RUSSIAN CONSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY. THE DEATH PENALTY, AGAINST AND... AGAINST

Abstract

Introduction: the adoption of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 2020 necessitates the study of constitutionally significant values that shape the Russian identity. Among these values are the historically formed state unity, the history of the country, the uniqueness of its cultural heritage. In the light of guarantees of continuity in the development of the Russian state, it appears relevant to provide analysis of one of the fundamental human rights – the right to life, through the prism of historical, philosophical, legal concepts of the Russian judicial system and judicial process. The refusal to use the death penalty, which has opened new pages for the justice system of modern Russia, makes it essential to provide scholarly reflection on the necessity, possibility, and admissibility of forming a new constitutional and legal space in the Russian Federation that ensures the observance of human and civil rights and freedoms. Purpose: to identify the specific features of legal regulation of the use of the death penalty in modern Russia; to establish in what way the refusal to impose death sentences was conditioned not only by the obligations of the Russian Federation under international law but also by domestic legitimation based on established traditions following from constitutional identity. Methods: dialectical, culturological, general historical, sociological, dogmatic methodological approaches were applied in the study of the conditionality of the refusal to use the death penalty by the Russian constitutional identity; in the analysis of legal doctrines, legislative projects, and normative legal acts, the following methods were employed: general scientific methods (system-structural and formal-logical, inductive and deductive), special legal methods (historical-legal, comparative-legal, and formal-legal) as well as the method of interpretation. Results: the paper shows the influence of constitutional provisions on the decision to ban the imposition of death sentences; presents investigation into the norms of Russian criminal law, which imposes a ban on acts for which the sanction of the relevant criminal law norm establishes punishment in the form of the death penalty; traces the evolution of the institution of jury trial in Russia, to which, in accordance with constitutional regulations, a person to whom this type of punishment may be applied has the right. Conclusions: the assessment of the legal aspect of Russia's refusal to use the death penalty based on the analysis of normative acts allows the author to confirm the thesis that Russia's decision to abolish the death penalty, taken under the influence of modern international trends in the law of European countries, over time has become part of the Russian legal system, which strengthened the Russian constitutional identity. This has been due to the justice system being created in modern Russia, based not only on the principles of European models of the judicial system but in large part having the roots in the state system that has developed over centuries and determines a decent attitude to human rights and freedoms, including the person’s right to life.