Constitutional culture of justice: balancing judicial review and law-making dimensions

Introduction. The doctrinal understanding of the phenomenon of the constitutional culture of justice requires referring to judicial activity as one of its sources and, at the same time, the sphere of implementation. In this regard, it is of particular importance to consider the specifics of the legal nature of the legal positions of the supreme courts, in particular the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, as special sources of law enforcement, as well as to clarify the place and role of judicial practice in the modern legal system of Russia.

Purpose. The disclosure of the substantive and functional characteristics of the constitutional culture of justice, the definition of its importance for strengthening constitutional stability, maintaining public confidence in the court and forming value orientations for the activities of the judiciary in the Russian Federation, as well as an analysis of the activities of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, whose legal positions are key means of forming and developing the constitutional culture of justice.

Methods. Systematic, formal-legal, historical-legal, comparative-legal and axiological methods were used. Their application made it possible to consider the constitutional culture of justice as a multidimensional phenomenon combining the legal and value aspects of the functioning of the judiciary. The use of an integrated and interdisciplinary approach made it possible to analyze this phenomenon not only from a legal, but also from a sociological and cultural point of view.

Results. The conducted research has shown that the constitutional culture of justice is a key element of the modern legal system, providing a link between the norms of the Constitution and their practical implementation. It is established that through constitutional justice, stable value orientations of judicial practice are formed, expressed in ensuring the principles of justice and equality. Thus, the constitutional culture of justice acts as a tool for strengthening public confidence in the judiciary and a factor in the constitutional stability of the state.

Conclusions. The constitutional culture of justice is a set of legal, institutional and value attitudes that determine the nature and specifics of judicial power and judicial activity in the state. The key to characterizing the constitutional culture of justice is the question of its sources, among which a special place belongs to the highest judicial authorities. A relatively independent problem in this regard is the clarification of the legal nature of such an atypical source of law enforcement as constitutional judicial practice. The special significance of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which are of a doctrinal nature, lies in their influence on the legal formulation of cultural value orientations of legislative and law enforcement activities. The legal positions of the Constitutional Court, presented at the level of constitutional and judicial interpretation, recommendations to the legislator and constitutional explanations, require independent consideration in terms of assessing their impact on constitutional culture. The legal nature of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation as special sources of law enforcement is characterized by a combination of regulatory and law-making aspects. The established practice of appeals to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has predetermined the significant predominance of elements of concrete rather than abstract rule control in its activities, which actualizes the use of sociological approaches to understanding the specifics of constitutional legal proceedings.

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