MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. Russia’s lower house of parliament is due to consider in the second reading on Friday a bill on the right of Russia’s Constitutional Court to rule that decisions by international courts, first of all the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), cannot be implemented.
The initiative is authored by the representatives of all the State Duma factions led by the chairman of the lower house’s committee on constitutional law Vladimir Pligin and also senator Andrei Klishas.
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In the first reading on December 1, the State Duma adopted the draft law allowing the Russian Constitutional Court to rule that decisions by international courts are unenforceable in case they contradict Russia’s Constitution.
On Friday, the MPs will consider amendments of linguistic character.
In mid-July, the Russian Constitutional Court ruled that the ECHR decisions can be executed in Russia only if they do not contradict the country’s Constitution.
The Constitutional Court said in the decision that in most cases there is no conflict between the Russian Constitution and the Human Rights Convention, However, if a conflict emerges and the ECHR interpretation contradicts the Russian Constitution, Russia will have to refuse from strict compliance with the ECHR decision.
The court also said then that the legislator has the right to establish a special legal framework for ensuring the supremacy of the Constitution in such cases.
The Russian Constitutional Court issued this decision in response to an inquiry submitted by a group of State Duma members who asked in what part the ECHR decisions could be implemented in the Russian Federation if they relate to the constitutional norms and decisions by the Russian Constitutional Court. "The lawmakers who signed the inquiry believe that a number of ECHR decisions are aimed at dissolving the boundaries of Russia’s state sovereignty that is based on the supremacy of the Russian Constitution and priority of the Russian Constitutional Court jurisdiction as the only power body authorized to carry out constitutional supervision," first deputy head of the Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes, A Just Russia Party member Alexander Tarnavsky told TASS then.