INTRODUCTION

This paper analyses and compares the practice of implementation and application of international law rules by the domestic courts in Russia before and after the end of the former Soviet Union.

In the last two decades, Russia has gone through two critical moments which dramatically influenced the change of its political, economic, and legal systems, as well as the role of international law in the practice of domestic courts and in the entrenchment of the rule of law. The first of these critical moments was the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the establishment of Russia as a separate state (December 1991). The second was the confrontation between the Supreme Council (former Parliament) and the presidential power (October 1993), which led to the establishment of a new form of government and adoption of a new constitution (December 1993).

This chapter shows the place of international law in the Russian legal order, the role of Russian courts in implementation and application of international law in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, and reveals some tendencies in their contribution to the development of the constitutional provisions concerning international law – and to the strengthening of the rule of law.

To offer the reader a sense of all the really radical changes, I first offer a brief look at the constitutional and legislative provisions and the judicial practice in the Soviet period (section 2). Then I review the amendments to the Constitution of Russia in the transitional period which reflected a step-by-step movement towards more openness to the international community and international law. I also discuss some of the reasons leading to the adoption of a new constitution, and highlight the basic principle of the 1993 Constitution concerning international law and its significance (section 3). The main portion of the chapter is devoted to an analysis and illustration of judicial practice connected with strengthening the role of international law in the domestic legal order.