The number of appeals of citizens to the Constitutional Court increases every year – Sivets

The number of appeals to the Constitutional Court is increasing every year. This was told by the Chairman of the Constitutional Court Sergey Sivets on the air of the TV channel “STV”, reports sb.by.

The constitutional complaint is quite new in the legal system of Belarus. “It arose in connection with the updating of the Basic Law. It began its practical implementation on October 1, 2023. In three years, the Constitutional Court received 265 constitutional complaints. Moreover, we note the annual increase in the number of appeals of citizens directly to the Constitutional Court. In general, a very innovative, progressive legal institution that allows citizens to directly apply to the Constitutional Court on the issue related to the need to verify the law that was applied in a particular court case with the participation of this citizen and which, in the opinion of the citizen, has a certain defect in terms of the presence of constitutional conflicts, gaps, legal uncertainty, which in one way or another could affect the legality of the judicial verdict by courts of general jurisdiction, said Sergey Sivets.

He added that a large number of decisions have already been made. “Two of these decisions concerned the recognition of certain provisions of the law on the prevention of neglect and adult delinquency as inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution, as well as certain provisions of the Tax Code. Accordingly, authorized state entities, regulators took a number of actions related to the adjustment of these legislative legal acts, the Chairman of the Constitutional Court explained.

In most cases, constitutional complaints are considered by citizens as another way to appeal already at the level of constitutional proceedings judicial verdicts that were rendered by courts of general jurisdiction in individual legal disputes. “In this regard, it is not always the Constitutional Court that initiates proceedings on a constitutional complaint because it finds no indication of a violation of constitutional rights and freedoms. Nevertheless, even when a decision is made to refuse to initiate proceedings on a constitutional complaint, there have already been precedents when a judge of the Constitutional Court, without seeing signs of violation of constitutional rights in relation to a given legal situation, at the same time analyzing and predicting the consequences of applying this normative legal norm, this law over time, in the medium-long term, trying it on other legal situations, also relevant to this law or a provision of law, could come to the conclusion that in the future such a situation may result in a violation of constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens. In this regard, we asked the regulator to pay closer attention to this provision of the law or to the law as a whole during the current adjustment of the current legislation. This is the so-called type of preliminary constitutional control – preventive constitutional control, that is, the prevention of adverse legal consequences in the formation of law enforcement practice and the operation of a specific legislative act, explained Sergey Sivets.

He also answered the question whether the delegates of the SNC have the right to propose laws for verification of compliance with the Constitution. I assume that in the near future, perhaps, such appeals will appear, because the algorithm of the formation of the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly assumes the involvement of almost all social strata and groups of the population, ranging from representatives of all three branches of government, representatives of local self-government bodies, including civil society actors. Delegates of the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly should constantly keep their finger on the pulse, clearly define the social request, including in terms of a possible appeal to the Constitutional Court with a proposal to consider a draft normative legal act for compliance with its Constitution, if there are signs that it somehow restricts or violates the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens, Sergey Sivets said.