Sonin, V.V. The Russian Constitution as refl ected by the Chinese legal science

Abstract: At the time of anniversary of the Russian Constitution a large corpus of sources on the Russian constitutionalism was formed in the People’s Republic of China. Generally, the Chinese scientists give positive evaluations to the Constitution of 1993, however, noting the qualities typical of constitutions of transforming societies. The main focus of attention of the Chinese scholars resides with the institutions of the constitutional control and President, and while the topicality of the Russian constitutional control is due to the internal Chinese polemics on the possibility to introduce this institution in the People’s Republic of China, the Russian president is of interest to the Chinese scientists as the legal key to the understanding of the political situation in Russia. The legal status of the President of the Russian Federation, which was formed on the basis of modernization of the Western models in accordance with the real historical needs is recognized as a key specific features of the constitutional structure of state government bodies. Highly positive evaluation of the activities of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation makes the Chinese scientists scrupulously study the conditions necessary for the formation of constitutional control due to the possible perspective of formation of a similar institution in the People’s Republic of China. Pragmatic approach of the Chinese researchers allows to establish the comparative value of various institutions of Russian constitutional law, however, the interpretation of the Chinese evaluations should be done with due regard to the specific features of the Chinese culture.

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