CONTENTS

Official Materials and Decisions
of the Constitutional Court
of the Republic of Belarus

• " Message of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus to A.G. Lukashenko, the President of the Republic of Belarus, the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus "On constitutional legality in the Republic of Belarus, 2006". Approved by Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus of 11 January 2007 No. D-198/2007

Summary
     The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus at its sitting of 11 January of the running year adopted Message on constitutional legality in 2006. Traditionally, this document reveals the situation of the national legislation and practice of its application.
     The Message underlines that achievements in social and economic spheres are inseparably linked with the relevant legal regulation.
     It is also emphasized that at the present stage, when the national system of legislation is practically formed, first and foremost shall be the system nature of the legislation, its reasonable balancing, uniformity and accurate application in practice, control over execution.
     The past year the Constitutional Court delivered more than 30 decisions adopted at its plenary sessions, examined 2,148 applications of citizens, 13 petitions of deputies, 77 requests of the state bodies. Taking into account the collective applications, the total number of those who made their appeals to the Constitutional Court was more than six thousand of citizens.
     The Constitutional Court notes that in 2006 a number of its proposals on improvement of the legislation, alteration of approaches in law creation and law application expressed previously in messages, in other decisions were realized in the acts of the current legislation. There have been considerably reduced the instances of giving the acts retrospective effect, when they vest the citizens and the economic entities with new obligations. The state bodies that adopt normative legal acts strive to carry out their official publication, to envisage the transitional period within which the citizens and the economic entities may familiarize themselves with the adopted act, to prepare for its execution before its coming into legal force.
     Attention is directed to the problematic fields of legislation: analysis of the materials available in the Constitutional Court signifies that great concern of citizens cause the condition and practice of application of the criminal law, the criminal law of procedure, the civil code and the civil code of procedure, administrative, housing, labour, pension tax and land legislation.
     As it is pointed out in the Message, the peculiarity of Belarusian way of development is in the fact that we do not follow the law of "wild", early market but follow the market where decisions shall be taken not spontaneously but after careful consideration, with an allowance for combination of the interests of an individual and the society as a whole. Under those conditions the level of law creation may be and should be of high level. "Power of the Belarusian state - in fairness", - as it is stressed on in the Message of the Constitutional Court.
     The Message was forwarded to the Head of the state, to the Council of the Republic and to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the country.
     The Message was published in newspapers "Narodnaya gazeta" and "Zvyazda".

• Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus of 11 January 2007 No. P-204/2007 "On awarding of old-age pension for working citizens according to religious convictions and who have no passport"

Summary
     As a result of the appeal of citizen B. on the issue of appealing against decision of the commission on awarding pensions and allowances of the administration of one of the districts of the city of Minsk that rejected her in awarding her old-age pension as she has no passport under religious beliefs, the Constitutional Court has adopted its Decision of 15 January 2007 No. 01/16 "On awarding old-age pension for working citizens under religious beliefs and who have no passport" addressed to the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus.
     Having analyzed the provisions of the legislation of the Republic of Belarus from the point of view of the completeness of legal regulation of the procedure of identification of a person as regards certain circumstances, the Constitutional Court emphasized that, in fact, for awarding a pension one shall need a passport as an identifying document of a person who applied for the pension. However, in certain situations persons may show any document that identifies their personality: passport, its old model included, pension certificate (with the photograph in it), student card, certificate of the officer of a state body, military card (for the fixed-date servicemen), reference of the bodies of internal affairs (for citizens who lost a passport or surrender it for exchange).
     In its Decision the Court underlined that by awarding the pension it is important to be based on the content and authenticity of documents that confirm the length of work, the wage, payment of obligatory insurance premiums within the time period of not less than 5 years by the employer for the working citizen, where he/she is well-known, as well as the documents that confirm the fact of application of the concrete applicant for awarding the pension.
     The Constitutional Court also pointed out that both labour law relations and pension relations shall have personal character. In case of employment, the employer identified a person, and, therefore, the documents for awarding the pension shall be submitted just for this person.
     In the opinion of the Constitutional Court, religious beliefs of a citizen, with respect to whom the employer presented the documents for awarding the old-age pension, could be taken into account while settling the given issue.

• Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus of 18 January 2007 No. P-206/2007 "On improvement of legislation on hostels"
  

Summary
     As regards the issues of the procedure and conditions of maintenance of living accommodation in hostels, the Constitutional Court deems that these issues should be settled in the Provision on hostels, including the instances when living accommodation is occupied by the workers of other organizations without the motions of the latter.
     As a result of a collective application of citizens on taking additional measures on reservation of rooms in hostels, the Constitutional Court ruled on possibility of revision of the grounds of eviction from hotels without granting another living accommodation while elaborating the draft new Housing Code. Moreover, in case of broadening these grounds, it is advisable to stipulate additional mechanisms for the protection of the rights of those who are moving therefrom for the purposes of minimization of negative social consequences (as it is envisaged, in particular, as applied to eviction from official accommodation).

• Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus of 2 March 2007 No. P-207/2007 "On temporal restrictions of the right of citizens for exit out of the Republic of Belarus"

Summary
     As a result of the proposal of the deputy of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly related to the restriction for exit abroad of persons who pay alimony, the Constitutional Court adopted of 2 March 2007 its Decision "On temporal restrictions of the rights of citizens for exit out of the Republic of Belarus".
     In its Decision the Constitutional Court emphasized that under Article 30 of the Constitution citizens of the Republic of Belarus shall have the right to move freely and choose their place of residence within the Republic of Belarus, to leave it and to return to it without hindrance.
     Restriction of the rights and freedoms of an individual shall be permitted only in the instances stipulated by the law, in the interests of national security, public order, the protection of the morals and health of the population, as well as rights and liberties of other persons (Article 23 of the Constitution). Similar approaches are also specified in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
     The Law "On procedure of exit out of the Republic of Belarus and enter the Republic of Belarus" envisages that citizens of the Republic of Belarus before exit abroad for the permanent living shall be obliged to meet the property commitments before the persons under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Belarus, as well as other obligations. In case of temporal exit abroad, one of the obstacles is avoidance of meeting the duties imposed on the citizen by the court of law, - before the fulfillment of the commitments.
     The Constitutional Court underlined that the duty of citizens to pay alimony shall be also referred to the significant civil and legal commitments. Moreover, avoidance of parents of maintenance of children or of recovery of expenses of the state for the maintenance of children who are under the state security, as well as avoidance of children of maintenance of parents for more than three months within a year, under the judicial ruling shall entail criminal liability in accordance with Articles 174 and 175 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus.
     In accordance with Article 181 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Marriage and Family, a child shall have the right to special, preferential and priority care both on behalf of parents and on the part of the state. The state shall guarantee the protection of the rights of a child both before and after the birth.
     Study of practice of examination of civil cases concerning restrictions of the right of citizens to exit out of the Republic of Belarus signified that those restrictions were imposed in the instances of avoidance of citizens of payment of significant sums of arrears before the natural and legal persons. After the fulfillment of the obligations the judicial ban for exit was subject to annulment.
     At the same time, the Constitutional Court emphasized that the deputy of the House of Representatives shall have the right to initiate the discussion in the House of Representatives of the issue on forwarding to the Constitutional Court the proposal on verification of the constitutionality of normative legal acts that stipulate the grounds for temporal restrictions of the right of citizens to exit out of the Republic of Belarus.

• Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus of 2 March 2007 No. P-208/2007 "On local due for trading"

Summary
     On 2 March 2007 the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus adopted its Decision on local due for trading.
     The subject to examination was Instruction on due for trading in the territory of the city of Minsk that was approved by Decision of Minsk city Council of deputies of 30 December 2006 No. 278 "On budget of the city of Minsk for 2007" in the part of validity setting of a local due for oil products trading at the rate of one base unit per month for each sold ton.
     Having analyzed the relevant provisions of the Constitution, the Common part of the Tax Code, the Law of 29 December 2006 "On budget of the Republic of Belarus for 2007" (hereinafter is also referred to as the Law), other acts of the legislation of the Republic of Belarus, the Constitutional Court has come to the following conclusions.
     Minsk city Council of deputies by its Decision of 30 December 2006 No. 278 "On budget of the city of Minsk for 2007" has realized the given to it by the Law right on setting dues from users and imposition of the due for trading in the territory of the city of Minsk and also approved lawfully the Instruction on the due in question.
     The Constitutional Court found the imposition of the due for oil products trading in the territory of the city of Minsk at the rate of one base unit per month for each sold ton to be in line with the Constitution and with other acts of the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.
     It is underlined in the Decision that the legal position expressed by the Constitutional Court previously on the necessity of determination of the most important elements of taxation on the legal level has been mainly realized by the legislator. The only exception is the legal regulation of dues from users. In accordance with sub-item 1.4 of point 1 of Article 8 of the Law the regulation of the main elements of the given due (taxable base, rate of tax) has been realized by way of delegation for the local Council of deputies of powers for their stipulation. In practice such a delegation leads to the situation when in oblasts (regions) and in the city of Minsk the main elements of dues from users are essentially different.
     Guiding by Article 22 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on judicial system and status of judges, Article 7 of the Law "On Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus", the Constitutional Court proposed the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus while adopting the laws on the budget of the Republic for the current year to envisage in full scope all the main elements of the dues from users with the purpose to exclude the delegation of solution of these issues at the level of by-laws, and that will make it possible to ensure the unification of the tax legislation, the observance of the constitutional principle of realization of the unique budget and financial, tax, monetary and credit, currency policy.

• Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus of 22 March 2007 No. P-209/2007 "On legal regulation of joint work (service) of next of kin, spouses and relatives by marriage in state non-commercial organization"

Summary
     On 22 March 2007 the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus has adopted the decision on legal regulation of joint work (service) of next of kin, spouses and relatives by marriage in the state non-commercial organizations. Effective legislation stipulates the limits for the joint work (service) of next of kin, spouses and relatives by marriage depending on the sphere of application of labour, on the nature of work, on some other circumstances. List of the next of kin and relatives by marriage is given in the Law "On civil service in the Republic of Belarus", in the Labour Code of the Republic of Belarus, in other normative legal acts.
     The Law "On prevention of corruption" divides state officials and equated with them persons into two groups on the basis of belonging to the category of civil servants, i.e. the persons who are in civil service and the persons who are not in civil service. Article 17 of the Law in question stipulates the limits for all civil servants and equated with them persons (i.e. it could be both civil servants and persons who are not civil servants). In particular, this ban covers the entrepreneur activities, opening of accounts with foreign banks etc.
     Article 18 of the Law "On prevention of corruption" introduces the ban on the joint civil service of next of kin, spouses and relatives by marriage, if their official activities are connected with direct subordination and under-control of one of them to another. Those limits shall apply to civil servants only and the scope of those limits is much more wider than the scope of the limits stipulated by Article 27 of the Labour Code, where it is pointed the inadmissibility of holding simultaneously the office of the manager, chief accountant (their deputies) and cashier, if their job is connected with direct subordination and under-control of one of them to another. Limits stipulated by Article 27 of the Labour Code shall cover all the state organizations.
     The Constitutional Court deems that the limits stipulated by Article 18 of the Law "On prevention of corruption" shall cover only those organizations of the system of education, health protection, culture etc. where a person, who has the relevant post, is considered to be the civil servant and he/she is under the Law "On civil service in the Republic of Belarus". The ministries of the education, health protection, culture etc., departments and divisions of local executive and administrative bodies may be referred to this category. As for the rest of the organizations (agencies), they are subject to limits stipulated in Article 27 of the Labour Code.

On realization by state bodies of decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus

     V.D. Skirda. On execution of decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus in January-March 2007

Citizen lodged an appeal with the Constitutional Court

     On procedure of appealing against actions and decisions of the body that carries out criminal proceedings to other state bodies
     On application with respect to the convict of additional types of punishment
     On taking into consideration of pleading guilty as an extenuating circumstance by fixing the term or while prescribing the scope of criminal punishment
     On procedure of institution of a criminal case on violation of inviolability of housing by person who is victim
     On free granting of medicine for the participants of the Great Patriotic war

Scientific information

• G.A. Vasilevich. Removal and elimination from gaps and defects in legislation and in practice of its application

Annotation
     The article specifies that the gaps, contradictions, uncertainty, unclearness of provisions of acts of legislation, lagging of written law from the needs of social development, given the acts that set additional obligations (burduns) the retrospective effect, as well as other defects have negative effect on social relations under regulation.
     On the basis of analysis of effective legislation the author underlines that sometimes defects in normative legal acts are subject to be disclosed due to uncertainty of wordings, unclear phrasing of the norms on the ground of omissions of elaborators of drafts.
     The author motivates the conclusion that before making the relevant alterations and (or) addenda, bridging of gaps may be carried out, in particular, by way of use of institutes of analogy of a law and analogy of the law.
     The author also pays attention to the necessity of prognostication of consequences of adoption of normative legal acts, change of attitude to the system of sources of law and other directions of activities in this sphere.

• L.M. Ryabtsev. I.V. Malkina. Problems of improvement of normative and legal regulation of relations in the field of state registration of economic entities

Annotation
     The article analyses the normative legal acts that regulate the relations in the sphere of the state registration of state economic entities in the Republic of Belarus. As a result of the study of practice of application of the current legislation, the practice of legal regulation of the institute of the state registration in different countries of CIS the authors propose to improve some of the norms.
     In particular, there is the proposal to make some alterations in the lists of those objects that are subject to the state registration, of registering bodies, to decrease the number of documents that are filed by economic entities for the state registration, as well as the time periods of registration, to limit the grounds for the refusal in the state registration and liquidation of economic entities.
     In the conclusion the author substantiates advisability to stipulate responsibility for the failure to observe the legislation on the state registration both of the owners of the property, founders (participants), managers of economic entities and officials of the registering bodies.

• N.E. Sokol. Universal Declaration of Human Rights: reflection of problem of restriction of human rights

Annotation
     The article sets out that science and practice face the task to find the borderline in the human rights that shall make it impossible for the rights to turn out to be the arbitrariness of social behaviour of an individual. Arbitrariness, absence of reasonable controllability of social relations shall always entail increase of argumentative situations and social tenseness, involve growth instability in society.
     The author motivates the conclusion that the problem of reasonable restriction of human rights as the problem of searching for the balance of human rights and another individual, rights of a citizen and another citizen, human rights, rights of a citizen and rights of different social groups, rights of a citizen and the state, rights and obligations of all these subjects of social and legal relations is one of the main problems of modern science and the society as a whole.
     The article contains the analysis of elucidation of the given problem in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that, in the opinion of the author, is the legal foundation of scientific treatment of restrictions of human rights.

• A.N. Kramnik. Administrative detention as the most important means for realization of administrative and delictual norms

Annotation
     The article reveals the essence of administrative detention that is an important instrument of realization of administrative and delictual norms.
     The author analyses in detail the relevant norms of the Executive Code of Procedure of the Republic of Belarus on administrative offences that was enforced since 1 March 2007 in comparison with the norms of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on administrative offences (1984) regulating the similar issues.
     Attention is paid to the omissions related to the regulation of administrative detention, there is a possible list of officials who are authorized to realize this detention, as well as the grounds for application of the compulsory effect that is under consideration.
     On the basis of the aforesaid the author forms the proposals on improvement of the particular norms of administrative legislation.

• I.N. Shchemeleva. Theoretical problems of systematization of housing legislation of the Republic of Belarus

Annotation
     The article motivates the necessity of improvement of the branch of housing legislation of the Republic of Belarus on the basis of scientifically grounded Branch conception of development of housing legislation of the Republic of Belarus under conditions of a democratic social state ruled by law with socially oriented market economy and gives the author's variant of this Conception.
     The Branch conception reveals the system and the structure of the branch housing legislation, including the system and the structure of the new Housing Code of the Republic of Belarus.
     The author makes the conclusion on the necessity of "package" method of systematization of the housing legislation by way of combination, at the least of two of its forms - codification and consolidation, and that shall also give the possibility to realize the specified variant of systematization gradually.

• O.N. Ludvikevich. Constitutional grounds of legal responsibility

Annotation
     The article motivates the necessity of reference of the constitutional responsibility to the classical type of legal responsibility. It is noted that the constitutional responsibility as an independent kind of responsibility has a number of special features: specific subjects, grounds, measures of responsibility, procedure of their imposition and realization. Attention is paid to the fact that the analysis of constitutional norms shall make it possible to specify the state in its bodies as the subject of legal responsibility, to prove the existence of the principle of humanism of legal responsibility, to present the arguments in favour of acknowledgment of protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens, as well as guarantees of their realization as the main purpose of responsibility.
     The author emphasizes that the specification and study of common grounds of the norms of the Constitution and the provisions of the legislation on legal responsibility will promote the settlement of the basic theoretical and practical problems in development of the given phenomenon, as well as finding of means of improvement of the institute of legal responsibility as a whole.

• A.M. Bogolejko. Sanctions as a form of realization of constitutional and legal responsibility

Annotation
     The article studies actual issues of modern legal theory in the field of constitutional and legal liability, analyses different points of view speaking out in scientific literature that are related to the sanctions of constitutional and legal liability. The author opens the issue of unique understanding of the sanction in constitutional law, a single approach towards the structure of the constitutional norm. Special attention is paid to various classifications of sanctions of the constitutional and legal liability. Taking into account the ongoing legal discussion related to the given issue, the author proposes the most optimum system of sanctions of constitutional and legal liability. The reasons are given for the necessity of the legislative stipulation of sanctions of constitutional and legal liability with a view of improvement of mechanism for realization of the specified institute of constitutional law.

• S.V. Korzyk. Development of constitutional bases of regulation of relations in the sphere of religion in sovereign Belarus

Annotation
     The article reviews the issue of development of constitutional grounds for regulation of the relationship in the sphere of religion on the basis of analysis of the norms of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On freedom of religion and religious organizations" (both in original wording of 17 December 1992 and in current wording of 31 October 2002), as well as on the basis of the Russian legislation which regulates the relations in this sphere.
     The article underlines that the prescription of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus (in wording of 1996) that everyone has the right to participate in the performance of acts of worship and religious rituals and rites, which are not prohibited by the law, shall be the preventive measure from their intentional use for the infringements upon the interests and obligations of citizens and that it shall be also in line with the international law.
     On the basis of the study the author makes the conclusion that alterations and addenda into the religiously significant norms of the Constitution of 1994 while its adopting in the new wording of 1996 promoted to overcome liberal and democratic approach to the constitutional grounds of regulation of relations in the field of freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and religious organizations in post-Soviet Belarus.

• T.I. Makarova. Obligations of citizens in the field of environmental protection as an element of ecological and legal status

Annotation
     The article is devoted to the issue of legal stipulation of obligations of citizens on environmental protection. The author, by making analysis of the approaches in the theory of law, pays special attention to the relation between the rights and obligations of the subjects, and makes the conclusion that one of the indispensable conditions of legal obligations existence shall be fixation in law of measures of governmental compulsion in case of failure to observe them.
     The author proposes also the classification of obligations of citizens on environmental protection obligations that are stipulated in Article 12 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On Environmental Protection". Such an approach shall make it possible to reveal a number of obligations that are not juridical from the point of view of the proposed criteria, as well as obligations that are on the level of the legislation on use of natural resources with their more explicit stipulation.
     At the end of the article there is the conclusion about the necessity of more distinct assignment in law of legal obligations related to environmental protection, as well as there are proposals concerning improvement of the relevant principals of the Law "On Environmental Protection".

• O.V. Moroz. Legal stipulation of principles and aims of ecological expert examination

Annotation
     The article emphasizes the imperfection of the system of principles and aims of ecological examination that are reflected in the national ecological and expert legislation. On the basis of theoretical grounds the author gives his own view on the system of special principles that require legal stipulation. There are the grounds that signify about their exceptional meaning for ecological examination. The author uses a number of criteria in the course of specification of these grounds, among them there is a demand of universality of the legal institute. Presumption of potential ecological danger of any planning economic and other activities is considered to be a key principle. The author also proposes to specify some levels of aims, the attainment of which finally is directed to realization of the constitutional right of everyone to favourable environment. In spite of this, under analysis are both the current and previous legislation. The author underlines the experience of norm creation of the Russian Federation in this sphere.

• A.V. Denisevich. To issue on role of state control in ensuring economical security of the Republic of Belarus

Annotation
     The article analyses the issue related to ensuring economic security of the state and the role of the State Supervisory Committee of the Republic of Belarus in this field. The article examines the state supervision as the function for economic security which is an integral part of the process of state economic management. Under discussion are the main aspects of realization of the state supervision in the sphere of ensuring of economic security. The author underlines the preliminary, current (operation) and subsequent (final) control in the given sphere. The specified facts about the results of the activities of the State Supervisory Committee of the Republic of Belarus confirm the conclusion on the necessity of inclusion of the state control in the mechanism of ensuring of the state economic security. In addition, the author emphasizes the priority trends of activities of the State Supervisory Committee of the Republic of Belarus as the subject of the state economic security.

• I.E. Martinenko. Public control as a condition of effective state and legal protection of historical and cultural heritage of Belarus

Annotation
     The article considers actual problems of legal protection of historical heritage of Belarus. The author motivates the conclusion that the effective law-enforcement activity in the sphere of cultural heritage is impossible without the assistance of the public.
     The author emphasizes that at present the process of reforming of bodies of protection of monuments is not supported on clearly formulated state and legal policy in the given sphere, and therefore, this process is not sufficiently consecutive and well-balanced. It is indicated that its special negative impact this fact has on organization and legal forming of the bodies of protection of monuments of culture and lead to underestimation of protective potential of the institutes of civil society and self-government of population.
     The author gives his own definition of the notion "public participation in the sphere of protection and restoration of monuments of culture" as a preventive method for protection of historical and cultural interests, a form of participation of citizens in the state affairs, means for revealing and coordination of interests of population with other public, state and private interests. The article contains the proposals of the measures on the improvement of the legislation in the given sphere.

• S.I. Viktorova. On differentiation of labour, civil and legal relations under the conditions of use of rent work

Annotation
     The author emphasizes that one of the aspects that was not taken into consideration by the home Belarusian legislator in the effective labour legislation is the question on regulation of rent work. Within the limits of the present research this question is interesting in the aspect that application in practice of the concept of rent work is caused by the simultaneous conclusion of such law relations as labour and civil-legal contracts between the worker and the organizations-employers (participants of the contract of rent of a work force), administrative law relations, the conclusion of contracts of rent of a work force.
     The article points out that for the Republic of Belarus the concept of rent of a work force is a doubtless novelty, that especially objectively causes necessity of deep studying of foreign experience and the need for maintenance of legal regulation of application of rent of a work force in the process of organization of production.

• Y.I. Timchishen. To issue of fault as condition of civil-law responsibility of executors of medical services

Annotation
     The article studies the essence, legal nature and significance of fault of those who perform medical services as a condition while calling them to the civil and law responsibility. On the basis of the different viewpoints of various authors, under consideration is the general rule on responsibility in case of presence of fault and exception to this rule: instances of responsibility without a fault as applied both to the state bodies of public health protection and to medical institutions of private form of ownership. In this connection, the author makes an attempt to settle the problem in question by means of adoption of the special legislation in the given area which will be called to eliminate the existing contradiction, as well as a conclusion about importance of complete and competent drawing up of the medical documentation while establishing by the patient of a causal relationship between a deed and negative consequences as a result of medical intervention.

• V.P. Lagoijsky. Problematic issues of the grounds of challenge of a judge in the criminal procedure

Annotation
     The article on the basis of international documents on human rights, legislation of the Republic of Belarus and examples from practice analyses the issues of challeng of a judge in the criminal proceedings.
     The author considers that the Criminal Code of Procedure of the Republic of Belarus contains no strict guarantees of impartial and objective justice. The grounds for the challeng are specified not sufficiently correctly in Article 77 of the specified Code, and due to this they are subject to multivalued interpretation in practice. Personal interest of the judge in the end of the case is equated with partiality, bias and other negative ethical categories, and that makes it possible for the judges to refuse the petitions on challeng and do not resort to self-challenge.
     The article calls in well-grounded question the definition of notion "witness" (point 1 of pat 1 of Article 77 of CCP) and also specifies the absence of definition "improper judge" (point 1 of Article 60 of CCP). In consequence of this fact, even an eyewitness of a crime is not always a witness and "improper judge", even having grounds thereto, is not subject to challenge.
     There is also a comparative analysis of grounds of challenge of a judge in accordance with the Criminal Code of Procedure and the Civil Code of Procedure of the Republic of Belarus. Moreover, it is underlined that the Civil Code of Procedure stipulates these grounds perfectly.
     In the end the author makes the conclusion about the necessity of alterations and addenda into the relevant articles of the Criminal Code of Procedure related to challeng of a judge, and only then they will be in line with the principles of impartiality and objectivity of justice and will serve to securing the rights of all participants of the criminal proceedings.

News of science

     L.O. Murashko. Sources of law in national legal system: traditional and modern approaches