - The subject of review - Court decisions.
Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Equality.
Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Right of access to courts.
Fundamental Rights - Economic, social and cultural rights - Right to work.
Sources of constitutional law - Categories - Written rules - Other international sources.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Members of the public prosecution department.

Summary:

The People's Courts of the Russian Federation refused to consider applications for the reinstatement of former staff members of the public prosecutor's office, relying on certain rules relating to in the existing legislation in respect of the public prosecution department of the Russian Federation and to labour law, by virtue of which labour disputes involving certain categories of workers could not be determined by courts. In other words, the regulations applicable to prosecutors and to investigative agents in particular departed from the ordinary law relating to labour disputes.

The Constitutional Court found that these practices were unconstitutional, infringed the constitutional right of all citizens to legal protection of their rights and freedoms, interfered with equality in respect of the right to work and ignored internationally accepted norms and standards.

Supplementary information:

A presidential decree has laid down regulations concerning the federal public service, which give civil servants the right of appeal in labour disputes.

VII.

Identification: a) Russia / b) Constitutional Court / c) / d) 19 May 1993 / e) / f) / g) Russian Gazette, 25 May 1993.

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:

Constitutional Justice - Constitutional proceedings -Types of claim - Claim by a private body or individual - Natural person.
Constitutional Justice - Constitutional proceedings -Decisions - Effects - Temporal effect.
Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights -Freedom of the written press.
Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Right of access to courts.

Keywords of the alphabetical index:

Summary:

In delivering a judgment concerning the property, the founding and the registration of the newspaper "Izvestia", the Supreme Soviet encroached on the field of judicial power, as it lies solely with civil or arbitration courts to deal with disputes concerning the status of persons who establish firms, the contractual obligations of such firms, the disposal of their assets, etc. The Supreme Soviet infringed the constitutional provisions on the right to judicial protection and the administration of justice on the basis of equality of the parties before the law and before the courts in all judicial disputes.

By its decision, the Supreme Soviet had restricted the rights of a newspaper as a major medium of information and the possibilities of its publication, as well as the right of its staff to seek, obtain and freely disseminate information.

Following an individual complaint by the members of the team of journalists belonging to the newspaper's editorial staff, the Constitutional Court declared the decision in question to be incompatible with the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The legal position subsequent to the application of the decision was restored to its previous state.

VIII.

Identification: a) Russia / b) Constitutional Court / ñ) / d) 1 October 1993 / e) / f) / g).

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:

Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Right of access to courts.
Fundamental Rights - Economic, social and cultural rights - Right to work.
Sources of constitutional law-Hierarchy - Hierarchy as between national sources - Hierarchy emerging from the Constitution - In general.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Transitory law.

Summary:

Article 63 of the Constitution, in its wording of 21 April 1992, guarantees everyone the judicial protection of his or her rights and freedoms without any exception. However, the practice of appeals against dismissal to the superior administrative authority and the consideration of such appeals by the said authority was in keeping with the pre-existing constitutional provisions on this subject.

The instruments of international law concerning human rights contain no mandatory provisions on the exercise of judicial protection solely by the courts. The State is obliged to guarantee the right of all persons to receive legal protection not only from the judicial authorities, but from the administrative authorities or any other competent authority.

The Constitutional Court took as its starting point the fact that the settlement of this question was bound up with the problem of the retroactive effect to be given to constitutional provisions and the rules of labour legislation, as there was no possible legislative solution. Indeed, a former worker's application for reinstatement indirectly harms the interests of the person replacing him in the disputed post. With this in mind, the Court acknowledged that the handling of the disputed dismissals by the higher administrative authorities, in accordance with the labour legislation in force prior to 21 June 1990, was in conformity with Article 56 of the Russian Constitution, in its wording of 12 April 1978.