Putin's high-speed reform of the Russian Constitution and its impact on Human Rights and the Constitutional Court

Abstract

The changes to the Russian state system are taking place with unprecedented speed. The constitutional reforms in Russia are coming soon. In his annual address to the Russian Parliament on January 15^th 2020, President Putin announced the beginning of a constitutional reform, including significant amendments to the workings of the Russian Constitutional Court, which plays a primary role in protecting human rights in Russia. According to statistics, there were more than 365,000 complains in the Russian Constitutional Court between 1995 and 2020.

In this seminar, you will discuss the crucial role of the Russian Constitutional Court in improving the protection of human rights in Russia according to universal values.  You will also look at examples of the interplay between European jurisdictions and Russia.

Speaker Biography

Marina Belykh is an Associate Professor at the Ural State Law University in Yekaterinburg, Russia and concurrently holds the position of Chair of the Constitutional Law Division of the Charter Court of Sverdlovsk Region. Until recently, she was a Director of a Law Clinic of the Institute of Justice of the Ural State Law University.

She holds a PhD in Constitutional Law. Her research has mostly been in the fields of Russian Constitutional Law and Comparative Constitutional Law. She has also investigated new methods of teaching law, particularly while a recipient of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholarship and of a joint grant of the German Academic Exchange Service and Russian Ministry of Education and Science. Prior to the establishment of the Law Clinic at the Ural State Law University, she researched law clinics in the UK and wrote, inter alia, about the synergy between legal education and student experience of law ‘in real life’ though volunteering at a law clinic.

Dr Belykh is a member of the Editorial Board of the Russian legal journal Business, Management and Law.

Discussant Biography

Jane Henderson is an academic lawyer with a long-standing interest in foreign and comparative law, and particularly the Russian legal system. Until recently she was Senior Lecturer in Russian Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law. She retired last September but continues her main research interest in Russian constitutional law. She is the rapporteur on Russia for the journal European Public Law.