CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES OF RUSSIA'S WTO ACCESSION: A REVIEW OF CONSTITUTIONAL COURT JURISPRUDENCE*

Abstract

This commentary reviews the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation concerning the accession of the Russian Federation to the WTO and the place of the WTO law in Russian legal order. It highlights three main findings of the Court: (i) the provisions of Russia's Protocol of Accession and the WTO Agreement, challenged in the proceedings before the Court, are not inconsistent with the Constitution of the Russian Federation; (ii) the ratification procedure in which the Russian Federation agreed to be bound by the Accession Protocol did not contravene the Constitution; and (iii) the obligation to review the national system of collective management of rights, undertaken by the Russian Federation upon accession to the WTO, has no direct effect in the Russian Federation. Following a brief analysis, the commentary concludes that the Court did not fully apply the legal tests it articulated to resolve the latter two issues and therefore left its position open to interpretation.