scholarly journals Key Systemic Changes in the Amendment to the Russian Constitution of March 14, 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 107-118
Author(s):  
Jarosław Matwiejuk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Jakub Sadowski

AbstractIn the renewed Russian Fundamental Law, in addition to a number of provisions introducing changes to the political system, there are also statements of programmatic importance, as well as several provisions with symbolic and identity function. In this article these provisions are subject to functional and semiotic-cultural analysis. Particular emphasis has been placed on legally irrelevant content transmitted by the new regulations, on their semantic connections with the content of the preamble and on their cultural context. The research procedure carried out allows us to state that, compared with the 1993 text, the Russian Constitution in its current version participates to a much greater extent in the complex system of transmission of symbolic content, as well as the narratives that contribute to social memory, cultural and historical identity. In doing so, it goes beyond its genre limitations, opening the basic text to the functions assigned to the preamble. In the fragments I have analysed in the paper there are undoubtedly functional and genre disturbances, and with them changes the mode of semiosis of the legal text, both in its normative and programmatic form. Renewed Constitution is the case in which a legal text, by its very nature designing the possible future world, does so through ideas about the past.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 60-63
Author(s):  
Dmitriy D. Konovalov ◽  

This article discusses the essence of the all-Russian vote on approval of amendments to the Constitution of Russia. The answers to the questions are presented: why was the all-Russian vote held and why was such a form of direct democracy used?


2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-238
Author(s):  
Sergei Iu. Marochkin

AbstractIn this article, the author discusses the problem of ensuring equality and non-discrimination in a legal system. Equality and non-discrimination constitute universally recognized standards in the protection of human rights. At the same time, one can hardly assert that the universal community has put an end to discrimination. The author considers the problem as applied to the Russian legal system. The standard is incorporated in the Russian Constitution still remains topical in Russia. Based on his analysis of legislation and judicial practice, the author concludes that the problem reveals itself on the levels of both law-making and law application, the latter including administration of justice. As one of the conclusion, the author raises a question: is legal discrimination inherent in a legal system like other negative phenomena, such as delinquency, incoherencies, lacunas, defects, conflicts of legal norms and breaches of law-making procedural rules?


Author(s):  
William PARTLETT

Abstract This article will place the 2020 amendments to the Russian Constitution in comparative perspective. Although these amendments were officially justified as strengthening the Russian state in order to tackle emerging new problems, they constitutionalise already-existing legislative trends from the last twenty years. They therefore do little to overcome existing problems of Russian state building. What was the reform process about then? It was intended to project the image of reform by involving the people in a staged process of constitutional change while further entrenching the power of the current political elite. The constitutional reforms therefore demonstrate the symbolic role that constitutional law can play in seeking to ensure the survival of mature or later-stage forms of authoritarian populism. This kind of ‘theatrical constitution-making’ is a broader reminder of how the expressive aspects of constitutional change can be (ab)used by established authoritarian regimes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-49
Author(s):  
Ivan S. Grigoriev

Abstract Of the 206 amendments introduced to the Russian constitution and adopted on July 1, 2020, 24 deal directly with the Constitutional Court, its organization, functioning, and the role it plays in the political system. Compared to many other, these are also rather precise and detailed, ranging from the number of judges on the bench, their nomination and dismissal, to the Court’s inner procedures, new locus standi limitations, and the primacy of the Constitution over Russia’s international obligations. Most changes only reproduce amendments brought to the secondary legislation over the last twenty years, and are therefore meant to preserve the status quo rather than change anything significantly. At the same time, a number of amendments aim at politicizing and instrumentalizing the Court for the president’s benefit, marking a significant departure from the previous institutional development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 503-530

503Relationship of international law and municipal law — Treaties — European Convention on Human Rights, 1950 — Role of European Court of Human Rights — Judgments of European Court of Human Rights and Russian Constitutional Court — Whether interdependent — Resolution in case of conflicting judgments — Supremacy of Russian law — Russian Constitution — Section 1 of Article 6.21 of Russian Administrative Offences Code — Whether compatible with Russian ConstitutionRelationship of international law and municipal law — Treaties — International instruments — Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 — European Convention on Human Rights, 1950 — International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 — Rights and duties — Rights of freedom of expression — Restrictions on rights — Whether necessary in democratic society — Public health and morals — Moral values — Relevance — Russian Constitution — Article 15(4) of Constitution — International law an integral part of Russian legal system — Implementation of international provisions — Constitutional recognition of traditional family values in Russian society — Respect for dignity of others and Russian morality — Prohibition of propaganda arousing hatred — Article 29(2) of Russian Constitution — Traditional family values in Russian society — Role of family — Russia’s legislative approach — Whether conforming with Russian Constitution — Whether contradicting International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 or European Convention on Human Rights, 1950 — Section 1 of Article 6.21 of Russian Administrative Offences Code — Whether compatible with Russian ConstitutionRelationship of international law and municipal law — Treaties — United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 — Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, 2007 — Rights of children — Traditional family values in Russian society — Russian Constitution — Protection of children from sexual exploitation and abuse — Dissemination of information related to sexual self-determination — Whether information damaging to health and development of children — Whether Russia obliged to create conditions for propaganda, support and recognition of same sex union under Constitution or international law — Section 1 of Article 6.21 of Russian Administrative Offences Code — Whether compatible with Russian Constitution504International tribunals — European Court of Human Rights — Jurisdiction — Whether Court having competence to review conformity of Russian legislation with European Convention on Human Rights, 1950 — Constitutional requirement to exhaust domestic remedies before appealing to interstate bodies for human rights protection — Article 46 of Russian Constitution — Judgments of European Court of Human Rights and Russian Constitutional Court — Whether interdependent — Resolution in case of conflicting judgments — Section 1 of Article 6.21 of Russian Administrative Offences Code — Whether compatible with Russian ConstitutionHuman rights — Prohibition on discrimination — Equality of all persons — Human dignity — Right to private life — Freedom of speech — Sexual self-determination — Sexual discrimination — Right to disseminate information related to sexual self-determination — Whether exercise of right violating rights of others — Rights of minors — Balancing of rights — Moral values — Relevance — Whether public activity unconditionally lawful under Russian Constitution — Approach under international instruments — Duties and restrictions — Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 — European Convention on Human Rights, 1950 — International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 — Articles 13, 17, 19, 29 and 55 of Russian Constitution — Traditional family values in Russian society — Role of family — Russia’s legislative approach — Whether conforming to Russian Constitution — Whether contradicting International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 or European Convention on Human Rights, 1950 — Section 1 of Article 6.21 of Russian Administrative Offences Code — Whether compatible with Russian ConstitutionHuman rights — Rights of children — Traditional family values in Russian society — Russian Constitution — Protection of children from sexual exploitation and abuse — United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 — Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, 2007 — Dissemination of information related to sexual self-determination — Whether information damaging to health and development of children — Whether Russia obliged to create conditions for propaganda, support and recognition of same sex union under Constitution or international law — Section 1 of Article 6.21 of Russian Administrative Offences Code — Whether compatible with Russian Constitution — The law of the Russian Federation


Author(s):  
Butler William E

This chapter explores the role of Soviet and post-Soviet Russian courts in interpreting and applying international treaties. It is clear that Soviet courts dealt more frequently with treaties than the scanty published judicial practice of that period suggests. This early body of treaties may also have contributed to the emergence in the early 1960s of priority being accorded to Soviet treaties insofar as they contained rules providing otherwise than Soviet legislation. Whatever the volume of cases involving treaties that were considered by Soviet courts prior to 1991, the inclusion of Article 15(4) in the 1993 Russian Constitution transformed the situation. A further transformation occurred when the Russian Federation acceded to the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and began to participate in the deliberations of the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.


1920 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-221
Author(s):  
Baron S. A. Korff

In the historical development of individual nations revolutions come and go as tremendous earthquakes, upsetting the standing order and creating new constellations and configurations. After an earthquake on former plains new mountain ranges arise and, vice versa, enormous peaks suddenly disappear; quite so in the case of a revolution, which overturns century old institutions and organizations. At the time when the upheaval occurs, it often seems that the whole social structure is destroyed forever and that something entirely new is being created. And yet, everyone who has studied history knows very well that even in revolutions we have a constant evolution, that much of the old order remains and that the new institutions have many attachments in the past, no matter how completely new they may seem at the moment of their political birth.Take the French Revolution of 1789 as a most vivid example. It might have seemed to contemporaries that the whole former French state and government, the social as well as the economic structure, had disappeared and were utterly destroyed.


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