Available in Russian
Author: Andrey Medushevsky
DOI: 10.21128/1812-7126-2025-4-135-166
Keywords: law; ethics; moral code; moral constitution; hard and soft law; ethical codes; professional secrecy; moral coercion; law without sanctions; norm and deviation; public service; public policy
The communist morality created in the USSR to form a “new man” was based on a code of moral values that replaced traditional religious ideas with the ideological postulates of a one-party dictatorship. The crisis and collapse of this ideology in post-Soviet Russia led to the emergence of an “ethical vacuum” — moral anomie, where previous moral principles ceased to operate, and new ones lost their universal character, the rigidity of coercion and the effectiveness of a social regulator. Ideological pluralism has transformed into ethical pluralism. The 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation established the liberal principle of ideological diversity, but at the same time — the neutrality of the state in relation to the moral values of society. The result was the launch of spontaneous self-regulation of moral values that lie outside and beyond constitutional principles. This process was expressed in the emergence of various ethical codes, defending almost opposite ideas about morality and the methods of its affirmation, from those completely loyal to constitutional norms to those deviating from and even contrary to constitutional provisions. Currently, the opposite trend has become prevalent: the state (after the adoption of 2020 amendments) declares its return to the sphere of regulation of moral values of society, making efforts to specifically promote priorities in this area. This defines the range of problems of this article which aims to determine the changing relationship between moral and legal regulators of social behavior, reconstructing a special area of a “moral constitutionalism” — values, norms and practices that formally lie outside the sphere of legal regulation, but in fact determine the degree of its acceptance and effectiveness in public policy. If we admit that modern society is already beyond conventional virtue, then what should be the moral foundations of the constitutional order: are they rooted in tradition, rational choice or the provisions of the current law; should legal policy proceed from the maximum or minimum of morality in the adoption of legal guarantees? Do ethical codes replace the provisions of the Constitution when interpreting the meaning of the most important principles and norms, and does the practice of their centralized implementation replace a conscious civic position with false disciplined enthusiasm? An analysis of modern Russian ethical codes, despite all their differences, makes only one thing clear. The transition from moral absolutism to pluralism of moral values is a difficult process that requires active adjustment from the standpoint of a verified public policy. Its main trend is independent social mediation of moral values, which involves their assessment from the standpoint of constitutionalism and fundamental demands for the development of society.
About the author: Andrey Medushevsky – Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy, Tenured Professor, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
Citation: Medushevsky A. (2025) Pravo i nravstvennost': eticheskie kodeksy kak instrument publichno-pravovoy politiki Rossii [Law and morality: ethical codes as an instrument of public legal policy of Russia]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol.34, no.4, pp.135–166. (In Russian).
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