The attention to the issue of judicial dissenting is caused by growing popularity of this type of writing among the judges of the Russian Constitutional Court. The article has investigated the nature of the dissenting opinion, its main traits and functions from legal and linguistic points of view, arguments for and against this genre of judicial writing. The author attempts to find out why do judges dissent – to lay out an alternative legal theory, to convince the majority of their errors, to express disagreement. The author concludes that the dissenting opinion is an individualistic genre of judicial discourse where the judge is free to use a great variety of language units to mark his/her own identity. The author also argues that the rationale and usefulness of dissents in the judiciary depend on the legal traditions of the nation.