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Regular version of the site

Constitutional Reforms in Russia

2019/2020
Academic Year
ENG
Instruction in English
3
ECTS credits
Course type:
Elective course
When:
1 year, 4 module

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course “Constitutional Reforms in Russia” is taught on educational online platform “Coursera.org”. Discipline studies are carried out by students independently on the basis of an online course “Constitutional Reforms in Russia", https://www.coursera.org/learn/constitutional-reforms-in-russia, Saint Petersburg State University. The course prepared by one of the best Russian experts in constitutional law will focus on political, economic and cultural dimensions of the Russian constitutional system. Historical background of constitutional reforms and today developments will be discussed, basing on concrete examples of these developments. The course will both observe the specific of the Russian constitutional system in comparison to the other constitutional systems and penetrate into the key characteristics of the Russian constitution. Since adoption of the current Russian constitution of 1993 this constitutional system made a great evolution. The course will help to understand what ideas and concepts stand behind the Russian politics, both domestic and international, which principles lie in the basement of the legal framework for cultural, political and economic life of the Russian society. Foreigners and Russians see the Russian constitutional system in the «distorting mirror» of mass media; both of them need professional analysis of how the legal, governmental and economic systems are designed in Russia. The course will present this kind of analysis by a Russian scholar, familiar to contemporary development of constitutionalism in the world, who is able to present the view from inside Russia, but to position the Russian constitutional system in the a wide context of the world constitutionalism.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • make analysis of legislative and judicial acts, taken by Russian state authorities in the context of the Russian constitution, its main values and basic principles
  • give expert assistance for interaction with the Russian government structures in a wide range of political and economic questions
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • know the specific of the Russian constitution, Russian legal, political and economic system
  • know the history of forming and development of the contemporary constitutional system of Russia
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Constitutional Exceptionalism: the Russian Case
    Typology of the Russian Constitutional System: Politics and Beyond. Russian Constitutional Identity: Liberal Values vs. Social Solidarity and Traditional Morality (Orthodoxy). International Law in the Russian Politics and Legal System
  • Human Rights in Russia
    Human Rights and Public Interests. Personal Rights in Russia. Political Rights and Political Participation. Social Rights and Sozialstaat
  • Political System of Russia
    Social Perception and Principles of the Russian Politics. Presidency and the Executive in the Russian System of Government. Russian Parliamentarism. Judiciary in Russia. Federalism in Russia
  • Russian Constitutional Economics
    Making Free Market in Russia: Privatization of State Property and Shock-Therapy in 1990s. “Oil Curse” and “State Capitalism”: the Role of the State in Economics. Administrative Barriers for Entrepreneurship: the Russian Way to Protect Public Interests. Social Interests in the Economy
  • Introduction
    Greetings. Aims and Objectives of the Course. Soviet Ideology, Politics, Law and the Constitution. Perestroyka of 1980s. Adoption of the New Constitution and Making Design of the New State in 1990s. Embodying the New Principles in the Legal and Government Systems in 2000-2010s
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Online tests
  • non-blocking Final interview
    Students provide online course results. Grade for the course is set by the program supervisor after the students pass the final interview.
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (4 module)
    0.3 * Final interview + 0.7 * Online tests
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • JACKSON, V. C. (2015). Constitutional Law in an Age of Proportionality. Yale Law Journal, 124(8), 3094–3196. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=asn&AN=103280826
  • Kireeva, E. Y. (2015). The Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993: Analysis of the Main Results and Trends of the Constitutional System and Public Institutions in Russia. Published Papers. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.p.rnp.ppaper.030915

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Alexy, R. (2003). Constitutional Rights, Balancing, and Rationality. Ratio Juris, 16(2), 131–140. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9337.00228
  • Andrei N. Medushevsky. (2012). Law and justice in Post-Soviet Russia: Strategies of constitutional modernization. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.B35DBE70