Enforceability of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights After Russia’s Withdrawal from the Council of Europe

In the article, the author examines the process of termination of the membership of the Russian Federation in the Council of Europe, as well as Russia’s withdrawal from the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The author examines the possibility of subsequent consideration of complaints by the European Court of Human Rights directed against the Russian state, as well as the prospects for the enforcement of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in case of inconsistency between the Russian constitutional and European-convention legal orders. The author proposes a criterion that ensures objectivity in determining the «constitutionality» and «unconstitutionality» of decisions of interstate bodies — the integrity of each of the judges of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, their subordination in their activities only to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The author cites the legal compromise as a mechanism that most fully reflects the provisions of the constitutional norms of Russia and the convention norms of the Council of Europe. On the example of the Anchugov v. Gladkov case, mutual steps were shown both on the part of Russia and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the execution of the decision rendered by the European Court. However, the termination of Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe deprived the parties of the opportunity to reach any compromise solutions.

In the author’s view, in the absence of a dispute about the contradiction of the decision to constitutional norms, it should be executed.

In the final part of the work, conclusions are drawn about the role of the European Court of Human Rights in the Russian Federation and the effectiveness of its work to protect human rights and freedoms. An assessment is given of the consequences of the termination of the EC jurisdiction for the legal system of the Russian Federation, as well as alternative international human rights mechanisms in the UN system.

1. Zorkin VD. Konstitutsionnoe pravosudie: protsedura i smysl [Constitutional justice: procedure and meaning]. Official website of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federa- tion. Available at: http://www.ksrf.ru/ru/Info/Anniversary/Documents/Constitutional%20private.pdf [Accessed: 01.09.2022]. (In Russ.).