Constitutional system of the Russian Federation and role of the constitutional court in its protection

Constitutional system of the Russian Federation and role of the constitutional court in its protection

constitutional civil society russian

In a number of a rather broad range of problems of modern constitutionalism, perhaps, the special place belongs to the questions of the constitutional system. Without exaggeration it is possible to say, that explanation of essence and constitutional contents, place and role of the given category in the system of the constitutional regulation has the fundamental value, including, the same as for the theory and practice of the constitutional justice. The increased validity of institutes of the constitutional system predetermines the special value of the fundamentals of the constitutional system both for estimation of constitutionality of legal norms rules at any level of their fastening, including constitutional, and for overcoming in lawful practice of blanks, collisions, etc.

It assumes an opportunity and necessity of the two-uniform characteristic of institutes of the constitutional system: on the one hand, as the main criterion of constitutionality of laws and other statutory legal acts being the subject of the constitutional control, on the other hand — as the major object of the constitutional protection carried out, in particular, by means of the constitutional justice.

1. The constitutional system shall be the basic category of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, state and legal expression of the civil society.

Presence in the Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993 of the independent chapter devoted to the fundamentals of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, certainly, has the basic value for the constitutional regulation of the whole system of public relations. In particular, it has stipulated the principles of the lawful state (recognition, observance and protection of rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen as the supreme value; democratism, sovereignty of people; division of the powers; political and ideological pluralism); social, secular state; market economy, etc.

At the same time the paradox is that the rather detailed fastening in the Fundamental Law of the country of the fundamentals of the constitutional system has served badly for the subsequent scientific researches of the category of the constitutional system of Russia. At presence of the corresponding chapter in the Constitution in science of the constitutional law as though naturally has ratified in many respects commentator approach to the analysis of bases of the fundamentals of the constitutional system of Russia in accordance with Articles of Chapter 1 of the Constitution. Meanwhile the chapters and Articles of the Constitution are the external form of the constitutional regulation; deep, substantial features, as well as intrinsic characteristics of the concrete constitutional institutes, cannot be understood without analysis of real public relations being the subject of the corresponding sphere of the constitutional regulation. The internal contents of the Constitution is the expression of objectively existing system of the constitutional institutes based on the real public relations representing precisely (and sometimes rigidly) the coordinated system.

It to the full extent relates to the fundamentals of the constitutional system. The basis of material, and legal characteristics stipulated in the Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993 of the modern constitutional system of Russia is such public relations which embodiment is the constitutional system as the specific constitutional category. And it is possible to make the conclusion, that the constitutional system as the constitutionally-legal category represents the state-legal expression of the civil society forming in Russia. Not only contents, but institutional structure of the constitutional system is predetermined by the corresponding characteristics (contents and structure) of the civil society.

It is the constitutional system which is called to guarantee development of democratic principles in all the spheres of the society. It is the set (system) of the principles (fundamentals) stipulated by the Constitution determining the major characteristics of economic and political organization of the society, the key parameters of the legal status of a person, and mutual relations with the society and the state. The fundamentals of the constitutional system predetermine and simultaneously personify (at a statutory-legal level) the basic characteristics of the whole system of organization of the civil society, establish the constitutional measure of social freedom as the supreme legal value and basic criterion of statutory ordering of social communications and relations of the civil society.

The category of the civil society allows to reveal deep laws of self-organizing of the population, development of political and legal emperous institutes as one of the fundamentals of organization of the society and state. Within the framework of the civil society there becomes possible the original freedom of a person in all forms and at all levels of its display, passing, finally, into freedom of the whole society when people themselves operate social processes in accordance with the requirements of the objective laws realized by them.

What is «the civil society»? What are its internal mechanisms allowing economic, social and cultural, political relations in the mode of democratism, self-management, respect to the human person, warranting of the rights and freedoms to develop? In general it is possible to allocate the following basic qualitative characteristics of the civil society, predetermining its significance as institutional fundamental of development of the new constitutional system of Russia.

The civil society as the embodiment of balance of private and public interests.

The historical process of self-organizing of the population and formation of the civil society characterizes the difficult way of the ascention of mankind from oppression, political dictatorship and the state totalitarism to real democratism of public relations, to valid personal freedom. Not casually the first scientific concepts of the civil society appeared at the end of XVIII — the beginning of XIX centuries, paid attention to such characteristics, as presence of the certain sphere of public (first of all — property, market economic), family, moral — ethical, religious relations, concerning independent of the state. In this sphere the initial understanding of the civil society formed, in essence, on opposition of the sphere of public and individual interests: if the embodiment of the first is the state organization of the society, the second should receive the realization in independent, independent in relation to the state civil, i.e. «Private» field.

The question about the civil society as the certain sphere of not political, individual life of the citizens independent of the government, historically has, certainly, had progressive value. It has played the important role in the establishment of the new, bourgeois constitutional system, based on the principles of inviolability of a private property, non-interference of the state to the sphere of free business, elements of the market competition, the same as in the sphere of the personal, home life of the members of the civil society. As a result the civil society has become independent from political power. On this basis there has taken place «atomization» of the society, allocation of individuals as the subjects of inalienable rights of a person from social structure of the society. This individual freedom has shown, in the historical plan, some kind of the genetic basis of the civil society. And it is not surprising, that in this variant it was and could not be anything else, as except for the sphere of private interests do selfish persons possessing formal and legal freedom, but actually being (in conditions of universality of commodity manufacture) in the system of rigid forms of fetish dependence, real absence of freedom.

Therefore for modern understanding of the up-date civil society the representation about it only from the position of its opposition to the government and, accordingly, to the sphere of realization of public interests is not sufficient. The individual and public beginnings can be and should be not only opposed, but at the certain level of development of the self-administrative beginnings they receive harmonious forms of combination, interpenetration in the process of their self-realization in economic, social and cultural, political life of local communities and, finally, of the whole society. The main thing in the modern all-democratic concept of the civil society should be the definition of the own qualitative characteristics of those real public relations which in the system unity can be determined as the modern civil society.

Legal character of the civil society.

Thus, the civil society is the not simply a certain volumetric concept describing the certain sphere of public relations which limits are determined only that it is «the sphere of action of private interests» (Gegel). At the same time «the civil society» is not formal-legal, not state-legal category. The state cannot, is not capable «to found», «to decree», «to establish» by the laws the desirable image of the civil society. The civil society — and, accordingly, the embodied constitutional system is objectively developing order of real public relations which is based on the requirements of validity and measures of achieved freedom, inadmissibility of the arbitrariness and violence recognized by the society. The given order develops on the basis of the internal contents of these relations that transforms them in carriers of validity and the criterion of measure of freedom. Thus, relations making the civil society, find the ability to personify the certain requirements, certain models of behaviour of the citizens, officials, state organs and the society in accordance with ideals of validity and freedom.

It means, that in relations making the civil society, objectively are embodied ideas of the law as the supreme validity based on inadmissibility of arbitrariness and warranting equal for all the members of the civil society measure of freedom. These are the normative, obligatory requirements which develop and exist in the civil society irrespective of their state recognition and stipulation in the laws. But following them on the part of the state is the pledge that the law in such society and state has legal character, i.e. they do not only personify the state will, but this will fully corresponds to the requirements of validity and freedom.

Proceeding from this approach based on recognition of unsimilarity of concepts «right» and «law», the right is possible to be considered as the nature of things, as objectively caused form of freedom in real relations, formal measure of this freedom, general, normative and obligatory. Formal equaility and formal validity should be the most general requirements of the right in approach to ideal of the perfect civil society. And such society can be only legal which basic functioning is responsibility of the state before the person. Objectively, by virtue of the real-existing order of public relations it gets legal character, that is the civil society on its internal properties should be legal, legal organization of social, economic and political relations.

Legal character of the civil society, its conformity to the supreme requirements of validity and freedom is the major qualitative characteristic of such society. This feature of the civil society is embodied in the normative requirements incorporated in the contents of categories of validity and freedom. Freedom and validity represent in conditions of the civil society the social factor normalizing ordering activity of people, giving to them the beginnings of self-control and self-management. On the other hand, the person as a member of the civil society, the participant of the industrial or territorial collective finds real freedom as a result of the ability to submit to internal normative requirements of freedom as the necessity. It predetermines, accordingly, new principles of social management: behaviour of the person in the given conditions is regulated much more «from inside», than «from outside». And such way of regulation is the closest to self-control, it is perceived by the individual as the form of realization of the freedom. But freedom here, certainly, is not the permissiveness, but the special way of existence of the person in the coordinates of internal self-control of the behaviour and social self-control at the level of the certain generality, collective when the freedom is shown as the backside of the internal responsibility of the person as the social essence.

Functional characteristics of the civil society.

They are connected with the following — the basis of functioning of such a society is not simply creation of the certain field (space) of realization of the individual interests, formally-legally independent of the government, but achievement of the high level of self-organizing, self-control of the society. The basic functions on adjustment of joint activity of the members of the civil society in separate spheres (business and other forms of economic activities, family relations, private life, etc.) should be carried out in this case not with the help of instruments and means of the government which is above a society as «the special public authority», but, first of all, the society on the democratic, self-administrative beginnings, and in the sphere of market economy — in many respects — on the basis of economic self-control. In this case the new functional characteristic of the civil society is not that the state magnanimously «concedes» the certain sphere of individual interests to the society, decides of the problems assigns to it. On the contrary, the society, achieving the new level of the development, gets the ability independently, without intervention of the state to realize the corresponding functions. And in this part not the state «absorbs» the society, establishing total state forms of government and the control over development of the corresponding spheres, and there happens the return process of «absorption» of the state by the civil society: Here appear the beginnings (at least in the spheres of «the civil life») a primate of the civil society above the state.

It predetermines that qualitative feature of the civil society which characterizes its supreme values and an overall objective of functioning — maintenance of the optimum, harmonious combination of individual and public interests. It has the special value for such countries as Russia with deep roots of the Euroasian culture based not on the cult of individualism (that is typical of the West), but on traditions of the communal collectivism. Freedom, human rights and its individual interests should be considered in this case not from the position of egoistical essence of «the economic person» for whom freedom is the property, but, on the contrary, the property in all variety its forms becomes the means of establishing of ideals of the exempted person. And it should develop on the basis of the unconditional recognition of a person, his rights and freedoms, honuor and dignity of politically free and economically independent person.

Therefore not belittling the value of autonomy of the person, guarantees of non-interference with the sphere of individual interests, it is necessary to admit, that it is not the overall objective (as it has been represented at the initial stages of formation of the civil society in conditions of initial accumulation of the capital in the western countries). The overall objective is in satisfaction of material and spiritual needs of the person, in creation conditions providing worthy life and free development of the person. And the state in this case (in conditions of the legal civil society) gets character of the social state (Article 7 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation).

On this basis it becomes possible to overcome the competition at times in coincident constitutional values of the lawful state, on the one hand, and social, on the other.

The question is enrichment of the nature of the lawful state with social beginnings which appreciably transform its imperous functions. Asserting itself as a social and legal, the state takes the responsibility for socio-cultural and spiritual development of a society, for elimination (including with the help of legal laws) unfair social inequalities which in market conditions of economic freedom and property stratification cannot fall outside the limits of maintenance to each individual worthy standard of living. Thus the concept «worthy life «, receiving the constitutional substantiation by stipulating enough concrete duties of the state on its achievement (Part 2 Articles 7), should be perceived not as political program regulation which it would be inexpedient to use at definition of the concept of the civil society but as constitutionally-legal category having the normative contents.

On this basis it is possible to determine the concept of the civil society as the system of social and economic and political relations functioning in the legal regime of social justice with the purpose creating conditions providing worthy life for a person, protection of his rights and freedoms as the supreme value of the civil society and lawful state.

Institutional structure of the civil society and constitutional system.

The concrete analysis of the basic elements conditions qualitative characteristics of the civil society as the system concerning independent of the state institutes and relations which provide conditions for the free development of a person, satisfaction of individual interests and needs of individuals and collectives, developments of local self-management. In the structural sphere the corresponding institutes make the complex enough system of institutes of the economic, social, public and political organization of the society.

At first, these are institutes of economic organization of the civil society in which finds the embodiment the achieved level of economic freedom of the society and each person separately. In economic aspect the civil society is the society of civilized market relations. Therefore formation of the civilized market is the major condition of creation of the civil society. And it is possible only on the basis: of consecutive carrying out into life of the principle of plurality of patterns of ownership and equal opportunities of their legal protection (Part 2 Article 8 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation); maintenance of freedom of labour as the bases of functioning of any society, necessity of warranting on protection against unemployment, the same as the right to individual and collective labour disputes (Article 37 Constitution of the Russian Federation); warranting of freedom of business and other economic activities not forbidden by the law (Article 34).

The unity of these factors provides the new quality of economic relations and position of the person in the given sphere. Quintessence of the new quality is the market — which is, according to M. Fridman «the direct component of freedom». Thus it is necessary to agree with the well-known economist that «the economic system promotes development of the free society in a double role. On the one hand, freedom of economic relations is the component of freedom in the broad sense, therefore economic freedom is the self-goal.

On the other hand, economic freedom is the necessary means to achievement of political freedom «for» it separates economic authority from political and thus allows the one to balance the other.". Simultaneously it allows to join freedom and business, economy and self-management of the population within the frameworks of the democratic civil society. Thus, rights of a person (including civil and political) become the important means of economic development of the society [4], perfection of its economic self-organizing.

The second systematical structural — institutional component of a civil society is its social organization. Social organization of the society is not only its major qualitative characteristic in the process of market, political and democratic transformations on the way to development of the civil society, but is also one of the most important parameters of the achieved level of equality, social justice and freedom in the given society. Basically the concept of the social organization as it is fairly specified in modern sociology, «directly proceeds from» social measurement «of a person, his ability to unite in the name of direct or indirect satisfaction of the needs» .

Thus, it is important to take into account, that laws of modern development of the social organization of the society, in particular its social structure, are determined not by its simplification, reduction of number of social groups and classes, levelling of distinctions between them, but by its essential complication that reflects riches and variety of economic, social and cultural, national and ethnic, religious, political life in the society based on economic and political pluralism.

In the process of development of the civil society the tendency to imaginary «cleanliness», «absence of conflict» of social development is replaced by the tendency to complication of social processes, filling them with internal contradictions, to deepening of social differentiation of the society. At the same time it is necessary to take into account, that as the French researcher of the XIXth century Bygle specified «differentiation and complication of public relations is not one and the same thing. Complication cannot appear in the society without preliminary differentiation, but not vice versa since the society can be differentiated, not complicating thereof the internal life». The democratic way of development of the market and transition to the civil society is complication of public relations through their differentiation and, accordingly, complication of the social organization of the society. And these processes are actively happening.

In this connection it is important to take into account in the conditions of transition to the market and development of the civil society the dynamics of social levels in the system of relation of property, manufacture and, accordingly, distribution of material benefits. Maintenance of the balance of economic interests and material opportunities of the major social groups on behalf of hired workers, businessmen and invalid citizens is the important direction of the policy of the social lawful state whose purpose is creation of conditions providing worthy life and free development of the person (Article 7 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). It means, that the social lawful state in the understanding which the Constitution puts in it, refuses from patternalist relations with the citizens and aspires only to the mostly possible in conditions of the democratic country assistance to the blessing of all the citizens and to the most possible uniform distribution of social and legal burdens. The primary unit of the civil society under protection of the social lawful state and organs of localself-management shall be the family (Article 38 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation) .

At last, the third systematic structural component of the civil society is its political organization providing realization of political freedom of the citizens and social groups of the society. It cannot be identified with the state-political organization, with the government of the society. On the contrary, real democratism of the civil society as the bases of maintenance of the valid freedom of a person becomes possible only when the society, getting the qualities of the civil, lawful society, develops its own, legal not state political mechanisms of self-control and self-organizing. According to it there appears political institutionalization of the civil society and its constitutional system; The society makes self organizing with the help of such institutes, as political parties, mass movements, trade unions, female, veteran, youth parties, religious organizations, volunteer societies, creative unions, communities, funds, associations and other voluntary associations of the citizens created on the basis of generality of their interests. Political relations get in this case value of not state form of social management, of the sphere of self-realization of the person that confirms legitimacy of inclusion of the contents of the concept of political relations in the civil society

Thus, the Constitution of the Russian Federation stipulates the basic characteristics of the civil society in unity of economic, social and political relations, and the civil society in its constitutional stipulation embodies the basic characteristics of the constitutional system of Russia (Chapter 1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). It is the constitutional system — the concentrated expression of the set of public relations, the integrating constitutionally legal category — which is called to guarantee development of the civil society and democratic principles in the society and the state. Thus, the civil society as the legal society shall provide at the level of the institutes and relations indissoluble connection of the personal freedom with freedom and self-organizing of the state organized society as a whole, unity of social and legal fundamentals of its functioning.

The important place in the constitutional mechanism of political institutionalization of the civil society, the same as in development and deepening of the personal freedom, real maintenance and warranting of rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen shall belong to the system of local self-management. Local self-management is the institutional means of realization of the civil society, and without development of local self-management it is impossible neither development of the civil society, nor maintenance of freedom and rights of a person.

Institutes of self-organizing of the population are simultaneously municipal institutes of the civil society and constitutional system, and it is connected with understanding of local self-management as the institutional bases of social and territorial self-organizing of the population, development of the civil society and establishment of the new constitutional system.

3. Judicial and constitutional protection of the fundamentals of the constitutional system of Russia.

As to the decisions of the Constitutional Court concerning the protection of the fundamentals of the constitutional system, especially it is necessary to specify the decisions on interpretation of the regulations concerning separate principles and fundamentals of the constitutional system. At the same time the Constitutional Court rather cautiously approaches to these questions, taking into account the special significance and the increased validity of the corresponding regulations. Thus, in the Definition from July 1st, 1999 about refusal in admission for consideration of the request of the State Duma about interpretation of Article 7 Part 1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation the Constitutional Court has specified that the decision of the questions put in the petition would be infringement of the fundamental principle of realization of the state power on the basis of division into legislative, executive and judicial, would lead to creation of legal norms by the Constitutional Court. Besides in conditions of active legislative process in social sphere the interpretation of the specified in the request regulations in essence, would mean the preliminary constitutional control of the bills or verification in inadequate procedure of constitutionality of the adopted federal laws. In many respects for the same reason the Constitutional Court has refused in admission for consideration and request of the legislative Assembly of the Tver region about interpretation of the regulations of Article 12 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Definition from June 11th, 1999 No. 104-O).

The Regulations of chapter 1 (alongside with chapter 2) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation are under the special legal protection. Article 16 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation stipulates, that no other regulations of the Constitution of the Russian Federation can contradict the fundamentals of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation and can be changed solely in the order established by the Constitution. This order is established by Article 135 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation which stipulates the complicated procedure of change of the regulations of Chapters 1 and 2 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation is fixed. As against amendments to Chapters 3−8 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation which are adopted in the order stipulated for adoption of the federal constitutional law, revision of the positions regulating the fundamentals of the constitutional system, and rights and freedoms of the citizens, can be realized solely by the Constitutional Assembly.

At the same time the increased validity of the institutes of the constitutional system does not mean, that the competence of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is distributed to the verification of constitutionality including the constitutional regulations and that the later can be recognized invalid, i.e. unconstitutional as not corresponding to the fundamentals of the constitutional system. Such legal position has been developed by the Constitutional Court in the Definition from April 10th, 1997 about refusal in admission for consideration of the request of the State Duma about the verification of constitutionality of the Federal law from December 5th, 1995 «About the order of formation of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation». Actually the State Duma demanded to recognize invalid the regulation of Part 2 Article 95 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation regarding, contradicting, in its opinion principle of division of powers, i.e. Article 10 of the Constitution. The constitutional Court has specified however, that the competence of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, stipulated by Article 125 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and Article 3 of the Federal constitutional law «About the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation», does not include verification of constitutionality of the constitutional regulations, recognition them invalid.

At present the idea of verification of constitutionality of the constitutional regulations has arisen on the new basis, namely: in the aspect of offer about entry of changes and additions in the Federal Constitutional Law «About the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation» and allocation of the Constitutional Court with corresponding powers. According to the given offers the Constitutional Court is allocated with the right to make conclusions about recognition of separate regulations of the Constitution of the Russian Federation contradicting the fundamentals of the constitutional system.

At external appeal of these offers directed like to strengthening of the fundamentals of the constitutional system and expansion for these purposes of the powers of the Constitutional Court, they are rather disputable. In fact the basis of the given approach is recognition of de facto internal discrepancy of the Constitution and the attempt to create «the legitimate mechanism» of overcoming such contradictions. Actually it can lead to cancellation of the uniform constitutional act, makes active attempts of different political forces, using the institute of the constitutional justice to violate the principle of stability of the Constitution of 1993, to make changes into it in the different way as it is stipulated in Chapter 9 of the current Constitution.

Enter into the Federal Constitutional Law «About the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation» of the certain additions would correspond neither to formal-legal requirements of Article 125 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, nor intrinsic characteristics, the nature of the constitutional justice in Russia. At the same time quite justified could be the verification of constitutionality of the new amendments to the Constitution on one of the stages of procedure of their approval, for example, by the legislative organs of the subjects of the Russian Federation or signing by the President of the Russian Federation. It would fully correspond to realization of the requirements of Article 16 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation about the increased validity of the fundamentals of the constitutional system and the necessity of maintenance of conformity to them of all other regulations of the Constitution.