“Comparative Constitutional Review”: The journal amid the current of streaming time

Available in Russian

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Author: Andrey Medushevsky

DOI: 10.21128/1812-7126-2023-1-13-47

Keywords: constitutionalism; the rule of law; comparative legal studies; Russian Constitution; constitutional jurisprudence; academic community

Abstract

This article summarizes main facts about the role, development and achievements of the prestigious Russian and international academic journal – “Comparative Constitutional Review” from its creation till 30th year anniversary in 2023. Coming into life in the period of dramatic transition from Communist dictatorship to democracy in Eastern Europe and Russia, the Journal clearly announced its mission as the promotion of the law based state and civil society in all Post-Socialist countries. The fulfillment of this mission included such priorities as general information of academic community about transforming theoretical basis of comparative legal studies, new practical requirements in constitutional engineering, analysis of the changing legal policy agenda in respective countries, and last but not least, the creation of representative pool of international experts capable to evaluate these trends in value-free reliable manner. In process of development, the Journal passed three main stages – its formation (1993–2003), critical reappraisal (2004–2013) and synthesis (2014–till now), reflecting the dynamic of constitutionalism – from liberal triumph era to its conservative revision and the current globalization crisis in forms of legal fragmentation, populism and re-invented legal nationalism. Confronting these trends, the Journal’s publication list (up to now more than 150 issues and about 2000 articles) includes scholarly papers on all vital subjects of modern constitutionalism. Among them, global and Post-Soviet legal transformation, constitutional ideology, reforms and contra-reforms, human rights standards and their legal interpretation, parliamentary democracy, federalism and regionalism, elections and political party systems, separation of power modalities, central and local administration, comparative constitutional jurisprudence and many others. The permanent focus of the Journal’s attention is the Russian constitutional order, which become the object of scrutiny analysis of its foundation, development and contradictions in terms of its typology and original characteristics, institutional projection, the impact of constitutional reforms, formal and informal practices, judicial interpretation in the dynamic of Constitutional Court’s decisions. Putting all these trends under academic debate, the Journal played not only the role of just chronicler, but active participant of constitutional transformation providing many reform projects, legal amendments and expert recommendations.

About the author: Andrey Medushevsky – Co-Chairman of the Editorial Advisory Board, Sravnitel’noe konstitutionnoe obozrenie; Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy, Tenured Professor, Faculty of Law, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.

Citation: Medushevsky A. (2023) “Sravnitel’noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie”: zhurnal na fone bystro teku­shchego vremeni [“Comparative Constitutional Review”: The Journal amid the current of streaming time]. Sravnitel’noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 13–47. (In Russian).

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