The right of citizens to attend meetings of collegial authorities

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of the problems of regulation and prospects for the development of public relations related to the exercise of the right to attend meetings of collegial authorities. The topic is relevant due to the fact that law enforcement practice indicates massive violations of the right to attend meetings of government bodies. The reason lies in the incompleteness of legislative regulation. The legislator provided only basic, declarative norms. In their development, the authorities independently, taking into account their specifics and peculiarities of functioning, develop the procedure and rules for the presence of citizens at meetings. The subject of the study is the provisions of normative legal acts in the field of regulating the presence of citizens at meetings of collegial authorities, as well as judicial practice and existing scientific provisions on the studied issues.  General scientific and special legal methods were used in the work, among which general logical methods of cognition (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, generalization), the systematic method, as well as the formal legal method can be distinguished. The scientific novelty is due to the fact that the work reflects the current state of the normative consolidation of the right of citizens to attend meetings of collegial authorities. Based on the results of the study, the author formulated proposals for improving legislation. In particular, to amend article 15 of the Federal Law "On Ensuring Access to Information on the Activities of State Bodies and Local Self-government bodies", providing: firstly, specifying the timing of informing citizens about the meeting appointed by the authority and the name of the sources using which it is necessary to inform, as well as the timing of contacting the authority about the intention to attend the meeting; secondly, to fix the inadmissibility of including in the agenda of one meeting issues containing information of open and limited access; thirdly, to unify the grounds excluding the possibility of attending meetings of authorities.