The Russian Approach to the Permissibility of Examining Jurors in the Light of Foreign Law: Reflecting on the Arguments of the Russian Constitutional Court

Abstract

This article examines the landmark Aliev case decided by the Russian Constitutional Court in 2020. In this case, the Constitutional Court was expected to determine whether jurors must be prohibited from testifying about the outside influence they were subjected to during deliberation. The paper discusses what is right and wrong with the Constitutional Court’s judgment and assesses the quality of its argumentation. The paper explores how the Constitutional Court’s approach compares and contrasts with other countries’ approaches and briefly outlines the structure of legislative reforms that need to be undertaken in Russia in the light of foreign experience. Overall, the author concludes that the integrity of jurors in Russia should be protected not by enabling jurors to testify at their discretion but by strengthening their legal immunity, which will strike an optimal balance between competing constitutional values.