Law

Article is devoted consideration of such form of participation of citizens of the Russian Federation in judicial authority activity as representation in qualifying boards of judges. The author analyzes legal regulation, dynamics of powers and practical activities of the given bodies of judicial community from a position of maintenance of the constitutional principle of publicity and public participation.

The article deals with the theoretical issues of classifying personal and civil rights and freedoms as constitutional. The scope of consideration includes the two main positions on defining a constitutional right and constitutional law legal relations. The ways of constitutionalizing the principle of the personal and civil rights and freedoms equality irrelevant of the language in the Russian and U.S. constitutional law are analyzed. The principle of the personal and civil rights and freedoms equality irrelevant of the language is regarded as constitutional by its very nature due to its importance in person’s legal status definition.

The article considers the specificity of the Russian Federation Constitution enshrined the principle of equality before the courts in relation to the adversarial principle. The author substantiates the idea that this principle has two aspects, expressing its essence: the substantive and procedural. In the material sense, it represents a concretization of the constitutional principle of equality and is largely associated with the provision of formal or de jure equality. Procedural aspects include the provision of real competition in the process, which in turn requires a «leveling» of the actual procedural status of the parties.

Introduction. The current concept of “compatriot abroad” is supplemented by the condition of free choice in favor of spiritual, cultural and legal ties with the Russian Federation. The purpose of the work is to study this condition in the context of the designated concept. Theoretical analysis. The author has revealed that free choice is an action committed by a person, indicating the desire for the emergence of legal relations based on spiritual, cultural and legal ties with the state in order to be recognized as a compatriot abroad. Recognition of compatriots abroad is based on free choice as an act of self-identification, expressed in various types of activities of a person in Russia and abroad. Еmpirical analysis. The author identifies two key problems that arise in the process of recognition of a person as a compatriot abroad: the impossibility of fully realizing the legal status of a compatriot in foreign countries and the abuse of the possibility of obtaining this status in the Russian Federation. Results. The appearance of the construction of “free choice in favor of spiritual, cultural and legal ties with the Russian Federation” in the legislation on the legal status of compatriots abroad is evaluated positively. However, it requires an addition of a mandatory condition of proficiency in the Russian language.