Handbook of the Russian Constitution / Translation in the Russian Language

Professor DDr. Bernd Wieser is General Editor of the Handbook of the Russian Constitution that was published by Verlag Österreich in October 2014. The publisher's website:

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.   

To ensure that the above-mentioned objectives may indeed be fulfilled, the Handbook must be translated in the Russian language and published in a Russian publishing house. It is a great wish of the General Editor and the authors: only then can this Handbook leave an extraordinary and timeless footprint in the field. Only when the Handbook is translated in Russian and only when it appears in Russian book stores can it be ensured that the book lands in the hands of the fellow scholars, PhD candidates, students, and political activists from in human rights organizations and NGOs who are interested in constitutional developments.

Furthermore, the Russian translation enables a know-how transfer to Russia. This work, meeting the quality standards characteristic to the German-speaking legal spaces, offers an expertly commentary on Russia's central law – the Constitution (fundamental political order of a state). It functions also as a mirror for the Russian lawyers and legal scholars, looking at which they may compare the accomplishments of the Handbook with their own works in this field. This comparative exercise will facilitate a transfer of quality standards – if the Russian authors are willing to draw inspiration from it – and enable them to critically reexamine the prevailing commentary practices, leading to the improvement of these practices. In short, the 'Russian' task of this Handbook will be to fill the gap in the current state of affairs and serve, quite simply, as a standard model for future works in this field.  

The plan is to delegate the translation of the 1300 pages to the renowned Institute of Translation at the Saint Petersburg State University – naturally, in close cooperation with the constitutional law experts at the University. The early translation may, of course, be used as a raw material which needs to be subsequently refined, revised, and copy-edited. Further, the translations must be sent to the authors to obtain their remarks and revisions. The copyediting and the editorial support will be provided by a Project Assistant, who will work in close cooperation with Professor DDr. Bernd Wieser.

The planned translation of the Handbook of the Russian Constitution involves considerable costs. The translation project will thus receive support from three renowned German foundations: The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), The Volkswagen Foundation (VolkswagenStiftung), and the IRZ Foundation. The translation project is the leading project of CEELES (Centre of East European Law and Eurasian Studies) for the time frame of 2016-2018. The project will be supervised by Professor DDr. Bernd Wieser.