Federal constitutional laws are adopted on issues directly provided for by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. In the hierarchy of the country's normative legal acts, they are located immediately after the Constitution and must comply with its provisions.
Federal constitutional laws are a special type of normative legal acts that are adopted on a limited range of issues directly provided for by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. These issues are related to the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation, are the most important and significant for the activities of the state. That is why a special procedure has been established for the adoption of federal constitutional laws, which presupposes the need for their approval by a large number of people's representatives. In addition, it is the federal constitutional laws that occupy the next place after the Constitution in the hierarchy of the country's normative legal acts. This means that they cannot contradict the Basic Law, but all federal laws, bylaws, legislative acts of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation must comply with them.
What issues are stipulated by the Constitution of the Russian Federation?
The Constitution of the Russian Federation defines the following list of issues on which the adoption of federal constitutional laws is allowed: the conditions and procedure for the introduction of a state of emergency, the establishment of state symbols of Russia and its description, the acceptance of a new subject into the country or a change in the status of existing subjects, the procedure for establishing a regime of martial law, determination of the status The Commissioner for Human Rights, the definition of the judicial system, the procedure for the formation and work of the highest judicial bodies, federal courts, the peculiarities of the activities of the Government of the Russian Federation, the procedure and cases of convening the Constitutional Assembly. Direct interpretation of the text of the Basic Law allows us to conclude that the above list of issues is closed, that is, federal constitutional laws can be adopted exclusively according to this list.
Restrictions on federal constitutional laws
Currently, federal constitutional laws have been adopted on almost all of the above issues. At the same time, amendments to each adopted federal constitutional law are also introduced by federal constitutional law. It should be noted that these normative acts cannot be used as a tool for changing the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation itself, giving them flexibility or modernity, which is proposed by some researchers. In addition, the list of issues on which federal constitutional laws are adopted should not be allowed to expand, since proposals are often heard to give this status to a particular federal law in order to increase its significance.
