On the Issue of Preserving the Significance of European Court of Human Rights’ Decisions within Russian Legal System

The work is aimed to find out whether the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights retain legal effect in the Russian legal system after the termination of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950). To achieve this goal, the author consistently examines theoretical ideas about the essence and legal effect of these resolutions, the situation in legal (judicial) practice before and after 15 March 2022 (the date of termination of the Russian Federation’s membership in the Council of Europe). After an analysis of the existing approaches to the understanding of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the author comes to the conclusion that the more preferable point of view is the one according to which these acts have a dual nature, being acts of application of law and acts of interpretation of the Convention. As for legal practice, the author summarizes the forms of consideration of ECHR rulings by Russian courts during cases resolution and legal interpretation. After 15 March 2022, taking into account the legislator’s point of view, the courts use the ECHR rulings during resolving specific cases in two forms: in argumentation and in the descriptive part of decisions. This circumstance allows us to conclude that the ECHR decisions retain their legal effect in the Russian legal system as acts of interpretation of the Convention, because they continue to function as acts of official interpretation of higher courts containing clarifications of expired legal rules.