Russian Law Journal (RLJ)
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Local Legislative Process in Russia: Perspectives and Barriers
Full text linkThe legislative process is an important tool of direct democracy for creating checks and balances on public authority. Making local laws is an essential function of the local government that is linked to direct communication between public officials and citizens. This paper sets out to evaluate the opportunities, constraints and challenges in the practices of local direct democracy in Russian municipalities, and to describe the frameworks and capacities that municipal authorities provide for citizens. The paper analyzes the political and legal circumstances for law-making initiatives at the local level and examines citizens’ activities in the local legislative process. The research question is whether citizens have the capacity and opportunity to participate in the local legislative process and to what extent barriers and challenges prevent them from doing so. To answer the research question the authors use methods of context analysis to study Russian legislation and municipal legal documents, a case study of several Russian municipalities and a survey with representatives of local communities in Tyumen, a Russian mid-sized city located in Western Siberia. The results of the study show a reluctance on the part of local residents to engage in the various aspects of direct democracy and a lack of the necessary skills, knowledge and willingness to participate in the initiative process. The results further show that the initiative process is frequently not well planned and lacks clear objectives, requirements and guidelines. The study concludes that seminars and professional training as well as roundtable workshops are effective ways to support local law-making initiatives. One promising step towards modernizing initiatives would be to organize them in e-forms. Many citizens demonstrate their ability to use electronic options that can expand the possibilities for their participation in the local legislative process
The Legal Positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the Execution of Decisions Made by the European Court of Human Rights
Full text linkAmendments to the Russian Constitution take effect on 4 July2020. In Chapter 3, "Federal Structure," of the Constitution of the Russian Federation there is a provision for a set of amendments specifying the status of constitutional law in the Russian Federation regarding domestic and international/interstate relations as well as relating to questions of Russian national/state identity and guarantees of its preservation and protection. On 15 January 2020 in the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly a number of constitutional amendments were proposed for discussion, including the introduction of certain changes to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. These changes will be guaranteed priority in Russia's legal framework. President Vladimir Putin noted that, "requirements of international law and treaties as well as decisions of international bodies can be valid on Russian territory only to the point that they do not restrict the rights and freedoms of our people and citizens and do not contradict our Constitution"" The topicality of considering the relationship between national and international court jurisdictions is predetermined by the fact that Russia has ratified Protocol No. 15. On 1 May 2017 a federal law-ratifying protocol establishing a subsidiary role of the European Court of Human Rights was signed. Such a role, in addition to the national mechanism of the judicial protection of human rights, is necessary to implement judicial protection, primarily in Russian courts including the Supreme Court (which is the highest court for civil, economic, criminal and administrative cases and which also protects human rights and freedoms by considering cassation and supervisory complaints against final and binding court rulings) and the Constitutional Court (which, as the highest court body of constitutional control, considers cases of citizens' complaints about the violation of constitutional rights and freedoms by a law applied by state bodies). At the current level of legal development, there are both a necessity and practical possibility of altering approaches to the implementation of international rules. This paper considers the correlation of national and international law. On the basis of decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the so-called request for the applicability of decisions of the European Court of Human Righ ts, legal views are given on the applicability of international rules by Russian courts, including their interpretation by international court institutions. The revised version of Article 101 of the Federal Constitutional Law on the Constitutional Court, which makes it possible to apply to the Constitutional Court contrary to an official ECHR decision, has been in effect since 2014
Russian Compulsory Financial Ombudsman and Civil Procedure
Full text linkIn international law, there is no directly prescribed duty of states to create the institution of financial ombudsman. However, in practice this institution is in real terms very popular for effectiveness in various forms. This paper analyzes the models of financial ombudsman in some of the leading European jurisdictions as well as the Russian model and its distinction from all these models. The successful introduction of compulsory financial ombudsmen according to a new Russian law is impossible without deep integration of this institution with the general civil procedure legislation. The Russian financial ombudsman is authorized by law to partially create for himself the rules for resolving disputes, which in essence gives him the right to create rules of civil procedural law. Since pre-trial settlement of certain categories of civil disputes in the financial markets through the financial ombudsman system is mandatory, providing him with unlimited discretion to determine the amount of the fee for considering a case, this can create a conflict of interest in his or her activities. The new Russian law is criticized for numerous inconsistencies with civil procedure legislation, without the elimination of which the practical work of the financial ombudsmen will be ineffective. I offer some legal approaches for the development of this institution. The competence of the further alternative dispute resolution (ADR) Russian institutions depends on the success or failure of the financial ombudsman
All-Pervasive Legacies of Socialist Constitutionalism? The Case of Judiciary
Full text linkThe success of the legal transitions occurring in the 1990s was quite dubious. Although, as a result of enlargement of the EU, much of the “other Europe” became part of the European Union, it would be too simplistic to assume that, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the region became part of Western European political and legal landscape. While the books of the old era were discarded, legislation repealed and new institutions created, one should not underestimate the continuing strength of the old values, principles and legal thought in general. After all, the authors of those discarded books remained in the academia, even if they seemingly started to produce – virtually overnight – new works, while defending new values and principles. Alongside with the academics, the entire legal personnel of the old era survived the systemic change, and this contributed to the persisting spirit of old legal culture. That is why the philosophies of the old socialist legal system were able, not only to survive, but to govern a substantial portion of the post-socialist legal and judicial discourse. The deepest layers of the old legal culture are resistant to sudden changes by their very nature. They seldom have a direct connection to the former official political ideology, and they are often clothed in the new legal vocabulary. Furthermore, the most persistent features of socialist legal culture are often those linked to the region’s illiberal pre-socialist past, although substantively modified during the era of socialism. I will show some examples of old socialist concepts which seem to be alive and well in the new legal system. First, I am going to deal with the authoritarian model of judicial process, which appears to prevail in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. The socialist conception of a judicial process continues to haunt the region even several decades after the fall of “existing socialism.” The parties continue to be viewed as passive objects in the post-communist litigation. Second, I am going to explain a specific socialist novelty, the concept of supreme courts’ interpretative statements, legislating from the bench without any real-life case pending before those courts. Last but not least, I will show the gradual decline of the activist role of constitutional courts in the region and the return to the tradition of self-restrained judiciary influenced by politics and politicians
The Legacy of Socialist Constitutionalism in Slovakia: The Right of the Slovak Nation to Self-Determination
Full text linkAlbeit in 1918 the Slovak nation voluntarily became a “branch” of the single Czechoslovak nation and of the unitary Czechoslovak state, the connection with the Czechs was rather perceived as a strategic move until the Slovak nation develops its capacity for the execution of its own right to self-determination. In the context of Czechoslovakia being under pressure of Hitler’s Germany in 1938, Slovak autonomists managed to exploit the situation and Slovakia was granted autonomy within Czechoslovakia. Soon thereafter, in March 1939, an “independent” Slovak State was created, in fact being under direct control of Nazi Germany. The authoritarian political regime of the War-Time Slovakia was soon rejected by Slovaks themselves and the Slovak nation was rather willing to sacrifice its independence in order to return to the democratic regime of Czechoslovakia in 1945. Still, there were attempts to change the position of Slovaks and Slovakia within Czechoslovakia, which eventually materialized in the form of the federalization of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in 1968/69, giving Slovaks for the first time (apart from the Hitler-sponsored statehood in 1939–1945) their formal republican statehood, albeit only within a system of limited socialist federalism. Still, this allowed for a relatively simple change of this formal statehood into an internationally recognized independent Slovak Republic in 1993. The socialist constitutional recognition of self-determination of the Slovak nation in the form of a Socialist Republic thus paved the way to the currently existing Slovakia, hence making it the most important legacy of the (Czecho-)Slovak socialist history
What Future for the Eurozone After Karlsruhe?
Full text linkThe paper analyzes the decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court rendered on 5 May2020 (2 BvR 859/15,2 BvR 980/16,2 BvR2006/15,2 BvR 1651/15), wereby the latter heavily criticized the "democratic" legitimacy of the Public Sector Purchase Program of the European Central Bank (aimed, by purchasing negotiable debt securities issued by governments, public agencies and international institutions located in the euro area, to support the economy of the Member States and to increase the eurozone's inflation rate up to 2%), de facto disapplying the judgment of the CGEU of 11 December 2018, by which that Program had been instead previously "validated." The author places the decision in the context of the long-standing and conflicting relations, on the one hand, between Member States and European institutions and, on the other hand, between national constitutional courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union, outlining the possible repercussions of the decision on a legal, economic, political and institutional level and, ultimately, on the very survival of the eurozone
Law in the Age of the 4th Industrial Revolution: Between the Impersonal Technology and Shadow Orders
Full text linkThe time in which we live is not easy. On the one hand, the latest technological advances create an illusion of unprecedented progress. On the other hand, it appears that millions of people in the world are deprived from the opportunity to use these advances in their everyday lives. Moreover, it appears that these technological advances can cause more problems than they help to solve. This situation also applies to the legal sphere where the law is gradually turning into a neutral, depersonalized technique. Mostly restrictive, repressive and estranged from the will of individual social associations, such law (law as a mere technique) generates rather radical responses in the form of different "shadow" (unofficial) norms, institutions and practices. In this paper the problem of a possible clash of the official positive law with shadow social orders is analyzed. Trying to find the way out of the false dichotomy between the technologized official law and fundamentalist rules of some narrow communities, the author discusses the origins and weak spots of the contemporary legal order
Foundations of Ecocentric Law
Full text linkThis scientific article discusses the reaosns for inefficiency (“impotence”) of modern environmental law as a normative reaction to the “destruction of Nature.” The scope of the destruction of Nature has been broadening. The environmental protection law has thus not influenced the resurrection of “destroyed Nature.” The essential reasons for the current excessiveness (intemperance) of man’s interaction with Nature (the reasons for the “destruction of Nature”) and/or reasons for the inefficiency of the modern environmental law should be sought for in the dominant anthropocentric cultural paradigm of the western cultures oriented towards an un-limited material progress. If anthropocentrism (exploitativeness) as the basis of human utilitarian interaction with nature has led to the “destruction of nature,” there is no doubt that the ecological reason remaining within the anthropocentric construction of Nature can not lead to its “resurrection.” Only the setting-up of the ecocentric construction of Nature may lead to the “resurrection” of Nature. This orientation must be followed by the nomos of the western cultures. A new law of nature on the basis of the new, ecocentric ontology and ethics is therefore necessary. This article thus alalyzes the foundations of new ecocentric legal philospohy. This approach is original at the global level and is important at both the theoretical and applied levels. The new ecocentric legal philosophy should become the foundation of modern environmental law. Keywords: inefficiency of modern environmental law
Legal Mechanisms to Regulate Civil Liability for Actions of Artificial Intelligence in the Russian Federation and European Union Law
Full text linkIn this article authors discuss existing ideas about liability of artificial intelligence based on guilty and strict approaches to defining the elements of civil liability in the Russian Federation and European Union. These approaches have drawbacks, which are, first of all, in the excessive limitation of the development of innovations, and with low efficiency in achieving the goals of civil legal responsibility and the implementation of its functions. The risk-based approach proposed by the author to the determination of the elements of civil liability for the actions of artificial intelligence is intended to neutralize the named drawbacks. Based on the analysis of the spheres of application and artificial intelligence technology, the risk-based approach allows a more efficient and flexible approach to the definition of the subject of responsibility, its types and limits, ensuring a balance between the development of innovation and the goals of civil liability. As a result of the study, the author’s definition of a risk-based approach to civil liability for the actions of artificial intelligence has been given, its features, elements have been disclosed, and its advantages over existing approaches to civil liability have been demonstrated
No full textTerrorism is defined as coordinated attacks aimed at arousing feelings of terror against a group of people. In contrast to war, acts of terrorism are not subject to the rules of war such as the time of execution that is always sudden and the target of casualties that are random and often are civilians. Terrorism is increasingly becoming a scourge for modern civilization. The nature of the actions, actors, strategic goals, motivations, expected and achieved results, Terrorism targets and methods are now increasingly widespread and varied. So it is increasingly clear that terror is not a form of ordinary destructive violence, but it is a crime against human peace and security. In order to prevent and combat Terrorism, since long before the occurrence of events classified as a form of Terrorism occurred in the world, international and regional communities and various countries have attempted criminal policies accompanied by systematic and comprehensive criminalization of categorized acts as Terrorism. Under the provisions of the 12 convention includes the main protocol rules adopted by the United Nations. These international agreements principally regulate norms including the responsibility of the state in addressing the problem of terrorism with all countries including the ASEAN region and the Russian Federation declaring to fight terrorism. Russia itself as one of the two world superpowers which is seen as having a strong military is considered strategic for ASEAN to establish cooperation in the field of security and defense in the fight against terrorism. Through collaboration agreement and ratification of terrorism regulations in their respective countries, both the ASEAN region and the Russian Federation are expected to prevent further terrorism in their respective regions