ABSTRACT

Many of the new laws on Russia's courts hold some promise that the country is moving toward a system of rules that promote procedural regularity and fairness, long-term stability and democratic governance. The Russian judiciary is conceptualized in the Constitution as a separate branch of power. This chapter outlines how there has been progress in some quarters of judicial reform and back-pedaling in others. In June 16, 1998, ruling, the Constitutional Court prohibited all courts except itself from deciding on the constitutionality of federal laws or laws issued by any of Russia's eighty-nine territorial subjects. Legal reform in Russia will be a long developmental process, which in some ways will be distinctly Russian and in other ways will not be unlike the struggles for equality before the law that countries of Western and Eastern Europe were and still are facing.