The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is the judicial body of constitutional review, autonomously and independently exercising judicial authority by means of constitutional judicial proceedings.

The powers, procedures for the formation and activity of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation are determined by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and by the Federal Constitutional Law.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation consists of 19 judges appointed by the Federation Council upon nomination made by the President of the Russian Federation.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation may implement its activity provided that it is composed of no fewer than three quarters of the total number of Judges. The powers of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation are of unlimited duration. The fundamental principles of activity of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation are independence, collegiality, publicity, adversarial nature of proceedings and equality of parties.

Article 125 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation states that  the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on request by the President of the Russian Federation, the State Duma, one-fifth of the members of the Federation Council or deputies of the State Duma, the Government of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, bodies of legislative and executive power of subjects of the Russian Federation resolves cases about compliance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation of:

federal laws, normative acts of the President of the Russian Federation, the Federation Council, the State Duma and the Government of the Russian Federation,

republican constitutions, charters, as well as laws and other normative acts of subjects of the Russian Federation published on issues pertaining to the jurisdiction of bodies of state power of the Russian Federation and joint jurisdiction of bodies of state power of the Russian Federation and bodies of state power of subjects of the Russian Federation agreements between bodies of state power of the Russian Federation and bodies of state power of subjects of the Russian Federation, agreements between bodies of state power of subjects of the Russian Federation international agreements of the Russian Federation that have not entered into force.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation  resolves disputes over jurisdiction: between the federal state bodies, between state bodies of the Russian Federation and state bodies of the subjects of the Russian Federation, between supreme state bodies of subjects of the Russian Federation

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is the supreme judicial body for civil, criminal, administrative and other cases under the jurisdiction of courts of general jurisdiction, carries out judicial supervision over their activities according to the federal law-envisaged procedural forms and provides clarifications on the issues of court proceedings (Article 126 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation heads the judicial system of general jurisdiction, representing a supreme tier of this system and oversees the activities of courts, including military and specialized federal courts, as the legal instance directly superior to the supreme courts of republics, krais, oblasts, cities of federal significance, autonomous oblast, autonomous okrug, and military courts.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has the right of the legislative initiative. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation acts as a court of first instance for cases of special importance or special public interest when it accepts them for consideration according to the legislation. The law determines a category of cases which are included in the sphere of activities of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation as a court of first instance.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is a cassation instance in relation to the federal courts of general jurisdiction of republics or oblasts.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation supervises legality, validity and substantiality of sentences and other decisions of courts of lower level.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is composed of its Chairman, first deputy and deputies of the Chairman, the justices of the Court and People’s assessors.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has the following structure:

the Plenum of the Supreme Court,

the Presidium of the Supreme Court,

Judicial chambers (Chamber on Civil Cases, Chamber on Criminal Cases and Military Chamber),

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is assisted in exercising its powers by several offices, departments and other structural units.