Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus

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Acts of the Constitutional Court

DECISION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS
4 February 2009 № D-313/2009

On constitutional legality in the Republic of Belarus in 2008

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus comprising the Presiding Officer - Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus P.P.Miklashevich, Deputy Chairman A.V. Maryskin, judges T.S. Boiko, S.Y. Danilyuk, V.P. Isotko, L.G. Kozyreva, V.V. Podgrusha, L.M. Ryabtsev, O.G. Sergeeva, A.G. Tikovenko, S.P. Chigrinov, V.Z. Shuklin having considered the issue on constitutional legality in the Republic of Belarus in 2008 in court session

by virtue of Article 24 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Judicial System and Status of Judges, Article 44 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus” and Article 80 of Rules of Procedure of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus

RULED:

1. To adopt the Message of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus to the President of the Republic of Belarus and to the Chambers of the Parliament of the Republic of Belarus "On constitutional legality in the Republic of Belarus in 2008" (text enclosed).

2. To publish the Message of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus "On constitutional legality in the Republic of Belarus in 2008" in National register of legal acts of the Republic of Belarus, in newspapers "Zvayzda" and "Narodnaya gazeta" as well as and in Bulletin "Vesnik Kanstytutsijnaga Suda Respubliki Belarus".

Presiding Officer-

Chairman of the Constitutional Court

of the Republic of Belarus

P.P.Miklashevich

To President

of Republic of Belarus

To House of Representatives

of National Assembly

of Republic of Belarus

To Council of Republic

of National Assembly

of Republic of Belarus

MESSAGE

OF CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

ON CONSTITUTIONAL LEGALITY

IN REPUBLIC OF BELARUS, 2008

In 2008 in the exercise of its controlling powers over the constitutionality of normative legal acts the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus focused on securing the supremacy of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus and its direct action in the state territory.

In the newest history of the country the year 2008 stands out with an important public political event: elections in the House of Representatives and the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus of the fourth convocation took place. The formation of the Parliament and its activities under the Constitution is the major guarantee for realisation of constitutional mechanisms of democracy in our state. And it becomes a necessary condition for improvement in the legislative base of our state as well.

In accordance with the Constitution the Republic of Belarus is a state based on the rule of law that aims at enshrining and developing the norms and principles of the Constitution in acts of legislation and at further strengthening of the constitutional legality in norm-creating and law-enforcement in order to secure guarantees for realisation of rights and freedoms of the citizens. The fulfilment of this goal is promoted by measures undertaken at a state level to improve constitutional control.

By Decree No. 14 by the President of the Republic of Belarus of June 26, 2008 «On Some Measures to Improve the Activities of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus» the Constitutional Court is granted along with other additional powers the right to exercise the obligatory preliminary control over the constitutionality of all laws adopted by the House of Representatives and approved by the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus before signing by the President of the Republic of Belarus.

The obligatory preliminary control over the constitutionality of laws being introduced establishes the additional legal mechanisms preventing the adoption of the legislative norms that conflict with the Constitution. It fosters optimisation and efficiency in legal regulation as well as improvement in quality of laws. It therefore provides conditions for more complete realisation of the constitutional principle of supremacy of law and for ensuring constitutional rights and freedoms of the citizens in the Republic of Belarus.

In the exercise of the obligatory preliminary control overthe constitutionality of laws the Constitutional Court considered 102 laws including 3 codes, 24 general and special laws, 40 laws on alterations and addenda and laws wherein some legislative acts were deemed invalid, 35 laws on ratification of international treaties by the Republic of Belarus. Among laws under examination there were the Budget Code of the Republic of Belarus, the Codes on Land and Entrails of the Republic of Belarus, the laws «On the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus», «On the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus», «On Guaranteed Refund of Bank Deposits to Natural Persons», «On Prevention of Disability and Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons», «On Mass Media», «On the Population Register», «On Protection of Rights of Housing and Municipal Services Consumers» and others.

Estimating the constitutionality of the examined laws the Constitutional Court notes the development of basic principles and norms of the Constitution in them. In its decisions the Constitutional Court stated the reinforcement of the mechanisms for realisation of constitutional principles. They are a democratic social state ruled by law, separation of powers, supremacy of law, priority of universally acknowledged principles of international law, guarantee for equal protection and conditions in development of all the forms of ownership, state guarantees for rights and freedoms of the citizens, equality of all before the law, restrictions in personal rights and freedoms if only specified in law.

The Constitutional Court also notes that the norms of the mentioned laws ensure the development of the mechanisms for realisation of the right to property, to health protection, to holidays rest, to a favourable environment, to protection against unlawful interference with one’s private life, to receiving, storing and disseminating information and the other constitutional rights and freedoms of the individual.

The obligatory preliminary control of the laws examined on constitutionality resulted in finding them all to be conforming to the Constitution.

By virtue of the provisions of the Constitution and in order to secure its supremacy in a number of decisions the Constitutional Court formulated its legal positions that aim at revealing of constitutional legal meaning in the norms of the considered laws and at preventing unconstitutional law-enforcement practice.

In its Decision of July 1, 2008 «On conformity of the Law of the Republic of Belarus «On the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus» to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus» the Constitutional Court came to the conclusion that the Parliament may clarify its competence within the framework of its constitutional authority at a law level. The contents of these clarifications show no redistribution of constitutional authority between state bodies. They foster the realisation of the principle of separation of powers, the development of the mechanisms of checks and balances that eliminate a possibility of interference by the Parliament, when exercising its functions, into the constitutional authority of other state bodies.

Following the results of the examination of the Law of the Republic of Belarus «On the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus» the Constitutional Court formulated its legal position (Decision of July 8, 2008). Its point is that the provisions of this Law defining the composition and structure of the Government should be regarded in organic unity with the norms and principles of the Constitution enshrining autonomy and independence of power branches and regulating organisation and activities in the institutions of the Head of the State and the Government.

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 104 of the Constitution in its Decision of December 27, 2008 «On conformity of the Law of the Republic of Belarus «On Making Alterations and Addenda to Some Laws of the Republic of Belarus Regarding State and Mobilisation Material Reserves» to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus» the Constitutional Court paid attention to the fact that program laws require a special procedure not only in their adoption but also in making alterations and addenda thereto. According to the Constitutional Court opinion this special procedure envisages a separate law to make alterations and addenda thereto that, like a program one, should be adopted by no less than two-thirds of elected deputies in the House of Representatives and elected members in the Council of the Republic with the full composition of two chambers.

In its Decision of July 8, 2008 «On conformity of the Law of the Republic of Belarus «On Making Alterations and Addenda to Some Laws of the Republic of Belarus Regarding Norm Making Activity» to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus» the Constitutional Court confirmed again its legal position concerning the possibility of the retrospective effect of a normative legal act. The above position had been stated in a number of previous decisions of the Constitutional Court. It consists in that a law has retrospective effect not only in the instances when it mitigates or revokes responsibility of the citizens but also when otherwise improving their legal status. On the contrary the retrospective effect of normative legal acts including laws that fix or deepen responsibility or otherwise aggravate the status of the citizens, individual entrepreneurs and legal persons is forbidden.

Examining the constitutionality of the Law of the Republic of Belarus «On the Republican Budget 2009» the Constitutional Court noted in its Decision of October 31, 2008 that part three of subpoint 1.4 of point 1 of Article 7 of this Law does not establish limiting tax rates for users’ dues while it limits all the other kinds of local taxes and dues. The Constitutional Court formulated its legal position previously given in its decisions on the constitutionality of setting local taxes and dues by local Councils of deputies. It consists in that with a view to ensure legal certainty the main elements of taxation including limiting tax rates, to extent of which local Councils of deputies could size up concrete rates, should be set exactly and clearly at a law level regarding every kind of local taxes and dues.

In the mentioned Decision the Constitutional Court paid attention to a particular norm of the examined Law. According to it payers of contributions to the Special-purpose state budgetary funds for national development, of share of profits of republican and municipal unitary enterprises, of share of profits of economic societies bear responsibility for non-payment, insufficient payment of the required contributions and dues set forth by legislation for taxes and dues (customs) payers. These contributions and dues apply to non-tax budget revenues. Inherently they are property incomes from using state-owned property and their legal nature is based on the norms of civil legislation. Thus according to the Constitutional Court opinion the responsibility for their non-payment, insufficient payment should not base on the norms laid down for taxes and dues (customs) payers.

In its Decision of October 31, 2008 taken after having examined the Law of the Republic of Belarus «On the Bases of Activity to Prevent Offences» on constitutionality the Constitutional Court aimed to prevent Article 23 of the Constitution defining the conditions for restriction of the individual’s rights and freedoms from extensive interpretation and formulated its legal position regarding the norm of Article 29 of this Law stipulating the preventive registration of the citizens who evade working in the instance when the legality of their source of income raises reasonable doubts. Whereas the term «reasonable doubts» should be qualified as estimative and subjective, depending on the discretion of a legal practitioner, its comprehension and application should strictly conform to the norms and principles of the Constitution in order to exclude violation of rights and legitimate interests of the citizens.

The Constitutional Court is of opinion that legislative activities should be based on the principle of legal certainty that encompasses clearness, accuracy, consistency and logic consensus of legal norms. Observance of the above principle prevents from ambiguous comprehension and therefore illegal application of legal norms that involve violation of rights and legitimate interests of the citizens.

However in a number of decisions the Constitutional Court emphasised uncertainty, inaccuracy and ambiguity of particular norms of laws examined in the procedure of preliminary constitutional control. The Constitutional Court deems that the norms in question should not be found unconstitutional exclusively on the assumption that practice of their application may involve future violations of constitutional norms as well as of rights and freedoms of the citizens. The unconstitutionality of norms which wording renders difficult their comprehension and application may be established in full upon their examination according to Article 116 of the Constitution and part two of Article 22 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Judicial System and Status of Judges in the exercise of the subsequent constitutional control considering their practical application.

Motions to the Constitutional Court for examining the constitutionality of normative legal acts in the exercise of the subsequent constitutional control may be originated from the President of the Republic of Belarus, the House of Representatives, the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Economic Court, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.

In 2008 there were no motions from these authorised subjects to examine the constitutionality of normative legal acts by the Constitutional Court.

Moreover the analysis of applications by citizens and organisations shows that there existed certain bases for moving motions to the Constitutional Court to examine particular normative legal acts on constitutionality. In 2008 the authorised bodies received more than 60 applications from citizens and organisations requesting to move motions to the Constitutional Court for establishing the constitutionality of particular normative legal acts because of their inconsistency upon addressers’ opinion resulting in unreasonable restriction of their constitutional rights and freedoms.

Failing the right of the citizens to the constitutional complaint the Constitutional Court deems it wise to work out a mechanism for realisation of part three of Article 22 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Judicial System and Status of Judges. According to it state bodies, public associations and other organisations and citizens may apply for establishing the constitutionality of a normative legal act to the bodies and persons empowered to move a motion to the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court is of opinion that the procedure of moving motions for examining the constitutionality of normative legal acts from the authorised bodies acting on applications by interested persons should be definitely specified at a legislative level.

Strengthening constitutional legality in law-making and law-enforcement and enhancing efficiency of constitutional control are tightly linked and directly dependent therefore on the appropriate exercise of the requirements of Article 59 of the Constitution by state bodies and officials. The point at issue is that the State shall create a domestic order necessary for the exercise in full of constitutional rights and freedoms of the citizens and that state bodies and officials within theirs authority shall undertake all the necessary measures to realise and safeguard rights and freedoms of the individual.

III

Governed by part eighth of Article 22 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Judicial System and the Status of Judges the Constitutional Court submitted its proposals to the Parliament, the Government and other state bodies within their jurisdiction on the necessity of both making alterations and addenda to legislation acts and enacting new normative legal acts.

The analysis of applications by citizens and organisations shows up that a number of applications pointed out problems in law-enforcement which includes ambiguous comprehension of some legal norms and setting their legal bounds.

Based on the results of consideration of significant issues regarding imperfect legal regulation the Constitutional Court forwarded the proposals focused on eliminating legislative gaps and collisions, on securing optimum legal regulation, on establishing a uniform law-enforcement practice.

Thus in its Decision of October 21, 2008 «On some guarantees for renters of social housing» the Constitutional Court paid attention to the fact that Edict No. 292 by the President of the Republic of Belarus of June 3, 2008 approaches differently the rights specified for family members of those renters of social housing who have already returned formerly occupied housing within the legal terms. But the effect of that new rule, that have permitted the conclusion of a contract of housing rent with a member of the family of a deceased renter without a three-year restriction, does not include the instances of the renter’s death if having taken place before Edict No. 292 entry into force.

The legal position of the Constitutional Court as to this situation is as follows: if realisation of the citizens’ right to get social housing depended on meeting the obligation to return formerly occupied housing, so the later adopted acts that changed the legal regime of using social housing should have considered these specified circumstances to secure the constitutional principles of everyone’s equality before the law and of social justice.

When analysing the realisation of the subjective right by termination of legal norms the Constitutional Court formulated its legal position in its Decision of December 18, 2008. The point is that in case of loss of legal effect by a normative legal act that specified certain rights and duties of a citizen or an organisation there should be regulated within a certain period of time some relations prior to termination of the normative legal act. This effect of the law promotes realisation of subjective rights and legal duties in full that conforms to the constitutional principles of human rights guarantee and mutual responsibility towards the State and the citizens. For this reason if the voided normative legal act terminates the right being in realisation, the legislator should decide a facility, a procedure and conditions for the full realisation of this subjective right.

All the above considered the Constitutional Court deemed it necessary to make adequate alterations and addenda to the Law of the Republic of Belarus «On the Normative Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus» and proposed to the Council of Ministers to develop a draft law.

In its Decision of November 6, 2008 «On the term of a power of attorney to return a personal bank deposit, where a pension is transferred» the Constitutional Court stated its legal position. It is based on that the relations regarding the term of a power of attorney to return a personal bank deposit, where a pension is transferred, are regulated by civil legislation rather than pension one. Therefore the setting of the limiting term of a power of attorney in pension legislation and by-laws should conform to civil and bank legislative requirements. The Constitutional Court found it necessary to settle a provision specifying that the above term of the power of attorney does not cover instances of returning a bank deposit, where a pension is transferred, in Article 87 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus «On the Pension Security» and it proposed to the Council of Ministers to consider the issue on improvement of pension legislative norms in order to remedy inconsistency of legal regulation.

In its Decision of April 10, 2008 «On including a craft activity income to incomes equal to wages» the Constitutional Court paid attention to that a citizen who conducts craft activity has practically the same income as a natural person carrying out unincorporated entrepreneurship. And this individual is thrown into worse conditions as compared to the entrepreneur to the extent of charging craft activity income because of its missing in the list of the incomes equal to wages and its non-coverage by the limiting rates of income deductions established by law. The legal position of the Constitutional Court is based on that normative regulation should combine the interests of the State and its citizens and should observe equal approaches in regulation of similar relations, should secure the principles of rationality and justice while considering the consequences of the violation of law.

The Constitutional Court found as necessary to make an addenda to the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter – CPC) that will stipulate including of a craft activity income into the list of incomes equal to wages and proposed to the Council of Ministers to ensure a respective draft law.

In its Decision of October 21, 2008 when considering tenders in the execution of the court decision in civil legal proceedings the Constitutional Court noted that the restoration of the violated rights and interests of parties to a process at the stage of the execution proceeding should respect in a reasonable and fair way every party’s interests. The Constitutional Court is of opinion that either assumption of the initial cost reduction for any tendered property or the establishment of its limits are justified. However Article 23 of the Constitution stipulates the restriction of rights and freedoms of the individual only in the instances specified by law, so the rule on the limits of the initial cost reduction for any re-tendered property should be enshrined at a legislative level. The Constitutional Court considered it necessary to add to the CPC the corresponding norm and proposed to the Council of Ministers to make a draft law.

When considering a number of issues the Constitutional Court analysed the legal norms to be applied. It therefore stated that the due safeguarding of rights and legitimate interests of the citizens and organisations depends on their respective ensuring with the procedural rules and procedures.

In its Decision of December 29, 2008 upon the request on application validity of longer terms of the administrative penalties imposed by virtue of point 4 of part one of Article 7.6 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter – CAO) within the administrative process on particular constituents of administrative offences the Constitutional Court found that the inaccurate wording of the referred point can provoke broad interpretation of the point and spreading of its effect on an unreasonably large list of administratively punishable acts at the discretion of a legal practitioner.

The legal position of the Constitutional Court consists in that while interpreting a legal norm a legal practitioner should appreciate the normative instructions of a particular article (part, point of the article) in the organic unity. When it tends to alternative interpretation of the norm he should prefer the meaning which secures rights of the citizens to a greater extent. The Constitutional Court deems that the norm making the exception to the general rule should be maximally specified in order to prevent its extensive comprehension and application. Therefore by virtue of the principle of legal certainty the list of concrete constituents of administrative offences expressed as non-execution or improper execution of the legislation acts regulating economic relations that resulted in longer terms of administrative penalties should be stipulated directly in CAO. According to it a few necessary alterations and addenda to this Code were proposed by the Constitutional Court to the House of Representatives.

Furthermore when dealing with the issue on the addenda to the mentioned list a legislator should be guided by the principle of supremacy of law and proceed from the established system conception of legal regulation. He should also approach organically when setting the reasonable terms of bringing the administrative responsibility in order not to let the administrative penalties terms for certain administrative offences exceed the terms of limitation of bringing the criminal responsibility for minor crimes.

In its Decision of December 3, 2008 «On calculation of procedural terms in the administrative process» the Constitutional Court noted that the Administrative Procedural Code of Executions of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter – APCE) does not include the norms for calculating the procedural terms that would stipulate their start, end and their execution terms as well as the instance when the last day of the procedural term is non-working. The Constitutional Court deems that absence of norms ruling calculation of procedural terms in APCE, being the exclusive law in effect in the territory of the Republic of Belarus that regulates the order of the administrative process, interferes with uniform comprehension and application of the conforming normative provisions and may lead to restriction of the constitutional rights of citizens to efficient judicial protection and appeal against judicial decisions.

The Constitutional Court found as necessary to make alterations and addenda to APCE and proposed to the Council of Ministers to develop a draft law focused on the legislative gaps elimination relating to calculation of procedural terms.

When basing its legal position on the above issue the Constitutional Court proceeded from the fact that constitutional guarantees of judicial protection grant the right to a legal and justified judicial decision assuming the opportunity to its control, revision and appeal thereof within the legal terms. The legislative acts, ruling the appeal, should fully provide the citizens with the realisation of their constitutional right to appeal against judicial decisions in order to exclude the subjective approach particularly as regard to calculation of procedural terms.

The Decision of the Constitutional Court of June 12, 2008 «On definition of the concept "income" with a view to impose administrative penalty for illegal entrepreneur activities» points at a legal gap. The Constitutional Court turned attention to that the concept of illegal entrepreneur’s income in Article 233 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus may be applied only to separate the specified crime from a similar administrative offence (part one of Article 12.7 of CAO). The Constitutional Court proposed to define the concept of that type of income directly in Article 12.7 of CAO in order to legitimate imposing of the administrative penalty by confiscation of the income drawn from the illegal entrepreneur’s activities. The House of Representatives was proposed to bring necessary addenda to the CAO.

When estimating the whole quality of legislation and prospects of its improvement the Constitutional Court stated the safeguarding of supremacy of law, equality and justice principles as the essential condition to construct the democratic social state ruled by law. It assumes the formation of the balanced legislative base on the ground of constitutional norms and principles. The legislative acts should clearly and unambiguously specify the citizens’ and organisations’ rights and duties as well as the mechanisms for their realisation and guarantee for protection including mutual responsibility towards the State and its citizens.

Timely execution of the Constitutional Court decisions by state bodies serves as a major indicator of constitutional legality along with the essential condition for its security.

The Constitutional Court states mainly positive results of the execution of its decisions through the adoption of new normative legal acts and necessary alterations and addenda to the effective normative legal acts.

In its Decision of December 28, 2006 concerning legal regulation of housing and building co-operative activities the Constitutional Court pointed out the legislative norms imperfection and inconsistency that interferes with their practical application. In a number of cases it also eliminates the opportunity for that type of consumer co-operative societies to exercise properly their functions failing thereby to ensure in full the protection of rights and legitimate interests of their members, of other citizens and the State. The proposals of the Constitutional Court on the necessity of appropriate legal regulation of the housing and building co-operative activities were realised in Edict No. 43 by the President of the Republic of Belarus of January 28, 2008 «On the Activity of Building Organisations, Garage Cooperative Societies and Cooperative Societies Exploiting Parking Lots».

The conclusions by the Constitutional Court held in its Decisions of April 26, 2000 and of June 5, 2003 regarding land legislation improvement and adoption on its basis of a new standard Charter for gardening associations with a view to overall protection of rights of their members including owners of garden-plots were laid down in the norms of Edict No. 50 by the President of the Republic of Belarus of January 28, 2008 «On Some Measures of Regulating Gardening Associations Activities».

The legal position of the Constitutional Court stated in its Decision of October 31, 2003 was executed in the Land Code of the Republic of Belarus of July 23, 2008. It consisted in that contraventions (inconsistency) between the normative legal acts that regulate putting land plots for disabled persons’ temporary use for garages should be adjusted in consideration of not only legal effect and adoption time of these acts. Their adjustment should also take into account the state policy relating to disabled persons set forth in the special Law of the Republic of Belarus «On the Social Protection of Disabled Persons in the Republic of Belarus». Other laws, including codes should conform to its norms.

The Article 44 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus «On the Public Service in the Republic of Belarus» (as in force on 15 July 2008) realised the proposal of the Constitutional Court formulated in its Decision of May 26, 2004 for juridical expediency of including particular periods of work as chairmen of collective farms into the length of public service.

The conclusions of the Constitutional Court drawn in its Decisions of June 26, 2001 and of December 6, 2005 on the necessity to protect personal data privacy of natural persons were executed in the Law of the Republic of Belarus «On the Population Register» of July 21, 2008.

Other proposals of the Constitutional Court were executed both at the Government and ministries acts level (Resolution No. 257 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of February 22, 2008, Decision of the Ministry of Emergency of the Republic of Belarus of February 25, 2008 in particular). They regarded correspondingly the conduction of centralised testing in one of the state languages at choice of a school leaver and the decision on the uniform approach to calculation of the service length in view of pensions appointment to fire emergency workers.

Noting sometimes a rather long time from adoption of certain decisions to their execution the Constitutional Court takes into account the time period necessary to develop and adopt the concerned normative legal acts. Therewith the Constitutional Court deems it of importance for authorised state bodies when settling the issues within their competence not to act upon their significance postponing what they say minor issues without day. Every issue caused by violation of the constitutional rights and freedoms should be solved in a due time and manner.

Rights and freedoms of the individual and guarantees for their realisation appear as the supreme value and goal of the society and the State. They should therefore be provided in the Republic of Belarus in contexts with the world financial and economic crisis. A variety of measures undertaken at the state level is focused on minimising the crisis consequences in national economics. Further liberalisation of economic relations, elimination of bureaucratisation of the state machine and fighting corruption are laid down to be the main guidelines of the given field.

In these circumstances the role assumed by the legal system of the State increases. It should provide the timely preparation, adoption and realisation of the decisions concerning social and economic transformations. Law may and should secure operational efficiency, accuracy and transparency in the legal regulation of social, financial, economic and other relations.

The Constitutional Court deems that in the current conditions of the society and state development, of globalisation and dynamism in social processes the emphasis of legal regulation is to be upon improving legislation and enforcing it to the point where it will react to new facts and tendencies, prevent possible negative phenomena and minimise their consequences. At the same time the legislation can perform as a promoter of social and economic reforms and transformations by designating new tendencies and directions of their development. The mentioned circumstances stipulate the necessity for norm-creating of higher quality, for concentrating efforts of competent state bodies on the achievement of generally valid goals and the solution of key problems.

The Constitutional Court also pays attention to the necessity of solving the issues set out in numerous applications by citizens and organisations regarding further improvement of the legislation in administrative law, criminal law and entrepreneurship areas.

According to the Constitutional Court the substantive issue of the administrative legal area is a long-term effect of various legislative acts providing for administrative responsibility along with the Code of Administrative Offences. Not excepting the possibility to establish administrative responsibility at the level of other legislative acts the legislator formulated an equal rule in part two of Article 1.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences. The rule defines the Code to be an exclusive law on administrative offences in effect in the territory of the Republic of Belarus. As for norms of other legislative acts providing for administrative responsibility they should be included into the named Code. Bringing to administrative responsibility under the norms of these acts impedes the enforcement of the Code as an exclusive law on administrative offences in effect in the territory of the Republic of Belarus and does not satisfy the principle of a state ruled by law.

The Constitutional Court deemed it wise to solve the problem of separation of the administrative and the criminal responsibilities as related to both the relevancy of criminalisation of acts and the differentiation of responsibility measures for their further humanisation.

The development of the legal regulation in economic relations consists in ensuring its clearness and stability, better liberalisation in legislation with a view to increase investments, to dispose efficiently of state property and to normalise land relations and lease, to ease and make transparent taxation and administrative procedures, to improve licensing, price setting and supervising activities.

The formation of a state based on the rule of law requires the strict observance of the principle of supremacy of law, the safeguarding of constitutionality of legal regulation in social relations, the establishment of the uniform practice of legal norms application by all the state bodies including courts and supervising bodies. For this purposes the legal positions of the Constitutional Court formulated in its decisions should be timely applied to aiming at protection of the constitutional system, at safeguarding the supremacy of the Constitution and the direct action of its norms as well as at strengthening of the constitutional legality in norm-creating and law-enforcement.

The fundamental values and goals enshrined in the Constitution as well as guarantees for their realisation should not only guide the Belarusian state but serve as a criterion for estimate of activities of all the state bodies aiming their efforts at the creation of the appropriate constitutional law order.

The present Message was adopted in the session of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus on February 4, 2009.

Presiding Officer–

Chairman of the Constitutional Court of

Republic of Belarus

Petr P. Miklashevich