Constitutional Justice in the Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

In the paper, the authors analyze the 2020 judicial reform related to constitutional (charter) justice in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. This reform had one single goal: to replace constitutional (charter) courts with constitutional (charter) councils operating under the legislative bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The authors approached the consideration of the 2020 judicial reform from a critical position. The paper provides a general analysis of the legal status of constitutional (charter) councils of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and identifies gaps in federal legislation. One of the main shortcomings of the Federal Constitutional Law of 08.12.2020 No. 7-FKZ «On Amendments to Certain Federal Constitutional Laws» is that the federal legislator introduced a dispositive norm on the establishment of new constitutional control bodies, aggravating it with an unclear legal status, thus failing to make the constituent entities of the Russian Federation willing to establish such. The authors focused their attention on the development of constitutional justice in the Republic of Tatarstan, tracing the path of its formation from the Constitutional Supervision Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan, established in 1990, to the Constitutional Council of Tatarstan, created in 2023. Despite the fact that the federal legislator has linked constitutional (charter) councils to legislative (representative) authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Tatarstan appears as a separate state body. Based on the study, problems of the legal status of constitutional (charter) councils of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation were identified: first of all, their position in the system of state authorities and the legal force of decisions. The combination of problems significantly reduces the effectiveness of the activities of the new constitutional (charter) justice bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in protecting constitutional legality.