Abstract

Constitutional and legal fictions as a phenomenon of modern legal reality are investigated in the article. Legal fiction is a phenomenon, in which fictitious position is declared as an existing one; it acquires binding character due to its reflection in the norms of law, or vice versa, the actual situation is recognized as non-existent. Sectorial features of the constitutional and legal fictions mean that they have a vast sphere of action and affect priority areas of life; in their majority, they differ in a pronounced political and ideological orientation, and are observed in special cases. Such cases include abstract legal concepts, terms, understanding and interpretation of which are ambiguous; situations when constitutional and legal norms do not receive proper specification and development in other normative legal acts; “transformation” of the norms of the Constitution by current legislation or decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, by which the author understands change of meaning of its individual provisions without formal invasion into constitutional text. Special attention is paid to the classifications and specific manifestations of fictions in the constitutional law of the Russian Federation. Depending on the level of legal force, fictions can be subdivided into constitutional and sub-constitutional; depending on the content – into material, procedural and mixed; depending on the duration of the existence – into static and dynamic; depending on expression form – into open and hidden ; depending on the attitude towards actual circumstances – into positive and negative; depending on institutions of the constitutional law of Russia – into fictions in foundations of the constitutional system, rights and freedoms of human being and citizen, federal structure, institution of the president, parliamentary law, legislative process, and local self-government. As a result, constitutional and legal fictions are defined as normative provisions contained in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and other sources of the constitutional law that recognize condition, which does not exist as existing, and vice versa, and also have industry features. The author underlines the ambiguous role of fictions in the constitutional and legal regulation of social relations, and the need to optimize their use.