Interpretation of the Principle of Trust by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation

   The paper analyzes the features of interpretation and application of the principle of trust by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. The legal category of trust is employed by the Constitutional Court in assessing relations between public authorities, between citizens and public authorities, between the state and institutions of civil society, and in legal relations among citizens. The author concludes that the Constitutional Court views trust as a legal state between the subjects of legal relations, grounded in the values, principles, and provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The legal-substantive definition of the principle has been formulated by the Constitutional Court implicitly, based on the values enshrined in the Preamble, as well as the principles and provisions of Chapters 1 and 2 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. In the Court’s legal standings, the principle of trust is defined as a constitutional value forming part of the foundations of the constitutional order and applied as a criterion for evaluating legislation. The juridical-substantive basis of the principle of trust consists of legal certainty, which entails requirements of formal definiteness, precision, clarity, and unambiguity of the content of norms, as well as coherence of provisions within the system of current legal regulation. The Court has also articulated a number of other requirements for legislation that constitute the legal content of the principle. The principle of trust is applied by the Constitutional Court to constitutional and other sectoral legal relations and serves as a criterion for assessing existing legislation, judicial practice, and law-enforcement practice.

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