Handbook of the Russian Constitution / Supplement

http://www.verlagoesterreich.at/handbuch-der-russischen-verfassung-wieser-978-3-7046-6713-7 

The Handbook is an accomplishment attained through joined efforts of 26 renowned German-speaking Experts of Russian law. It has 1300 pages. This Handbook is written as a constitutional commentary of the Constitution of the Russian Federation adopted in 1993. It follows the footsteps of the great authors of the Handbook of the USSR Constitution Reinhart Maurach (1955) and Martin Fincke (1983) and builds on their achievements. For this book, Professor DDr. Bernd Wieser was awarded the German-Russian legal scholars prize in 2015, in Wiesbaden (Germany).  

At the core of this work is the comprehensive and all-encompassing analysis of the Russian Constitutional Court. In this book, the Court's case law is not only appraised; it is also critically and dogmatically questioned from the perspective of an outsider. In addition to examining the jurisprudence of the Court, this book provides a comprehensive appraisal of the relevant literary works in German, Russian and English languages. This work depicts the disputed questions of interpretation of key importance. Further, it presents a distinct and autonomous approach and offers solutions to problems of fundamental importance which have not yet been subjected to analysis in the literature. In this regard, the Handbook follows a comprehensive and encyclopedic approach.   

The Handbook is innovative and as yet unparalleled in a number of aspects. In contrast to the German-speaking legal space, where the commentaries of law (general and constitutional) as a genre represent an old literary tradition, constitutional commentaries in Russia emerged only in the 1980s. Indeed, since then, numerous commentaries of the Constitution from 1993 have appeared in Russia. However, with all due respect to their authors, it must be said that these works do not at present measure up to the Western standards.  

Even the most recent commentaries of the Russian Constitution fail to properly take into account the case law of the Russian Constitutional Court, despite its considerable (quantitative) developments since the adoption of the Constitution. Even in cases where the Court's judgments are taken into consideration, it occurs in a purely descriptive and random rather than well-structured manner. Systematic approach to the case law may not be found in these works; absent is also scholarly critique of the judgments. In this regard, the Handbook of the Russian Constitution breaks a wholly new ground.  

The same may be said about the exploration of the scholarly works in this field. Russian constitutional commentaries, in essence, fail to take into account the scholarly literature relevant to the field. It is evident from the references accompanying individual provisions. In the commentary text, the thoughts of other authors in respect of particular issues of interpretation are always never properly addressed. The Handbook closes this gap: it offers comprehensive critical analysis of the complete available scholarly literature dedicated to each and every provision of the Constitution. This work will thus not only enlighten the reader about the current state of knowledge in the German-speaking legal space on the Russian Constitution, but also foster and provide incentives for the further development of the Russian constitutional dogmatic. The contributors to this book hope that it will encourage the emergence of an intense exchange of knowledge with the Russian colleagues.   

Therefore, this work intends not only to inventory the level of knowledge about the Russian constitution in German-speaking countries, but also to drive forward for the further development of Russian constitutional law doctrine.

An extensive constitutional reform took place in Russia in mid-2020 under politically and legally extremely strange circumstances.There were amended 41 constitutional articles and five were added. This now requires a revision of the constitutional commentaries in a supplementary volume in accordance with the standards described above. The supplement will again be published by Verlag Österreich, but this time in cooperation with Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag. The project is funded by the renowned Fritz Thyssen Foundation. It is the main project of Centre for East European Law and Eurasian Studies (CEELES) for the years 2020-2022. The project is supervised by Professor DDr. Bernd Wieser.