Constitutionalization of the Procedural Form for Adjudicating Bankruptcy Cases

The constitutional foundations of the institute of insolvency (bankruptcy) have not yet received detailed and substantive attention in Russian science. This is due to objective reasons: the Constitution of the Russian Federation does not mention bankruptcy as it is, and the bankruptcy legislation lacks a chapter or article dedicated to the basic principles of legal regulation of this institution. Nevertheless, the dynamics of the development of social relations in the field of bankruptcy, legal conflicts, and fundamental problems of law enforcement practice bring to the fore the question of the means to achieve the completeness of constitutional and legal regulation. There is an objective need to constitutionalize the procedural order for bankruptcy cases. However, this circumstance raises a number of questions for legal science: concerning the understanding of constitutionalization as a legal phenomenon, its essential features in social relations in the field of bankruptcy, and the role of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and other judicial bodies. The growing relevance of the issue of constitutionalizing the procedural form for adjudicating bankruptcy cases is evidenced by the increasingly frequent reference of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation to the issues of the constitutional foundations of social relations in the field of insolvency. Summarizing the role of the constitutional justice body, the author concludes that the strategic task of constitutional control is to form judicial doctrines of bankruptcy law — a system of methodological approaches that ensure the effectiveness and constitutional validity of law enforcement. The paper also pays attention on trends in judicial arbitration practice in bankruptcy cases, in which the process of constitutionalization is becoming more specific.

1. Astafichev PA. Constitutionalization of the principle of respect for elders: The experience of the 2020 constitutional amendments, their content and problems of implementation. Sravnitelnoe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie. 2021;2:180-191. (In Russ.).

2. Bagylly ST, Gribov ND, Knyazkin SI. The development of the civil procedural form in modern conditions. Vestnik grazhdanskogo protsessa [Herald of Civil Procedure]. 2024;6:145-164. (In Russ.).

3. Blokhin PD. The participation of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the formation of uniform judicial practice. Zakon. 2020;1:85-97. (In Russ.).

4. Bondar NS. Constitution against corruption: On the formation of a national constitutional and legal model of anti-corruption activities. Zhurnal rossijskogo prava [Journal of Russian Law]. 2022;4:36-55. (In Russ.).

5. Bonner AT. Administrative legal proceedings in the Russian Federation: Myth or reality, or a Dispute between a processualist and an administrativist. Zakon. 2016;7:24-51. (In Russ.).

6. Chechina NA. The main directions of the development of the science of Soviet civil procedural law. Moscow; 1987. (In Russ.).

7. Egorova OV. The essence of the civil procedural form. The author’s abstract of Cand. Diss. (Law). St. Petersburg; 2001. (In Russ.).

8. Emaltynov AR, Boyarsky DA. Local restructuring plan in the bankruptcy procedure of an individual. Arbitrazhnyy i grazhdanskiy protsess [Arbitrazh and Civil Procedure]. 2023;12:37-41. (In Russ.).

9. Fokin EA. Legal digest: The practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on bankruptcy issues. Tsivilist. 2024;6:89-93. (In Russ.).

10. Gadzhiev GA, Blokhin PD. The constitutional model of the development of judicial doctrines. In: Lazarev VV, Gadzhiev KhI, editors. Judicial doctrines in Russian law: Theory and practice of manifestation. A monograph. Moscow: IZiSP: Norma: Infra M Publ.; 2020. P. 38–50. (In Russ.).

11. Gadzhiev KhI. Judicial doctrines and the effectiveness of law enforcement. Zhurnal Rossiyskogo Prava [Journal of Russian Law]. 2019;6:14-26. (In Russ.).

12. Gorshenev VM. Procedural form and its purpose in Soviet law. Sovietskoe gosudarstvo i pravo. 1973;12:28- 35. (In Russ.).

13. Ilyin AV. To the question of the possibility of the existence of administrative legal proceedings as a separate procedural form. Zakon. 2013:4:119-129. (In Russ.).

14. Karelina SA. Features of the implementation of general legal principles in the process of bankruptcy of citizens. Zakon. 2023;6:15-24. (In Russ.).

15. Kravets IA. Constitutional law and teleology: Subject matter and method of meta-discipline, scope of constitutionalization and interdisciplinary harmonization. Aktual’nye problemy rossijskogo prava. 2018;11:131- 147. (In Russ.).

16. Maly AF, Tokareva IN. The concept of the process of constitutionalization in the context of the development of the legal system of the Russian Federation. Pravovoe gosudarstvo: teoriya i praktika. 2024(2):148-153. (In Russ.).

17. Neznamov AV. Trends in the development of the civil procedural form in the context of the digitalization of the civil process. Vestnik grazhdanskogo protsessa [Herald of Civil Procedure]. 2024;3:213-221. (In Russ.).

18. Osmanova DO. Bankruptcy and enforcement proceedings: Issues of correlation of legal institutions. Yurist [Jurist]. 2021;5:30-36. (In Russ.).

19. Osmanova DO. Insolvency (bankruptcy) procedure: quo vadis? Lex russica. 2024;77(5):144-161. (In Russ.).

20. Plotnikova IN. «Constitutionalization»: To the question of the concept. Izvestiya Saratovskogo universiteta. Novaya seriya. Seriya «Ekonomika. Upravlenie. Pravo». 2021;21(2):188-197. (In Russ.).

21. Sakhnova TV. Bankruptcy as a meta-procedural category. Vestnik grazhdanskogo protsessa [Herald of Civil Procedure]. 2024;1:48-64. (In Russ.).

22. Sayfullin RI. The concept of universal protection of the constitutional right of citizens to housing: A systematic view of the problem through the prism of bankruptcy. Commentary to the ruling of the Judicial Board for Economic Disputes of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated August 22, 2022 No. 305-ES22-7163. Vestnik ekonomicheskogo pravosudiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii. 2022;12:4-15. (In Russ.).

23. Shadlovskaya OD. Writ proceedings as a simplified form of civil proceedings. The author’s abstract of Cand. Diss. (Law). Moscow; 2015. (In Russ.).

24. Shevchenko IM. On the first experience of concluding a local settlement agreement with a secured creditor in a bankruptcy case of a citizen. Arbitrazhnye spory. 2024;2:113-127. (In Russ.).

25. Taribo EV. Doctrines of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the field of taxation: Theoretical and practical aspects. Cand. Diss. (Law). Moscow; 2005. (In Russ.)