Putin Signed Laws on Constitution’s Priority over International Law

According to the new Russian legal norms "the application of rules of international treaties of the Russian Federation in their interpretation that contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation is not allowed." On Tuesday, December 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a package of laws establishing the priority of the Russian Constitution over international agreements and treaties. These documents are published on the Official Internet Portal of Legal Information. We are talking about changes and additions to the Civil Code, the Civil Procedure Code, the Code of Administrative Procedure, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Arbitration Procedure Code and to more than a hundred industry laws. According to the new Russian legal norms, "the application of the rules of international treaties of the Russian Federation in their interpretation that contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation is not allowed." In addition, the law "On International Treaties of the Russian Federation" stipulates that the Constitutional Court now has the authority to check decisions of international courts and intergovernmental bodies that are contrary to the constitution for the possibility of their execution, "if they contradict the foundations of public order in the Russian Federation." Amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation and new laws The provision on the supremacy of the norms of the Constitution of Russia over international treaties and agreements of the country was enshrined in an amendment to Article 79 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. At the end of October, the State Duma adopted in the third reading a draft law on amendments to the Federal Law "On Security" necessary to bring this law in line with the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation that have come into force. At the same time, the law enshrined the provision that "decisions of interstate bodies adopted on the basis of the provisions of international treaties of the Russian Federation in their interpretation, contrary to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, are not subject to execution in the Russian Federation." On November 9, this law was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Will the new laws limit the ability of Russians to apply to the ECHR? At the stage of discussion of the relevant amendment to Article 79 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, many experts expressed fears that its adoption would limit the ability of Russians to seek the execution of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Commenting on the potential implications of the amendment for DW, Francesco Palermo, professor of comparative constitutional law at the University of Verona in Italy, noted in January 2020 that the rule of national law over international law is "very unusual" for Europe, although there is a trend towards. "In principle, the main idea is not to reduce cooperation with the ECHR," Palermo said. "Rather, all of this means that the Russian authorities want to retain the final say on every ECHR decision and have the power to annul, refute or simply ignore those decisions of the court that are deemed incompatible with national constitutional law," he added.