Rezerva de constitutionalitate a Federatiei Ruse
The Russian Federation’s constitutionality exception

Summary/Abstract: The article reviews the main arguments of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in its decision from 14 July 2015 on its right to review the decisions of the ECtHR. The review process starts at the request of courts and state authorities tasked with implementing the decisions of the Court, when these conflict with the Russian Constitution. According to the author, this ex post constitutionality review is equivalent to a constitutionality exception. This measure, through the uncertainty it creates regarding the implementation of treaties, is detrimental to the development of international law. In this particular case though, its use appears to be the result of a certain activism on the part of the ECtHR. The latter seems to not fully evaluate the possible consequences of its “evolutive” interpretation of the Convention. Two decisions of the European Court are mentioned in support of this view: Konstantin Markin v. Russia from 22.03.2012 and Anchugov and Gladkov v. Russia from 04.07.2013.

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