The Constitutional COurt has now officially moved to St. Petersburg. Today is the first official day of residence for the 19 Constitutional Court judges who have moved from their previous court in Moscow to St. Petersburg.
All 19 Judges agreed to make the trip to the northern capital and they are awaited by a luxurious (if also rather creepy) set of cottage residences in the prestigious Krestovskii Island where they will all live in close proximity (one road leads to their little village). They also have a special sauna and medical facilities.
In what might suggest the continuing encroachment of executive power on the other branches of power in the Russian government, the ever expanding Presidential administration is moving into the former offices that the Constitutional court occupied until now.
At the same time, the move will lead to a net decrease in the number of assistants who aid the Judges in their work. A new (but decreased) number will be taken from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University (connected with Putin and others).
It remains to be seen whether geography really is destiny in determining the influence of the Constitutional court. If it is, the Constitutional Court has been both sidelined and placed in a tightly controlled setting where they can be controlled (the fact that they are all to live in such close proximity is disturbing).
2 comments:
I agree that this seems to be an encroachment on the Court's independence, but isn't it possible that it's something different? I am thinking that maybe being out of Moscow will remove the judges from the influence of politics. Also, all of the justices of the first influential US Supreme Court - the Marshall Court - lived in the same house!
You have a strange perspective on the move. While the judges reportedly weren't wildly enthusiastic about relocating to SPB, it isn't necessarily a sinister development nor any downgrade of the status of the Court.
If anything, under Medvedev you can expect the status of the Court to be further enhanced, esp. since the new Prez is on good terms with many on the bench there.
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