ABSTRACT
All legal reforms in Russia, whether already enacted or under active consideration, hinge upon the passage of the Constitution in December 1993, for this basic law reinforced and undergirded the most important principles and institutions of country's social, cultural, economic, and political development. Western observers usually point to the "two Russian miracles—the free press and the independent system of justice." Indeed, the judiciary has come a long way from being an instrument of the totalitarian regime. Legal and procedural changes have strengthened the guarantees of judges' independence; raised the status of the judiciary; reformed the system of arbitration courts, general jurisdiction courts, and military courts; and introduced the institution of the Justice of the Peace. If the constitutional principle proclaiming the Russian Federation a rule-of-law state is to be implemented, it is the Ministry of Justice that must formulate legal policy and oversee its execution.
