The Legal Nature of the Union State of Russia and Belarus

Abstract

The paper’s purpose is to determinate the legal nature of the Union State of Russia and Belarus (hereafter — the Union State). Under foreign pressure the form of the integration of Russia and Belarus is a highly relevant topic for research. At the present time the unified position on this issue is not developed in scientific literature: there are opposite views recognizing the existence of confederal or federal attributes in the Union State. The author analyses the texts of the Treaty on the Creation of the Union State and compares its provisions to previously existing model of confederacies: United States of America (until 1788), the German Confederation, the Union of Utrecht, the Swiss Confederacy. As a result of the research the conclusion was made that in existing legal reality the Union State has all essential attributes of confederacy.