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25 YEARS IN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE AND THE DEBATE ON THE BINDING NATURE OF ECHR RULINGS AGAIN

A.R. SULTANOV,
Head of Legal Department of PJSC “Nizhnekamskneftekhim”,
Member of the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE)

https://doi.org/10.24031/2226-0781-2021-11-6-154-178

The article considers the binding nature of legal positions of the European Court of Human
Rights in civil proceedings taking into account amendments to procedural codes and
substantive laws and legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.
The analysis is carried out to disclose the legislator’s intention, the purpose of which was
to create the “stop-block” against the excessive evolutionary interpretation, rather than to
limit the application of legal positions, stated in the judgments of the ECHR. In conclusion,
the author puts forward the thesis that the recent amendments to the legislation should not
be interpreted as a refusal to implement ECHR judgments, but as an attempt to fix in its
legislation the right to seek compromise in the event of new obligations for Russia from the
evolutionary interpretation of the ECHR Convention. In our opinion, it is appropriate to
quote the President of the Constitutional Court of Germany, who wrote that this approach
is a kind of “stop-cock”, which is most effective when it is not used at all. It is its presence,
not its absence, that avoids an emergency situation. The presence of a “stop-cock” should
not be an obstacle to the protection of human rights and freedoms, nor should it be an
obstacle to the enforcement of ECHR judgments, let alone a justification for violations of
conventional human rights and freedoms.

Keywords: ECHR; evolutionary interpretation; legal positions; protection of human rights
and freedoms; presumption.

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Information about the author

A.R. Sultanov (Nizhnekamsk, Russia) – Head of Legal Department of PJSC “Nizhnekamskneftekhim”,
Member of the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE)
(PJSC “Nizhnekamskneftekhim”, Nizhnekamsk, 423574, Russia; e-mail: [email protected]).

Recommended citation

Sultanov A.R. 25 let v Sovete Evropy, i snova diskussiia ob obiazatel’nosti postanovlenii
ESPCh [25 Years in the Council of Europe and the Debate on the Binding Nature
of ECHR Rulings Again]. Vestnik grazhdanskogo protsessa – Herald of Civil Procedure,
2021, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 154–178. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24031/2226-0781-2021-
11-6-154-178

A.R. SULTANOV