Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Russia Valery Zorkin (right) is not opposed to moving the Court in the way the Federation Council proposes.
Photo: Ilya Pitalev
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Valery Zorkin Finds Freedom
// The Constitutional Court gets visiting sessions in exchange for promise to leave “for real”
The Federation Council is expected to reject the law moving the Constitutional Court to St. Petersburg today and send it to a conciliations council. The Council is not against the court's moving, but it wants to restore points in the law creating the possibility of visiting sessions for the court and creating n office of the court in Moscow. The Council's decision has been approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the members of the Court, in exchange for their promise not to abuse the right to visiting sessions.
Federation Council speaker Sergey Mironov said yesterday that he had “no doubt whatsoever” that the amendments to the law “On the Constitutional Court” would be overwhelmingly rejected. The Council Committee on Constitutional Law also recommended against the passage of the amendments. Chairman of the Court Valery Zorkin was invited to appear at the Federation Council session, as was chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Building Vladimir Pligin (United Russia) who did not attend.
Zorkin had sent letters to the president and both houses of parliament complaining that the clause allowing the Court to hold visiting sessions, including in Moscow, and to open an office in Moscow after its relocation to St. Petersburg had disappeared from the third reading of the amendments. He expressed his offense at the Duma to the members of the Federation Council and said that that oversight undermined the court's “independence and prestige.” The conclusion of the Council Committee on Constitutional Law noted that the rights of the Court can be diminished only insofar as “it is necessary for the observance of guarantees of protection of constitutionally significant values.” Committee chairman Yury Sharandin asked, “If the executive branch has representation in the regions, and the Federation Council can allow itself to hold visiting sessions, why should the judicial authorities be deprived of that right?” He added that a conciliation commission would be formed to work on the law and otherwise it would be buried, since the Duma could not override a Federation Council veto on the law.
Zorkin told journalists that the Duma should “think about the consequences… so as not to place one of the supreme bodies of authority in the Russian Federation in a degrading position.” He called the decision to move the Court to St. Petersburg, officially motivated by the desire to guarantee the Court's independence, “political” but said that he was prepared for it. The judges will examine the court's new premises this weekend.
Mironov also suggested removing specifications about the housing and telephones for the judges from the law as unbecoming. The Kremlin may also add clauses to the amendments. Zorkin discussed the amendments with the president last weekend. Kommersant has learned that the Court chairman promised not to abuse the right to visiting sessions.
Alla Barakhova
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 27, 2006
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