Anton Burkov, The Impact of the European Convention on Human Rights on Russian Law (Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89821-639-5) 162 pp., Paperback, ? 24,90
The book:
In 2006, the Russian Federation observed its
10-year anniversary of membership in the Council of Europe. In 2008, the Russian
Federation will mark 10 years since it ratified the Council’s major document –
the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the
Convention). This book looks into the practice of honoring main Russia’s legal
obligation under the Convention to secure to everyone within its jurisdiction
the rights and freedoms defined in the Convention.
This book analyzes the practice of Russia honoring her legal obligations
under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR): to secure to everyone
within its jurisdiction the rights and freedoms defined in the Convention (Article
1 of the ECHR). The study comes to the conclusion that the
impact of the ECHR on the Russian legal system, in terms of its implementation
by domestic courts, is unsatisfactory. The jurisprudence of the Supreme Court
and Supreme Arbitration Court is an attempt to demonstrate to the Council of
Europe that the ECHR is being applied, rather than to implement the ECHR. In
contrast, the jurisprudence emerging from decisions of the Russian Federation’s
Constitutional Court and district courts indicates a better understanding of the
spirit of the ECHR. Still, the rare instances in which domestic courts
implemented the ECHR were, more often than not, prompted by applicants’
arguments based on ECHR case-law, rather than by the courts.
The book suggests methods of ensuring a more effective
implementation of the ECHR’s provisions within Russian national law. It develops
recommendations on how to assess the Russian government’s compliance with
judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and how to interpret
explanations submitted by Russia to the Secretary General of the Council of
Europe on her implementation of the ECHR.
The author:
Anton Burkov, DipJur (Urals State Law Academy), CandScJur
(Tyumen’ State University), LLM (University of Essex), has been a doctoral
student of law and TNK-BP Kapitza Scholar at the University of Cambridge since
2005. In 1998-2007, Burkov worked for the Urals Centre for Constitutional and
International Protection of Human Rights of the NGO Sutyajnik as a staff
attorney and project coordinator. In 2001-2002, he was a visiting scholar at
Columbia University, New York. Burkov has published five books and more than 20
articles in Russian- and English-language law journals. The author’s personal
web-page in English is
www.law.cam.ac.uk/phd, in Russian is
www.sutyajnik.ru/bal
The foreword author:
Françoise Hampson is Professor of Law at the University of
Essex, and an expert for the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection
of Human Rights.
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