Constitutional identity as the basis for resolution of convention-constitutional conflicts

The article is devoted to the study of the concept of constitutional identity. The author, exploring the issue of the genesis and evolution of the concept of “constitutional identity”, concludes that the contradictions between the two levels of jurisdiction, international and national, have naturally affected domestic legal practices. The national constitutional courts have come to a pronounced need for creation of a special area of legal regulation (constitutional identity), that would have the “immunity” for the decisions of international judicial bodies. This concept acts as a means of legal argumentation resorted to by the bodies of constitutional judicial control when justifying decisions in the case if it is necessary to uphold the basic fundamental values of the constitutional legal order. Particular attention is paid to the topic of correlation of the idea of constitutional identity with the doctrine of counter-limits. The author also considers the relationship between constitutional identity and the doctrine of the “margin of appreciation”, since the legal effect of the decisions of international judicial bodies depends on their recognition and respect for the national constitutional identity.

constitutional identity, constitutional core, convention-constitutional conflicts, court on the model of society, principled resistance, constitutional control, the right to make a final statement, the doctrine of counter-limits, the doctrine of the margin of appreciation, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the German Constitutional Court, the Italian Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights