Russia and Its Constitution


Book Description

How is the Russian Constitution, ratified in 1993, being implemented today? A team of distinguished scholars assesses the promise and the realities of Russian constitutionalism in a number of critical areas.




The Constitution of the Russian Federation


Book Description

'[The] scholarship is consistently thorough and lucid, and absolutely reliable' European Public Law As reviews of the first edition attest, this book gives a unique critical and contextual insight into the Constitution of one the world's most powerful countries. Its first edition was published in 2011, when Dmitrii Medvedev was Russia's President. Since then there was a regime change in 2012 as Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency, and, significantly, dramatic shifts in constitutionality as Russia pursues a 'return to traditional values'. The book explores the Constitution's evolution over its nearly 30 years' existence, including the significant amendments of 2020. This second edition situates these important changes in the context of Russia's historical and legal development, as Putin continues to dominate the political scene. It also looks at broader constitutional questions on the interrelation between the main State agencies, the role of the courts, human rights and their enforcement.




Russian Constitutional Law


Book Description

Russian Constitutional Law is one of the first publications to offer profound analyses of the main institutions of the Constitutional Law of the Russian Federation in English. The authors, representing the Constitutional Law Chair of the Moscow State Institute for International Relations (MGIMO-University), cover the most important and basic categories of Constitutional Law in Russia: namely, the Constitution; the Status of the Individual; Federalism; the Electoral System; Federal Bodies (the...







The Russian model of separation of powers. Constitutional grounds and practical realization


Book Description

Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Law - Public Law / Constitutional Law / Basic Rights, grade: 2,0, , language: English, abstract: The constitution of the Russian Federation (CoRF) from 1993 states in Article 1 (1) that the Russian Federation is a democratic state. Therefore, it is interesting to analyze the realization of the separation of powers in Russia in two perspectives: in terms of the legal grounds and also concerning its practical realization. As the predecessor states of the Russian Federation weren’t democracies in the western sense of the term, this research can provide insights how the separation of powers principle is managed in a newly democratized state. Thus, the role of separation of powers in the Russian Federations predecessor states will be analyzed, before the constitutional norms concerning the separation of powers will be investigated. In addition, the practical handling of separation of powers in the Russian Federation will be discussed and it will be given a short conclusion.




The Constitution of the Russian Federation


Book Description

This book provides a critical and contextual understanding of the current Russian Constitution. It comprises seven chapters: an introduction followed by substantive chapters covering specific aspects of Russia's constitutional history, structure and practice: the history and nature of the constitution; an overview of the current 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation and the background to its adoption by plebiscite; executive power, the role and accountability of the President as Head of State, and the formation and powers of the federal government; the legislature and its formation, elec.




Russian Constitutionalism


Book Description

Medushevsky examines constitutionalism in Russia from Tsarist times to the present. He traces the different attitudes to constitutionalism in political thought, and in practice, at different periods, showing how the balance between authoritarianism and liberalism has shifted. In addition, he discusses the importance of constitutional developments for societies in transition, and concludes that post-communist constitutional development in Russia is still far from complete. As an empirical resource, Russian Constitutionalism takes a longer historical view than other books on this topic, and it also goes further than this in its interpretive approach, providing a greater understanding of Russian constitutionalism.




Federalism, Democratization, and the Rule of Law in Russia


Book Description

Combining the approaches of three fields of scholarship - political science, law and Russian area- tudies - the author explores the foundations and future of the Russian Federation. Russia's political elite have struggled to build an extraordinarily complex federal system, one that incorporates eighty-nine different units and scores of different ethnic groups, which sometimes harbor long histories of resentment against Russian imperial and Soviet legacies. This book examines the public debates, official documents and political deals that built Russia's federal house on very unsteady foundations, often out of the ideological, conceptual and physical rubble of the ancien régime. One of the major goals of this book is, where appropriate, to bring together the insights of comparative law and comparative politics in the study of the development of Russia's attempts to create - as its constitution states in the very first article - a 'Democratic, federal, rule-of-law state'




Transformation in Russia and International Law


Book Description

Since the end of the Cold War the relationship between the internal constitution of a state and its international behaviour has been a subject of much scholarly interest. Assuming that this connection matters the author analyses the transformation from the USSR to the Russian Federation. Does a liberal Russia behave better than the non-liberal USSR? Are Russia's attitudes towards international law different than those of the former USSR? How much continuity is there and how much change has occurred in the scholarship of international law in Russia? How are Russia's treaties made and implemented? What is the role of international law in the Russian legal system? The author shows that international human rights played an important role in the Soviet "perestroika" and in the subsequent reforms in the Russian Federation. She argues that at the surface level the transformation in Russia has been remarkable, notably so with regard to the role of international law in the domestic legal system. Drawing from a wide range of materials - Soviet/Russian history, legislation, court cases and doctrinal writings - the book takes a cultural and historical perspective to analysis of legal change.




Stalin’s Constitution: Soviet Participatory Politics and the Discussion of the 1936 Draft Constitution


Book Description

Upon its adoption in December 1936, Soviet leaders hailed the new so-called Stalin Constitution as the most democratic in the world. Scholars have long scoffed at this claim, noting that the mass repression of 1937–1938 that followed rendered it a hollow document. This study does not address these competing claims, but rather focuses on the six-month long popular discussion of the draft Constitution, which preceded its formal adoption in December 1936. Drawing on rich archival sources, this book uses the discussion of the draft 1936 Constitution to examine discourse between the central state leadership and citizens about the new Soviet social contract, which delineated the roles the state and citizens should play in developing socialism. For the central leadership, mobilizing its citizenry in a variety of state building campaigns was the main goal of the discussion of the draft Constitution. However, the goals of the central leadership at times stood in stark contrast with the people’s expressed interpretation of that social contract. Citizens of the USSR focused on securing rights and privileges, often related to improving their daily lives, from the central government.