Bondar Nikolay - Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Jurisprudence, Honoured Scientist of the RF,Honoured Lawyer of the RF
Address: Galernaya St., 1, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, 190000

Subject to the methodology of the philosophy of law methods combining positivism and natural law, the article makes a grounded interpretation of constitutionalism as a philosophy of law category. Constitutionalism is shown as a unity of public authority, social and cultural origins reflecting universal values of the modern civilization which are represented in the patterns of democratic society and state on the basis of the balance of power, ownership and freedom. Hence, it has been proposed a structural interpretation of  constitutionalism as a)doctrinal constitutionalism, expressing a certain theory, a system of constitutional law ideas incorporating moral imperatives; b)normative law constitutionalism characterizing the system of constitutional positivism which is a normative law space of constitutionalism; c)ontological constitutionalism disclosing  its potential in constitutional law practice as a complex of relations of political and legal development; d)constitutional mentality represented in constitutionalism as a special form of public conscience reflecting constitutional psychology and constitutional ideology. One of the major attributive signs of modern constitutionalism is constitutional justice. The RF Constitutional court serves as its guardian and a development factor for the whole system of Russian constitutionalism. Constitutional justice makes it topical adapting to the reality, which makes the nature (system of real relations) and a must (legal constitution) closer. This pair allows analyzing the major trends in shaping judicial (living) constitutionalism as a brand-new political law regime of the RF Constitution protection. A special attention is drawn to the methodology of constitutional justice. The analysis of an extensive constitutional law practice, philosophical and mentality pluralism has been interpreted as a fundamental principle of constitutional law control. This presupposes the concept of judicial law where natural law and positive laws of the modern Russian constitutionalism integrate, which opens new opportunities for constitutional law development of Russian statehood recognizing universal constitutional values as an integral part of the current law.