XV Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2023

Main place of the constitutional law in the branches of law system is allocated by its main source – the State Constitution. However, in recent decades, the idea of the supremacy of international law over national law-making is increasingly penetrates in the constitutional rule-making of democratic legal states. In different countries the approaches to understanding the relationship of national and international law differs drastically.

The Basic Law of the country – in Paragraph 4 of the Article 15 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993 consolidated the general rule that "generally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation are an integral part of its legal system. If the international treaty of the Russian Federation stipulates other rules than those entrenched by the law, than the rules of the international agreement take effect".

There are models of constitutions where a part of national law or national legal system are only considered as international treaties. It is provided, for example, by the Constitution of the United States (Article 6), Argentina (Article 31),Egypt (Article 151), Japan (Article 98). Also known instances where provisions have been made only in respect of international law customary norms. Such exemplified in constitutional provisions of Austria (Article 9), Hungary (Article 7), Ireland (Article 29). Russia has gone further.

There as a part of the national legal system, now considered both international treaties and customary norms of international law.

Simultaneously at the level of the Basic Law for the norms of international treaties there was assigned a contingency to act as a regulator of social relations in Russia. Moreover, in our country there is generally accepted priority of norms of the international "contractual" law upon the relevant norms of domestic law in the event of their collisions.

The aforecited principles are universal, since conclude a foundation of the international legal order. They cover both traditional and new areas of international relations, determining the direction and nature of international legal regulation in whole. The reference to the international treaties and generally accepted rules of international law appears in a number of other articles of the Constitution.

Thus, Chapter 2 "The rights and freedoms of human being and citizen" starts with the provision that the Russian Federation recognizes and guarantees the rights and freedoms of human being and citizen according to the universally recognized principles and norms of international law and in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation.(Part 1, Article 17).

In the Russian Federation the issues of contracting along with the norms of international law are governed by the federal law "On International Treaties of the Russian Federation" No. 101-FZ10. Under the international agreement is understood the agreement concluded by the Russian Federation with a foreign state (or states), or with an international organization in writing, governed by international law (Article 2 of the Federal Law No. 101). The priority of international rules only applies to ordinary laws, but not to constitutional norms. State authorities and officials shall not enter into contracts that are contrary to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. If such an agreement is concluded, than the constitutional rules take effect, otherwise it would amount to a denial of state sovereignty. This situation inevitably raises the ques- tion of the relationship between norms of the Constitution and international law.

It is commonly known that the Russian Constitution is a supreme legal force, taking a direct effect and applying to the entire territory of the Russian Federation. Part 2 of the Paragraph 1 of the Article 5 of the Russian Constitution provides that laws and other legal acts adopted in the Russian Federation shall not contradict the Constitution. A literal interpretation of this provision may lead us to the conclusion that constitutional norms claim priority eminently over intrastate acts adopted by the Russian Federation in the process of law-making, and do not take precedence over the generally recognized rules of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation.

However, as rightly pointed out in Comments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, "the mentioned provision (Part 2, Paragraph 1, Article 15) only specifies the argument of higher legal force of the Constitution of the Russian Federation". In other words, the higher legal force of the Russian Con- stitution applies not only to all domestic regulations, including laws, but also to norms of the general and conventional international law, which became a part of the Russian legal system.

In summary, the international treaties of the Russian system of law have a subordinate position in relation to the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and in the event of collisions between the norms of the Constitution and the norms of the international treaty the priority is placed on the norms of the Russian Constitution.

List of literature:

1. "The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Vienna, 23 May 1969)"

2. "Federal Law "On International Treaties of the Russian Federation"