Duma abolishes double-chamber structure of Constitutional Court.

MOSCOW, October 23 (Itar-Tass) -- The State Duma on Friday adopted in
the second and third, final, reading amendments to the Law on the
Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation that abolish its
two-chamber structure. The bill had been submitted by the president.
The document establishes new organizational forms of Constitutional
Court proceedings. Plenary sessions of the Constitutional Court and its
double-house structure will be abolished. Consideration of all affairs and
matters related to the authority of the CC will be made at CC meetings
attended by no less than two-thirds of the total number of judges.
The age limit for the CC's presiding judge is to be lifted (in the
current legislation the age restriction is 70 years).
The bill envisages the possibility of considering a number of
categories of cases at a meeting of the Constitutional Court without prior
hearings. In particular, the CC may do so, if it arrives at the conclusion
that the provisions the applicant has challenged are similar to the
standards previously recognized as inconsistent with the Constitution of
the Russian Federation under applicable decrees of the CC. Furthermore,
this rule will not apply, if there is a written petition with objections
against such a procedure from the President of the Russian Federation, the
Federation Council, the State Duma, the Russian government or a regional
body of state power. Hearings will be obligatory, if that is essential to
ensuring the rights of the applicant.
As the first vice-speaker of the State Duma, Oleg Morozov, said, the
president's initiative is aimed at optimizing the organizational and
procedural principles of the Constitutional Court of Russia. He said that
above all the law is cleared of provisions that reserve the possibility of
considering cases by an incomplete panel of judges, that is, by meetings
of the so-called chambers of the CC.
"The bill stipulates that all matters related to the powers of the
Constitutional Court shall be considered only at the Court's full-scale
meetings. This approach allows for eliminating potential conflicts in the
legal positions of the Constitutional Court and for enhancing the
credibility of its decisions," Morozov said.