Citizens’ Appeals in Russian Legislation: Traditions and Modern Challenges for its Improvement

The paper examines the experience of legal regulation of citizens’ appeals in the Russian prerevolutionary and Soviet periods. There is a continuity in the regulation of the institution of citizens’ appeals. The paper analyzes modern legislation on appeals, taking into account the correlation between general and special regulation. The author concludes that the role of the Federal Law dated 2 May 2006 No. 59-FZ «On the Procedure for Considering Appeals of Citizens of the Russian Federation» as a law of general regulation is predetermined by the socio-political nature of the right to appeal as a constitutional right and the right of a universal national nature, the implementation of which accompanies any sphere of activity of the authorities in their relations with citizens. The modern development of communications in the State and society, the complication of interaction between subjects, the introduction of IT technologies are challenges that encourage improvement of the legal regulation of the institution of appeals. On the basis of historical and legal and formal and legal methods, the author concludes that the definition of key concepts in the field of consideration of citizens’ appeals in electronic form, restriction of departmental rule-making, clarification of the status of subjects authorized to consider citizens’ appeals should be regulated primarily by means of a relevant federal law. When regulating the institution of appeals, one should focus not on the concept of providing public services, but on the idea of the participation of citizens in the management of state affairs traditional for Russia. It is also proposed to establish provisions on the inadmissibility of burdening citizens with additional requirements when submitting appeals, to provide for a list of communication channels and features of consideration of appeals for certain categories of citizens.