December 12th is the official day of the Constitution adoption in the Russian Federation. It is a nationwide holiday. The fundamental law of a country is an integral part of its sovereignty. We have talked to Nataliia Koneva, Candidate of Sciences (Jurisprudence), Associate Professor of the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of the Institute of Law at South Ural State University about the importance of this holiday, the significance of the Constitution, some facts about it, as well as its application to real life.
– Could you please tell us about the origin and history of the Constitution Day?
– The Constitution of Russia was adopted on December 12, 1993 by way of a nationwide voting. Following the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation as of September 19, 1994, the Constitution Day was proclaimed a national holiday, and though it’s not a day-off in the calendar today, this Decree still has legal force. And I’m sure each citizen of our country sees this day as a holiday since the adoption of the Constitution marked a complicated stage in the constitutional development of our state, and the transition to new values and meanings of constitutionalism.
– What changes were introduced to the Russian Constitution in 2020?
– As a lawyer, I have been raised to value such feature of the Constitution as its stability, as well as to protect the Fundamental Law of our state from the spur-of-the-moment and time-serving changes. That’s why I stick to the opinion that we can and should introduce changes to the Constitution only if we’ve used up all the possibilities of the constitutional development, and when further negation of changes already starts to slow down the development of our country. And of course if there is a relevant demand for such changes on part of the society. After all, already in the difficult year of 1993 we could have set our foot on the path of gradually changing the Constitution of 1978 (which was in force back then), and there were quite many of those in favour of such evolutionary approach to constitutional reforming. But we chose a path of serious reconsideration of the fundamentals of the constitutional development and adopted a new Constitution. And it was wise to refrain from amending the Constitution for a certain period of time and let the model of the state and society stipulated in the Fundamental Law to be implemented.
There were targeted amendments to the Constitution before 2020, but the said year showed a need for a big-scale constitutional reform. The introduced amendments related to the improvement of the public authority system: a new legal category was added to the Constitution – public authority, which allowed to unify the government authorities and local self-government authorities. However, the reform was broader in its content since a number of ethical-and-moral and ideological provisions, as applied to the society, were introduced to the Constitution: those included the norms of honouring the memory of defenders of the Fatherland; defending the historical truth and the unacceptability of belittling the heroic deeds by our people defending our Fatherland; ensuring the priority of family education; and protecting the cultural identity of all people and ethnic groups in the Russian Federation.
Now the text of the Constitution contains terms unusual for an earlier Russian Constitution, such as “united by a millennia-old history”, “memory of our ancestors”, “ideals and belief in God”, or “mutual trust between the state and its society”, which reflect the moral principles of social relations. Undoubtedly, these norms also significantly contribute to fostering and education. But still, when introducing changes to the Constitution, we must first and foremost consider it as a unified system-wide document and try not to violate the integrity of this system.
– How do people in our country, and in particular at our Institute of Law, celebrate this holiday?
– Constitution Day as a national holiday is celebrated in our country every year. Traditionally, many events are held as part of it: from ones in a legal-education format to serious scientific conferences on the issues of constitutional development.
The SUSU Institute of Law, of course, has not right to not be involved in celebrations, especially in the year of 2023, an anniversary year for the Constitution. That is why, during the whole year, we tried to organize events of different scale, but united by common goal: to support the scientific and research interest in the Constitution as the Fundamental Law, and teach students to see it not just as a regulation act of supreme legal authority, but also as a reflection of the values and principles of interaction in the “human being – society – state” triad. As part of the annual science-to-practice conference for young scientists, we always organize a Constitutional Law section and discuss the issues of constitutional development and reforming.
Our students had a chance to listen to a wonderful open lecture by Irina Umnova (Koniukhova) – a Russian scientist, teacher and social activist, Doctor of Sciences (Jurisprudence), and researcher of the problems of the constitutional and international law.
What is more, since we understand that namely Constitution becomes a reflection of how strongly politics and law overlap, we provide our students with an opportunity to attend lectures where they can learn the opinions of scientists, statesmen and political figures on the prospects of the state development of Russia. Students have remembered the most a meeting that was held in November. They met Konstantin Malofeev, a social activist, Candidate of Sciences (Jurisprudence), patron of arts and entrepreneur, Deputy Head of the World Russian People's Council and author of a three-volume research entitled Empire.
I believe that such meetings are important and help abstract ourselves from the academic approach to the way we consider the Constitution, and look at it as at a living and changing document of our country.
– Could you please name the main facts about the Russian Constitution?
– For a long time now, I’ve been into the issues of constitutional development, so I can say that everything about the Constitution is interesting for me! It is quite laconic: it consists of a preamble, two sections, nine chapters and final provisions. But I think that despite all its laconic character, the Constitution has a significant potential both in terms of research and law enforcement: it sets forth an effective model of the society development.
But talking of fascinating facts about the Constitution, when we discuss this with students, then the most popular fact is probably that the two copies of the Russian Constitution were taken to space, where those remained for 329 days. In 1999, a pamphlet was taken to the “Mir” orbital complex. On April 4th of the same year, Progress М-41 cargo spacecraft delivered it to cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev, who was planning to obtain a degree in jurisprudence. And in 2005, together the Constitution of the European Union, the Russian Constitution was taken aboard the International Space Station.
– This holiday is indeed of national importance to our country. But what does it mean for you as for a lawyer? Could you share a few associations on top of your head?
– The first association is my birthday! It’s simple: I was born on December 12th and celebrate my birthday together with the Constitution every year. And as for a lawyer, this holiday is a good occasion together with students to reminisce on the role of Constitution in the life of every state, on those meanings and values, which our Constitution has been protecting ever since it was adopted in 1993. I’m happy when students ask me really complicated and tricky questions about the Constitution (about the difficulties of its adoption, about its legitimacy) and that they can see its advantages and disadvantages, and understand that the Constitution is a living document – it is a reflection of the epoch and us, the citizens in this epoch.
– Nowadays many young people know only about the fact that the Constitution exists, but know nothing about it in details. How can it be applied in practice?
– I wouldn’t quite agree with you that young people are only aware about the fact that the Constitution exists. I see young people around me, for whom it is unquestionable that knowing the Constitution is a must for knowing law in general. You can’t study just a certain field of law and consider yourself a lawyer. It is namely the Constitution that sets a vector of development for fields of law and stipulates the fundamental principles as a base for further development of legislation.
Our Constitution heralds the principle of direct effect: it is a serious provision requiring that government authorities and executive officers admit the effectiveness of the constitutional provisions, and the possibility to make decisions, for example, court rulings, based on the norms of the Constitution. This is a guarantee that the Constitution does not become a declaratory policy document, but at the same time it is a serious challenge for our country: ensuring such a direct effect and feasibility of the Constitution provisions. In this case, it has a chance to act as the foundation for the formation of the legal culture of the society and its world view.