This comparative study combines the approaches of law, political science and Russian area studies to map out the origins, the functioning and the impact of the Russian Constitutional Court. It explores both the actual power of this new tribunal in Russian governance and the political conditions of judicial empowerment in transitional regimes. By comparing three attempts to create, exercise and (dis)obey judicial review in the late USSR and post-Soviet Russia, this dissertation challenges standard explanations that link democratization to the expansion of judicial power. On the contrary, driven by their short-term power calculations and encouraged by legal elites in the context of enormous institutional uncertainty, the rulers, regardless of their democratic or authoritarian pedigree, may perceive a powerful court as a useful tool in securing their governing status.; Drawing on the systematic analysis of all (published and unpublished) decisions of the Russian Court in the areas of separation-of-power, federalism and individual rights cases, this study shows how and why judges responded to the political struggles of rival elites. It presents a new analysis of the Court's jurisprudence and assesses its role in reforming the Russian legal system. The in-depth study of the compliance with the Court's rulings shows the unwillingness and incapacity of governmental officials and the rest of the judiciary on most levels to recognize the authority of the Court and of law as jus as opposed to the orders that they receive from relevant superiors or their own interests. This sabotage undermines both the impact of the landmark judgments on the ground and the tribunal's public image.; This study concludes that judicial empowerment is a non-linear process that does not necessarily lead to the entrenchment of the rule of law, to 'rights revolutions' or the politicization of the judiciary. Judges can rely only on the authoritativeness of their judgments unlike politicians and bureaucrats who have the material resources necessary to respond to judicial decisions. Courts like any other public institutions that depend on their reputation flourish only if an effective and capable state is there to support them.
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