Article 120, paragraph 2, of the Russian Constitution states that "a court of law, having established the illegality of an act of government or any other body, shall pass ruling in accordance with the law". The Courts of law are therefore able to judge the illegality of administrative action in migration matters.

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The Federal Law on the Legal Position of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation introduced in July 2002, sets out the regulations for foreign citizens residing in the Russian Federation. As the new Federal Law on the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian federation is still in its early stages of implementation, procedures for appeals to temporary and permanent residence permit application refusals have not yet been set out in law.

Article 10(2) of the Russian Federation Law on Refugees states that any decision or action (inaction) of the migration authorities, related to the implementation of the refugee law, including decisions by the Federal Migration Service on a denial to consider a refugee claim on the merits (i.e. rejection on admissibility grounds) or a denial of the refugee claim on merit, can be appealed by the person applying for asylum before a court of law. Under Article 13, an applicant may not be expelled if they have appealed against an asylum application refusal. On appeal the courts will review the procedural aspects of the case and also look at the particular circumstances involved. However the Court will not hear legal arguments, which were not submitted to the administrative body of first instance. If an applicant attempts to do so they may be considered by the court to have not exhausted the pre-trial procedure. The court judges the legality of administrative decisions so they do not always decide themselves upon refugee status recognition. However, if a court upholds an appeal they may then grant refugee status to the individual involved. Article 10; paragraph 3 sets out time limits for submitting appeals to asylum refusals. Applicants must appeal 1 month after they receive written notification of the negative decision, or 1 month from the date of submission of the application if they have not by then received a reply. They may also appeal up to three months after the denial of refugee status has become known to them.

As the Russian Federation is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights (1950), Russian citizens may petition the European Court when they have exhausted their domestic remedies, if they believe their human rights under the Convention have been violated. In 2002 in the case of Burdov v. Russia, the European Court found that Russia had failed to execute a domestic court ruling to pay compensation and therefore violated parts of Article 6, ECHR, on the right to a fair trial. In the same year in Kalashnikov v. Russia the Court found that pre-trial treatment conditions amounted a number of violations under the ECHR including the prohibition of degrading treatment under Article 3.

Analysis provided by: Anisa Niaz LLM (Public Law), United Kingdom.

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