The European charter of local self-government: history of applying that is not to be forgotten

At present stage of the historical development of our state, the search for an optimal type of local self-government organization and functioning in the Russian Federation is hardly possible without taking into account the experience of foreign states. This experience is reflected, among other things, in the legal form - in international treaties and agreements. In 1998, the Russian Federation assumed obligations to comply with the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Since that period, this international legal act has become the integral part of the national legal system and has been a «basic guideline» for the federal Legislator in creating a legislative framework to implement the constitutional basis of local self-government in the Russian Federation. However, the coexistence of the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the Russian national system of legislation ended on March 16, 2023. Having analyzed concrete examples of application of the given Charter provisions in judicial proceedings of the highest judicial instances when justifying an appropriate judicial interpretation of the norms of municipal law, the author draws the conclusion: the experience of applying the European Charter of Local Self-Government should not be ignored when creating a forward-looking legislation on local self-government within the framework of the current trend towards filling the content of the constitutional and legal category «unified system of public authority». This experience should be taken into account for the further progressive evolutionary development of the federal legislation on local self-government