This document provides an outline for a course on Russian law, beginning with an introduction to the structure and history of the Russian legal system. It then summarizes key topics that will be covered in the course, including the constitutional order and federal structure of the Russian Federation, the main branches of government and sources of law, and trends toward recent centralization of power. Examples of centralized federal legislation are also provided.

1. Introduction to Russian Law
Soili Nysten-Haarala
University of Lapland
Marcelo Gomes Freire
Autumn 2013

2. Course Outline
24.-25.10. 2012 Soili Nysten-Haarala
Introduction
Structure of the Federation
Federal Organs
Local Self-Administration
Division of powers between the federation and the regions
Property Rights
4.-5.11. Ivan Saveliev
Russian Legal History

3. INTRODUCTION
Transitional society or a special Russian system?
transition
starting point goal
a planned economy a market economy
marxism leninism democracy
one-party system
democratic centralism the rule of law
Modernization

4. Law and Change?
No help from legal analysis
Legal history has a longer perspective
Interdisciplinary Approaches:
• New Institutional Economics – Douglass North
interplay of formal (legal rules) and informal constraints
interest groups
path-dependency
• Regulation theories
change governed by regulation
both public and private - legal pluralism
• Comparative law
legal transplants
• Law and Development?

5. Multiplicity of Norms and Regulations in International Business
• international organizations (interpretations
of specialists), e.g, WTO
•EU regulation
• nation state legislation
• NGO regulation f.ex. FSC certification
• academic ”lex mercatoria” (PECL,
UNIDROIT-principles
• standard contracts (Orgalime, NL…)
•Trade usages, trade customs
•Practices of businesses
Public governance
Private governance

6. How to modernize Russia
• in today’s pluralistic environment
• in a society with dominance of informal institutions
• with corruption and distrust towards formal institutions
• with authoritarian thinking modes
• in multicultural circumstances
Passing new laws is not the one and only solution

7. TYPICAL FEATURES OF RUSSIAN LAW:
Continental legal system
• Codification of law
• Jurisprudence of concepts
“State and Law”
cf. Anglo-American traditions

8. Sources of Law:
• Legislation
• Preparatory works
• Custom trade usages
• Case law –precedents
• Economic circumstances, efficiency etc.
• Political circumstances (“telephone law”)

9. Hierarchy of Norms
cf. Article 15.3
constitution international treaties
Constitutional laws ¾ and 2/3
code (кодекс),
law (закон)
decree (указ)
decisions (постановление, распоряжение)
instructions

10. Birth of the Russian Federation and the Constitutional Order
the Minsk (Belozevsk) Treaty 1991 – state succession
CIS – Community of Independent States
”the constitutional order”
Constitution of December 1993 (Eltsin’s Constitution)
was made difficult to change (chapters 1, 2 and 9)
Human rights and citizens’ rights (chapter 2)
Article 15.4
e.g. Article 7, Art 20

11. STRUCTURE OF THE FEDERATION
subjects of the federation (Article 65)
• republics/ states (республика) 21
•Territories (край) 6
•Regions (область) 49
•2 cities of federal importance
•Autonomous region (автономная область)
•Autonomous areas (автономный округ) 6 (earlier 10)
In principle all equal (Article 5)
Diminishing the number of subjects from 89 originally, now 85
7 districts (округ) under presidential administration (pres. decree
nr. 849, 13 May 2000)

12. FEDERAL ORGANS (organs of power)
doctrine of separation of powers (article 10)
a. Legislative power
2-chambered federal assembly (федеральное собрание)
federal council (федеральный совет) 2 x 89 (originally)
state duma (дума) 450
legislative process
Articles 109, 111, 117
political parties

13. b. Executive power (and more?)
president of the federation
-legislative initiative power
-Power to give decrees
-Promulgation of laws (veto power)
Nomination powers
Can dissolve the duma (109, 111)

14. government
nomination of prime minister (111)
practice v. constitution

15. c. judicial power
Constitutional court (Art. 125)
courts (federal)
arbitrazh courts general courts
courts of first instance (subjects)
(commercial arbitration)
Procuracy (Constitution Art. 129)

16. division of powers between the federation and its subjects
Constitution Articles 71-73
division of legislative powers
division of executive powers
division of juridicial powers

17. Centralization and the Executive Power:
• From elections to nomination of governors
and back again?
• Governors not allowed to be members of the Federal Council
(senators)
• Federal districts under presidential administration

18. Centralization with federal legislation
e.g.
Forest Code 2006
Act on Subsoil (Geological) Rersouces (о недрах) 1999,
changes 2000, 2002, 2004
Water Code 2006

19. Centralization of the Judicial System
• From regional elections of judges to nomination of the
president
• Federal courts
courts of first instance (mirovye sudy) as an exception

20. LOCAL SELF-ADMINISTRATION = municipalities
(Constitution articles 130-133)
reform going on (Law on Local Self-Administration 2006)
Lack of tax revenues
municipal services
Authoritarian informal institutions