Konstantin Aranovsky

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Konstantin Viktorovich Aranovsky (born 19 November 1964) is a Russian jurist and constitutional law scholar who served as a judge on the Constitutional Court of Russia from 2010 to 2022. He also headed the Election Commission of Primorsky Krai from 2008 to 2010 and later became a professor.

Education and early work
- He graduated with honors from the law faculty of Far Eastern State University in 1987.
- He studied at the graduate program of Leningrad State University.
- He earned a Candidate of Sciences degree in 1990 with a thesis on ensuring constitutionality of local Soviet acts, and a Doctor of Sciences degree in 2004 on constitutional tradition in Russian society.
- From 1990 to 1994, he worked in the Department of State and International Law at Far Eastern State University.

Judicial career
- On March 3, 2010, he was appointed judge of the Constitutional Court of Russia by President Dmitry Medvedev and served until September 27, 2022.
- He wrote several dissenting opinions on matters such as attorney–client privilege, the right of people with dual citizenship to own media, the voter rights of conditional-release offenders, and Russia’s higher education system.
- In 2019, he stated that the USSR was an illegally created state and that Russia should not be considered its legal successor, a view that drew criticism from Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Communist Party, who urged him to resign.
- He missed Constitutional Court sessions in 2014 and 2020 dealing with Crimea’s accession and constitutional amendments, respectively.
- In September 2022, Aranovsky resigned. Some reports suggested the resignation was a way to express dissent on issues where he could not speak openly, particularly over the recognition of territories such as the Donetsk People’s Republic and other regions.

Current work
- He now serves as a professor at the Department of Public Law of the State Academic University for the Humanities in Moscow.