International Law In The Russian Legal System

This addition to the Elements of International Law series explores the role of international law as an integral part of the Russian legal system, with particular reference to the role of international treaties and of generally-recognized principles and norms of international law. Following a discussion of the historical place of treaties in Russian legal history and the sources of the Russian law of treaties, the book strikes new ground in exploring contemporary treaty-making in the Russian Federation by drawing upon sources not believed to have been previously used in Russian or western doctrinal writings. Special attention is devoted to investment protection treaties. The importance of publishing treaties as a condition of their application by Russian courts is explored. For the first time a detailed account is given of the constitutional history of treaty ratification in Russia, the outcome being that present constitutional practice is inconsistent with the drafting history of the relevant constitutional provisions. The volume gives attention to the role of the Russian Supreme Court in developing treaty practice through the issuance of "guiding documents" binding on lower courts, the reaction of the Russian Constitutional Court to judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and the place of treaties as an integral part of the Russian legal system. Butler further explores the hierarchy of sources of law, together with other facets of Russian arbitral and judicial practice with respect to treaties and other sources of international law. He concludes with a consideration of the 'generally-recognized principles and norms of international law' and their role as part of the Russian system.

In this volume Sergey Marochkin offers a detailed comparative analysis of the changing approach to the operation and realization of international legal norms and obligations within the Russian legal system based on doctrine, legislation and judicial practice since the adoption of the Russian Constitution in 1993.

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.

In this volume Sergey Marochkin offers a detailed comparative analysis of the changing approach to the operation and realization of international legal norms and obligations within the Russian legal system based on doctrine, legislation and judicial practice since the adoption of the Russian Constitution in 1993.

This book is a detailed treatment of the Russian legal system written especially for English-speaking law students and lawyers. While it is designed primarily as a casebook, extended discussions of the law, numerous citations to original Russian sources, and detailed suggestions for finding these sources on the Internet also make it useful as a reference for scholars specializing in Russian studies and for lawyers who know Russian but not Russian law. The authors have decades of experience following the Russian legal system, with one concentrating on human rights, court procedure, and criminal law and procedure, the other on civil, commercial, and tax law. Chapters cover key aspects of the Russian legal system, including sources of law, the judicial system, the legal profession, constitutional law, individual rights, civil and commercial law, civil procedure, private international law, foreign investment law, criminal procedure, administrative law, and tax law. The book covers major changes in Russian law since the previous edition was published, including more reliance on judicial precedent, increasing the independence of criminal investigators from prosecutors, dealing with abuse of the legal system by corrupt officials to steal businesses from their rightful owners, and closing loopholes in the tax system. The new edition also chronicles the continuing struggle of the European Court of Human Rights and activist Russian lawyers to push Russian law toward international standards.

This volume examines the elements of formalism and decisionism in Russian legal thinking and, also, the impact of conservatism on the interplay of these elements. This combination leads to internal contradictions in theorizing about law and rights in Russian legal culture.

A number of recent events in the last decade have renewed interest in Russian discourses on international law. This book evaluates and presents a contemporary analysis of Russian discourses on international law from various perspectives, including sociological, theoretical, political, and philosophical. The aim is to identify how Russia interacts with international law, the reasons behind such interactions, and how such interactions compare with the general practice of international law. It also examines whether legal culture and other phenomena can justify Russia’s interaction in international law. Russian Discourses on International Law explains Russia's interpretation of international law through the lens of both leading western scholars and contemporary western-based Russian scholars. It will be of value to international law scholars looking for a better understanding of Russia’s behavior in international legal relations, law and society, foreign policy, and domestic application of international law. Further, those in fields such as sociology, politics, philosophy, or general graduate students, lawyers, think tanks, government departments, and specialized Russian studies programs will find the book helpful.

Russia's international law persona is still in its infancy and it will take a while for the cycle to run its full course. However, significant changes have already occurred in some areas, thus offering an opportunity to analyze the trends here and track the process of emergence of successor doctrines and practices destined to replace the Soviet heritage. The quartet of topics selected for treatment in this volume - the relationship between international and domestic law; citizenship and state succession; the Sino-Russian boundary problem; and cooperation with China in policing crime - illustrates major shifts in Russia's international law policy in a bid to shed the corset of Communist ideology and the old regime's "modus operandi" and join the international community's mainstream culture. The test cases also attest to the difficulties encountered in the process of transition and show that progress on this front has by no means been uniform. The sample includes both instances where the break with the past looks quite pronounced and where greater distancing from precedent might logically have been expected, but, for reasons that are then explored, a sense of substantive continuity instead prevails, albeit made more palatable by an application of linguistic cosmetics. "From Soviet to Russian International Law: Studies in Continuity and" "Change" marks the occasion of the author's 65th birthday and the 40th anniversary of his publishing debut.