Powers of the Constitutional Councils of the Republics Within the Russian Federation

Abstract

One of the directions of constitutional reform of the public authorities of modern Russia is the abolition of the constitutional (statutory) courts of the subjects of the Russian Federation and their replacement by the corresponding quasi-judicial structures. Meanwhile, such a reform of federal legislation did not entail an operational adjustment of regional legislation and the real formation of constitutional (statutory) councils. These processes are uneven and rather slow. The author suggests that the reason hindering these processes is the legislative structure, which gives the subjects of the Federation the right at the federal level, and does not impose the obligation to create constitutional councils.
The purpose of the study is to compare approaches to the regulation of the powers of the constitutional councils of the republics within the Russian Federation.  Сomparison of the norms of regional legislation shows that the scope of powers of the studied bodies varies. The historical digression also allowed us to consider the powers of the constitutional councils in a comparative aspect with the powers of the constitutional (statutory) courts. Conclusions are drawn that, given the similarity of the regulatory powers of judicial and quasi-judicial bodies, there is a certain specificity due to the peculiarities of a particular subject of the Federation.