Law Institute team (SFU) has won a prize and two nominations in All-Russian constitutional justice contest “The Crystal Themis”

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Last Updated on Friday, 17 March 2017 07:04

Law Institute team has won a prize in the Fifth All-Russian constitutional justice student contest “The Crystal Themis” and became a winner in two nominations: “The best claim in Constitutional Court of Russian Federation” and “Great knowledge and use of Russian Constitutional Court legal positions”. Members of the team were: Anna Bykovskaya (1^st year magistrate “Attorney/Barrister in court”), Sergey Kabanov, Alexandra Korsukova, Svetlana Ostanina, Victoria Ryabchenko and Artem Sabirov (all of them  - 4^th year students). The coachers of the team were A.F.Vasilieva PhD, chair of constitutional, administrative and municipal law docent, and A.A.Brester PhD docent in criminal procedure chair.

On 19-20 November 2015 in law faculty Saint-Petersburg State University took part the final games of the Fifth All-Russian constitutional justice contest “The Crystal Themis”. This contest is organized by Institute of Law and Public Policy under the auspices of Venetian Commission of European Council and Russian Lawyers’ Association. Having passed tough Preliminary Round successfully, Law Institute team was invited to the final games.

The contest was based on a specially developed game fibula, which this year concerned issues of self-expression and school uniform as well as witnesses immunity in criminal proceedings. The teams were ought to prepare a claim to Constitutional Court of Russian Federation and a review on it. This work had been carried out from March 2015 to the middle of September 2015 – the time for presenting the documents to the members of the jury. During this period, the team carefully studied national and foreign legislation, summarized practice of international, Russian and foreign courts as well as researched doctrinal positions on the contest topic. As a result of weekly meetings and painstaking work of every member of the team, the claim to Constitutional Court of Russia and a review on it were prepared.

In the final part of the contest Law Institute (SFU) team took part in two semi-finals, playing roles of a claimant and a state defendant with a claim’s review. The judges of the contest were top representatives of legal profession, among which were A. Blankenagel, professor of public law in Humboldt University (Germany), L. O. Ivanov, executive secretary of the Presidential Commission on rehabilitation of the political repressions victims, counsel of Russian Constitutional Court judge (retired), T. G. Morschakova, Russian Constitutional Court judge (retired) and others. Speakers of our team represented their legal position confidently and argumentatively, answered to complicated judges’ questions decently.

Especially for the finalists an excursion to Russian Constitutional Court was organized. The meeting with finalists was carried out by the head of the Russian Constitutional Court Secretariat V. A. Sivitskiy and Constitutional Court judge S. D. Knyziev. After the excursion to Russian Constitutional Court the gala ceremony was held, on which diplomas and prizes were awarded. The contest judge T. G. Morschakova highlighted the significance of the contest as a way of activation of theoretical constitutional  doctrine, whereas L. O. Ivanov pointed out that this year the participants had shown on the highest levels. The experience of participation in this contest made it possible for Law Institute (SFU) team to feel the truth of a great quotation from G. M. Reznik, the Contest Judge: “In the law, there is not only logic, but music as well”. This became obvious only after deep and thorough preparation.