Russia's Constitutional Court will reconvene for the first time in more than a year Monday to consider roughly 70 cases, ranging from complaints about unpaid back wages and confiscated apartments to the defunct Supreme Soviet's request that former vice president Alexander Rutskoi be reinstated in his post.
After the opening plenary session, the 19-member high court will split up into two chambers, elect a new chairman and start plowing through the caseload accumulated since 1993. About half of those complaints came in last year during the court's period of forced inaction.
After its October 1993 suspension by President Boris Yeltsin for siding with the rebellious Supreme Soviet, the court must now redefine itself and deal with a number of political matters from an earlier era.
The new court will face the challenge of interpreting a new constitution -- approved in a referendum 14 months ago -- that gives much stronger powers to the president.
Former court chairman Valery Zorkin said he has his doubts about the future role of the revamped court, which kept its 13 initial members but got six new judges after a painstaking five-month selection process in the Federation Council.
"The old court turned out to be inconvenient for the executive, so it was decided to water it down and go from 13 judges to 19," Zorkin said in an interview Thursday. "But the important thing is, will they stop at that? Will it still be 19 judges and not 27 or 12 when the next president comes? We've let the genie out of the bottle."
The Constitutional Court, the only body in Russia allowed to interpret the constitution and make binding decisions to annul presidential and government decrees, sees itself as the branch of power that must prevail upon the other branches to use reason over force.
But it was by sheer force that Yeltsin suspended the old court, Zorkin said, adding that Russian society had failed to support the very body that is appointed to defend its civil rights from government high-handedness.
"I would like society to realize that it needs the Constitutional Court," Zorkin said. "Past experience shows that society turned out to be unable to defend the court."
Viktor Borisyuk, an analyst with Yeltsin's Information and Analysis Center, said there was still a chance that the new court would end up as the old one did.
"It's possible, considering the state of our legislative base and the personal relationships of the people involved," Borisyuk said, pointing out that the judges who had been suspended might bear the president a grudge. "But it's a different era now, and if we're lucky, history will not repeat itself."
The uncertainty over the court's future is reflected in its relatively small caseload at present, which sharply contrasts with about 17,000 complaints received in a year by the old court, according to Zorkin. Many were redirected to other courts. The new law on the Constitutional Court stipulates that there should be two chambers, one numbering nine judges and the other 10. That way, Zorkin said, judges would be able to sort through the cases faster. Judges will draw lots Monday to determine the chamber membership.
However, only the plenary session of the court, with all 19 judges sitting at a long table in their purple robes of office, is empowered to interpret the constitution and rule on charges of unconstitutional behavior against the president. Zorkin said it would be harder for the unwieldy, 19-member court to make important decisions than it had been for the old, smaller one.
On Monday, the judges will decide which of the 70 cases they will consider and which ones they will reject or forward to other courts. Prominent on the list is former parliament speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov's request that the court consider the legality of Yeltsin firing his second-in-command, Rutskoi, in 1993.
"In legal terms, if the court decided the firing was illegal, Rutskoi would be reinstated," Zorkin said. "But it's easy to guess that this case will be dropped. It's from another era."
The new constitution does not provide for the head of state to have a vice president.
On the other hand, there are newer requests from regional courts to check the constitutionality of a criminal-code provision that anyone imprisoned for six months or more must give up his or her apartment. And there is the obligatory nagging complaint that just won't go away.
"This guy has nagged us for five years about some back pay he is owed," Zorkin said as he went through the list. "We could not help him and we tried to refer him to another court, but there are complainers like this."
There is still no query at the court about the constitutionality of the war in Chechnya, although the Communist Party has said that it will lodge such a query as soon as the court reconvenes. According to Zorkin, Chechnya will probably take precedence over other scheduled cases if it comes up in court.
"If there are massive human-rights violations and deaths, such a matter cannot wait its turn," Zorkin said. "Otherwise there will be no court, no people and no problem left by the time we get to it."
After the opening plenary session, the 19-member high court will split up into two chambers, elect a new chairman and start plowing through the caseload accumulated since 1993. About half of those complaints came in last year during the court's period of forced inaction.
After its October 1993 suspension by President Boris Yeltsin for siding with the rebellious Supreme Soviet, the court must now redefine itself and deal with a number of political matters from an earlier era.
The new court will face the challenge of interpreting a new constitution -- approved in a referendum 14 months ago -- that gives much stronger powers to the president.
Former court chairman Valery Zorkin said he has his doubts about the future role of the revamped court, which kept its 13 initial members but got six new judges after a painstaking five-month selection process in the Federation Council.
"The old court turned out to be inconvenient for the executive, so it was decided to water it down and go from 13 judges to 19," Zorkin said in an interview Thursday. "But the important thing is, will they stop at that? Will it still be 19 judges and not 27 or 12 when the next president comes? We've let the genie out of the bottle."
The Constitutional Court, the only body in Russia allowed to interpret the constitution and make binding decisions to annul presidential and government decrees, sees itself as the branch of power that must prevail upon the other branches to use reason over force.
But it was by sheer force that Yeltsin suspended the old court, Zorkin said, adding that Russian society had failed to support the very body that is appointed to defend its civil rights from government high-handedness.
"I would like society to realize that it needs the Constitutional Court," Zorkin said. "Past experience shows that society turned out to be unable to defend the court."
Viktor Borisyuk, an analyst with Yeltsin's Information and Analysis Center, said there was still a chance that the new court would end up as the old one did.
"It's possible, considering the state of our legislative base and the personal relationships of the people involved," Borisyuk said, pointing out that the judges who had been suspended might bear the president a grudge. "But it's a different era now, and if we're lucky, history will not repeat itself."
The uncertainty over the court's future is reflected in its relatively small caseload at present, which sharply contrasts with about 17,000 complaints received in a year by the old court, according to Zorkin. Many were redirected to other courts. The new law on the Constitutional Court stipulates that there should be two chambers, one numbering nine judges and the other 10. That way, Zorkin said, judges would be able to sort through the cases faster. Judges will draw lots Monday to determine the chamber membership.
However, only the plenary session of the court, with all 19 judges sitting at a long table in their purple robes of office, is empowered to interpret the constitution and rule on charges of unconstitutional behavior against the president. Zorkin said it would be harder for the unwieldy, 19-member court to make important decisions than it had been for the old, smaller one.
On Monday, the judges will decide which of the 70 cases they will consider and which ones they will reject or forward to other courts. Prominent on the list is former parliament speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov's request that the court consider the legality of Yeltsin firing his second-in-command, Rutskoi, in 1993.
"In legal terms, if the court decided the firing was illegal, Rutskoi would be reinstated," Zorkin said. "But it's easy to guess that this case will be dropped. It's from another era."
The new constitution does not provide for the head of state to have a vice president.
On the other hand, there are newer requests from regional courts to check the constitutionality of a criminal-code provision that anyone imprisoned for six months or more must give up his or her apartment. And there is the obligatory nagging complaint that just won't go away.
"This guy has nagged us for five years about some back pay he is owed," Zorkin said as he went through the list. "We could not help him and we tried to refer him to another court, but there are complainers like this."
There is still no query at the court about the constitutionality of the war in Chechnya, although the Communist Party has said that it will lodge such a query as soon as the court reconvenes. According to Zorkin, Chechnya will probably take precedence over other scheduled cases if it comes up in court.
"If there are massive human-rights violations and deaths, such a matter cannot wait its turn," Zorkin said. "Otherwise there will be no court, no people and no problem left by the time we get to it."
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