Freedom of Assembly in the Practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation

Freedom of assembly is a complex institution of human rights containing norms, both legislative acts and mandatory prescriptions of the highest bodies of the judiciary, primarily the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. Since the adoption of the Federal Law No. 54-FZ of June 19, 2004, "On Meetings, Rallies, Demonstrations, Processions and Picketing," the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has issued about two dozen different decisions on the most important issues for public life in organizing and holding public events. Analysis of these decisions is an actual problem, since without their understanding and systematization it is difficult to regulate social relations related to such a fundamental political right as freedom of assembly. This article is devoted to the analysis and systematization of the entire practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on freedom of assembly. To date, there are some works devoted to the analysis of some decisions of constitutional court proceedings. The most complex overview of them is an article by T.M. Khramova in which the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation for the period 2012-2013 on the verification of the compliance of the Constitution with legislative acts that toughen the freedom of assembly after the protest demonstrations of 2011-2012 are analyzed. In the present work eighteen definitions and decisions for the period from 2003 to 2017 on various aspects of freedom of assembly were analyzed. In particular, issues such as: the duality of freedom of assembly; restriction of freedom of assembly at the level of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and restriction by regulatory legal acts of the President of the Russian Federation; ban on holding public events in certain places; specially designated places for public events; giving notice of a public event on public holidays; coordination of the time and place of the public event; regulation of picketing; prohibition of preliminary agitation of a public event prior to its approval; concealment by participants of their persons at public events; stop picketing by delivering to the police station to protect against the threat to life and health; responsibility for participation in an unsanctioned rally; prohibition to be the organizers of public events for persons who have committed separate offenses or crimes; responsibility of the organizer for exceeding the number of participants indicated in the notification for holding a public event; administrative and civil liability of the organizer of a public event for the harm caused by the participants; the limitation period for bringing to administrative responsibility for violation of legislation on public events; the amount of administrative fines and penalties for violation of legislation on public events; the imposition of a fine for violation of legislation on public events below the lowest limit; criminal responsibility for the repeated violation of legislation on public events.