Russian court head calls for national courts to stay within their remit

Chairman of the Russian Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin warned on Monday against national courts acquiring the functions of international justice bodies.

Speaking at an international conference in St Petersburg, Zorkin said some U.S. initiatives against corruption, terrorism and drug trafficking go beyond the country’s domestic legislature, “putting almost the entire world under their jurisdiction.”

“This means there is a temptation to turn those laws from a tool aimed against terrorism and crime into a kind of legal cudgel to crush undesirables,” he said. “We should avoid these effects by constructing legal relations between national juridical systems and international judiciary.”

 

ST. PETERSBURG, May 16 (RIA Novosti)

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