Pub Date : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1163/15730352-bja10063
S. Hungler
The characteristics of Hungarian populism and its effects on labor and social policy are rather different compared to those of western Member States of the EU. These differences are due to the different experiences related to inter- and intra-EU migration and to the difference in how the EU’s austerity measures were imposed during the economic crisis. The two distinctive elements are the workfare regime which replaces the welfare state, and anti-pluralism. In the workfare model, ‘hard-working people’ are pictured as an idealized mass of employees who are disciplined and striving for betterment every day; and whose jobs and wellbeing are jeopardized by illegal migrants and the idle poor. However, labor law does not strengthen the rights of ‘hard-working people’ or support them in asserting their rights against their employers. While the Roma have been described as the undeserving poor and mainstreamed in everyday politics and practice, guarantees and protective measures have been severely curtailed in social policy, amplifying the insecurity and material deprivation of those who lose their jobs. Regarding collective labor law, the lack of an autonomous social dialogue supports anti-pluralist trends, a characteristic of populist governance. The fundamental elements of democratic control, such as participation or trade union rights have been largely eliminated to cement the executive power of the coalition.
{"title":"Labor Law Reforms after the Populist Turn in Hungary","authors":"S. Hungler","doi":"10.1163/15730352-bja10063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15730352-bja10063","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The characteristics of Hungarian populism and its effects on labor and social policy are rather different compared to those of western Member States of the EU. These differences are due to the different experiences related to inter- and intra-EU migration and to the difference in how the EU’s austerity measures were imposed during the economic crisis. The two distinctive elements are the workfare regime which replaces the welfare state, and anti-pluralism. In the workfare model, ‘hard-working people’ are pictured as an idealized mass of employees who are disciplined and striving for betterment every day; and whose jobs and wellbeing are jeopardized by illegal migrants and the idle poor. However, labor law does not strengthen the rights of ‘hard-working people’ or support them in asserting their rights against their employers. While the Roma have been described as the undeserving poor and mainstreamed in everyday politics and practice, guarantees and protective measures have been severely curtailed in social policy, amplifying the insecurity and material deprivation of those who lose their jobs. Regarding collective labor law, the lack of an autonomous social dialogue supports anti-pluralist trends, a characteristic of populist governance. The fundamental elements of democratic control, such as participation or trade union rights have been largely eliminated to cement the executive power of the coalition.","PeriodicalId":42845,"journal":{"name":"Review of Central and East European Law","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81611995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1163/15730352-bja10059
Tamás Hoffmann
Hungarian migration regulation has undergone a radical transformation since 2015, resulting in a system that essentially deprives asylum seekers of any international protection. This was a strategic move by the government to portray itself as the defender of Hungary and even Europe of the menace of uncontrolled migration. This article critically analyzes this transformation by first giving a comprehensive account of the major legislative changes and showing how they were framed to boost the populist political propaganda of the government. Then it argues that even though such populist legalism is in clear contravention of Hungary’s international legal obligations and thus constitute bad faith action, the European Union is still powerless to effectively oppose these measures since its own asylum policies are aimed at maintaining “Fortress Europe”, i.e. restricting irregular migration as much as possible through legal and informal measures. In conclusion, the only real antidote to populist legalism would be acting in good faith.
{"title":"Illegal Legality and the Façade of Good Faith – Migration and Law in Populist Hungary","authors":"Tamás Hoffmann","doi":"10.1163/15730352-bja10059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15730352-bja10059","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Hungarian migration regulation has undergone a radical transformation since 2015, resulting in a system that essentially deprives asylum seekers of any international protection. This was a strategic move by the government to portray itself as the defender of Hungary and even Europe of the menace of uncontrolled migration. This article critically analyzes this transformation by first giving a comprehensive account of the major legislative changes and showing how they were framed to boost the populist political propaganda of the government. Then it argues that even though such populist legalism is in clear contravention of Hungary’s international legal obligations and thus constitute bad faith action, the European Union is still powerless to effectively oppose these measures since its own asylum policies are aimed at maintaining “Fortress Europe”, i.e. restricting irregular migration as much as possible through legal and informal measures. In conclusion, the only real antidote to populist legalism would be acting in good faith.","PeriodicalId":42845,"journal":{"name":"Review of Central and East European Law","volume":"319 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80187517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1163/15730352-47010001
Zoltán Szente
The article examines the impacts of populist government in Hungary on constitutional law since 2010. The criterion of the analysis is whether the comprehensive and radical changes that took place during this time have been characterized by the distinctive traits, ambitions and values that the scholarship attributes to populism and ‘populist constitutionalism’, above all anti-elitism, anti-institutionalism, anti-pluralism, the emphasis on popular sovereignty and direct democracy, and an instrumental conception of law. For this purpose, it examines the major changes in the constitutional rules and practice of sovereignty issues, the system of separation of powers, and fundamental rights. The article consists of four parts. In the first chapter, sovereignty issues are discussed including the changing approach of constituent power, constitutional identity, and the interpretation of sovereignty through an analysis of the 2011 Fundamental Law and its eight amendments. The study then reviews the changes in the system of separation of powers, that is, the transformation of the legal status and operational practices of the most important public law institutions. The next chapter provides a qualitative analysis of the situation of fundamental rights, in particular the trends in the renewed regulation of constitutional liberties and political freedoms. In addition, this part gives an assessment of the current state of institutional protection of constitutional rights. Finally, the last chapter seeks to answer the question of how the cumulative effects of these changes can be assessed; whether Hungary follows a new, specific path of constitutional development, or the constitutional changes can be interpreted within the framework of the constitutional democracy formed after the 1989/90 regime change.
{"title":"Constitutional Changes in Populist Times","authors":"Zoltán Szente","doi":"10.1163/15730352-47010001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15730352-47010001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The article examines the impacts of populist government in Hungary on constitutional law since 2010. The criterion of the analysis is whether the comprehensive and radical changes that took place during this time have been characterized by the distinctive traits, ambitions and values that the scholarship attributes to populism and ‘populist constitutionalism’, above all anti-elitism, anti-institutionalism, anti-pluralism, the emphasis on popular sovereignty and direct democracy, and an instrumental conception of law. For this purpose, it examines the major changes in the constitutional rules and practice of sovereignty issues, the system of separation of powers, and fundamental rights. The article consists of four parts. In the first chapter, sovereignty issues are discussed including the changing approach of constituent power, constitutional identity, and the interpretation of sovereignty through an analysis of the 2011 Fundamental Law and its eight amendments. The study then reviews the changes in the system of separation of powers, that is, the transformation of the legal status and operational practices of the most important public law institutions. The next chapter provides a qualitative analysis of the situation of fundamental rights, in particular the trends in the renewed regulation of constitutional liberties and political freedoms. In addition, this part gives an assessment of the current state of institutional protection of constitutional rights. Finally, the last chapter seeks to answer the question of how the cumulative effects of these changes can be assessed; whether Hungary follows a new, specific path of constitutional development, or the constitutional changes can be interpreted within the framework of the constitutional democracy formed after the 1989/90 regime change.","PeriodicalId":42845,"journal":{"name":"Review of Central and East European Law","volume":"84 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75191204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1163/15730352-bja10058
Tamás Hoffmann, Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz
Populism is a nebulous concept that has almost as many definitions as scholars engaging with the concept that has a paradoxical relationship with law. On the one hand, populist politicians generally oppose the liberal ideal of separating politics and law, i.e. accepting that legal rules should limit political power, claiming that it would impede the expression of the popular will, yet they use legal regulation as their most important instrument to implement their policies. The chameleonic nature of populism and its instrumentalist approach to law presents a special challenge for lawyers that try to assess its impact on the domestic legal system. Populist legislation, after all, is seemingly indistinguishable from legislation adopted under non-populist regimes as populist regimes always claim to strictly adhere to formal procedural requirements and often justify the dramatic overhaul of previous rules invoking foreign examples. Hungary is a perfect litmus test for the examination of legal changes under populist leaders, because in 2010 the right-wing Fidesz-Kdnp party coalition won two-thirds majority in Parliament – a self-described “revolution in the voting booths” -, which gave it the power to completely overhaul the Hungarian legal system, even changing the constitution. In the past 10 years, virtually every significant branch of Hungarian law was recodified, adopting inter alia new criminal, civil, administrative and labor codes. The authors of this special issue attempted to analyze some of the most pertinent changes, in the field of constitutional law, adjudication, tax law, labor law, criminal regulation and asylum legislation.
{"title":"Populism and Law in Hungary – Introduction to the Special Issue","authors":"Tamás Hoffmann, Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz","doi":"10.1163/15730352-bja10058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15730352-bja10058","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Populism is a nebulous concept that has almost as many definitions as scholars engaging with the concept that has a paradoxical relationship with law. On the one hand, populist politicians generally oppose the liberal ideal of separating politics and law, i.e. accepting that legal rules should limit political power, claiming that it would impede the expression of the popular will, yet they use legal regulation as their most important instrument to implement their policies. The chameleonic nature of populism and its instrumentalist approach to law presents a special challenge for lawyers that try to assess its impact on the domestic legal system. Populist legislation, after all, is seemingly indistinguishable from legislation adopted under non-populist regimes as populist regimes always claim to strictly adhere to formal procedural requirements and often justify the dramatic overhaul of previous rules invoking foreign examples.\u0000Hungary is a perfect litmus test for the examination of legal changes under populist leaders, because in 2010 the right-wing Fidesz-Kdnp party coalition won two-thirds majority in Parliament – a self-described “revolution in the voting booths” -, which gave it the power to completely overhaul the Hungarian legal system, even changing the constitution. In the past 10 years, virtually every significant branch of Hungarian law was recodified, adopting inter alia new criminal, civil, administrative and labor codes. The authors of this special issue attempted to analyze some of the most pertinent changes, in the field of constitutional law, adjudication, tax law, labor law, criminal regulation and asylum legislation.","PeriodicalId":42845,"journal":{"name":"Review of Central and East European Law","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78875000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1163/15730352-bja10060
Zsolt Boda, M. Tóth, Miklós Hollán, A. Bartha
Hungary Post-2010 has been ruled by Viktor Orbán and his right-wing Fidesz party and is generally regarded as a typical case of populist governance. Reforming the Penal Code was one of the first major policy changes initiated by Fidesz shortly after winning the 2010 elections. It introduced the ‘three-strikes’ principle into Hungarian penal policy which is considered a prime example of penal populism. It could be inferred that in the past decade Hungarian penal policy has been dominated by penal populism and punitive measures. This paper argues that reality is more nuanced and presents the concepts of penal populism and populist policy making, with a special focus on the Hungarian context. The article provides an overview of the most important penal policy measures in the past two decades and examines whether and how increased strictness of legislative acts influenced the sentencing practice. The paper highlights the related results of an empirical survey on public opinions about criminal law and ends with a case study exploration of the intersections of lowering the age limit of criminal responsibility and penal populism.
{"title":"Two Decades of Penal Populism – The Case of Hungary","authors":"Zsolt Boda, M. Tóth, Miklós Hollán, A. Bartha","doi":"10.1163/15730352-bja10060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15730352-bja10060","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Hungary Post-2010 has been ruled by Viktor Orbán and his right-wing Fidesz party and is generally regarded as a typical case of populist governance. Reforming the Penal Code was one of the first major policy changes initiated by Fidesz shortly after winning the 2010 elections. It introduced the ‘three-strikes’ principle into Hungarian penal policy which is considered a prime example of penal populism. It could be inferred that in the past decade Hungarian penal policy has been dominated by penal populism and punitive measures. This paper argues that reality is more nuanced and presents the concepts of penal populism and populist policy making, with a special focus on the Hungarian context. The article provides an overview of the most important penal policy measures in the past two decades and examines whether and how increased strictness of legislative acts influenced the sentencing practice. The paper highlights the related results of an empirical survey on public opinions about criminal law and ends with a case study exploration of the intersections of lowering the age limit of criminal responsibility and penal populism.","PeriodicalId":42845,"journal":{"name":"Review of Central and East European Law","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78859872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1163/15730352-bja10061
Márton Varju, M. Papp
In order to meet a variety of locally relevant socio-economic expectations and needs, Hungarian tax policy in the last decade has applied a number of unconventional instruments. The government favored in particular the imposition of additional taxes on corporate taxpayers in specific sectors of the national economy. The taxation of turnover in addition to corporate profits has proved to be a particularly attractive idea. These measures pursue declared objectives which any national government that is faithful to its political mandate could endorse as its own. However, the design of these taxes and their related regulatory hiatuses, which have been subject to extensive scrutiny before the courts of the European Union, raise the possibility of their abusive and discriminatory use to the disadvantage of select individuals, in particular non-national corporate taxpayers. This element of contemporary Hungarian tax policy may well be considered as forming part of the government’s populist policy agenda.
{"title":"Sectoral Special Taxes in Hungary as Instruments of a Populist Fiscal Policy: A Legal Analysis","authors":"Márton Varju, M. Papp","doi":"10.1163/15730352-bja10061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15730352-bja10061","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In order to meet a variety of locally relevant socio-economic expectations and needs, Hungarian tax policy in the last decade has applied a number of unconventional instruments. The government favored in particular the imposition of additional taxes on corporate taxpayers in specific sectors of the national economy. The taxation of turnover in addition to corporate profits has proved to be a particularly attractive idea. These measures pursue declared objectives which any national government that is faithful to its political mandate could endorse as its own. However, the design of these taxes and their related regulatory hiatuses, which have been subject to extensive scrutiny before the courts of the European Union, raise the possibility of their abusive and discriminatory use to the disadvantage of select individuals, in particular non-national corporate taxpayers. This element of contemporary Hungarian tax policy may well be considered as forming part of the government’s populist policy agenda.","PeriodicalId":42845,"journal":{"name":"Review of Central and East European Law","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88663524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1163/15730352-bja10062
M. Bencze
Scholarly works on judicial populism tend to concentrate on the landmark judgments of constitutional courts and apex courts. Nonetheless, the examination of the activities of ordinary courts is of great importance as they shape the lives of citizens and can strengthen or curb populist politics. In this paper I analyze a phenomenon emerging in the adjudication of Hungarian ordinary courts which can be labelled ‘everyday judicial populism’. Based on case studies and empirical scrutiny I argue that the political populism of the Hungarian government has both a direct and an indirect, but clearly detectable, impact on judicial practice. As regards the latter, the government can manipulate (through its media) public opinion in certain court cases, and judges take this opinion - as the ‘vox populi’ - into consideration in their decision-making. At the end of the paper I examine the institutional conditions that have facilitated the emergence of judicial populism.
{"title":"‘Everyday Judicial Populism’ in Hungary","authors":"M. Bencze","doi":"10.1163/15730352-bja10062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15730352-bja10062","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Scholarly works on judicial populism tend to concentrate on the landmark judgments of constitutional courts and apex courts. Nonetheless, the examination of the activities of ordinary courts is of great importance as they shape the lives of citizens and can strengthen or curb populist politics. In this paper I analyze a phenomenon emerging in the adjudication of Hungarian ordinary courts which can be labelled ‘everyday judicial populism’. Based on case studies and empirical scrutiny I argue that the political populism of the Hungarian government has both a direct and an indirect, but clearly detectable, impact on judicial practice. As regards the latter, the government can manipulate (through its media) public opinion in certain court cases, and judges take this opinion - as the ‘vox populi’ - into consideration in their decision-making. At the end of the paper I examine the institutional conditions that have facilitated the emergence of judicial populism.","PeriodicalId":42845,"journal":{"name":"Review of Central and East European Law","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84842047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-08DOI: 10.1163/15730352-bja10057
A. Vincze
There was no tradition of a republican president in Hungary before the fall of communism, and the transitory constitution of 1989 was unclear about the exact role the President should play in the constitutional system of Hungary. Some provisions even resembled those of presidential or semi-presidential systems; some ambiguities were clarified during the first two decades after the transition. Conventions, however, were established to some extent and sometimes very quickly. This period gave rise to guidelines as to how the powers of the President should be exercised. Some other powers were concretized and interpreted foremost by the Constitutional Court. These conventions and judicial interpretations formed the character of the Presidency to the extent of informal constitutional change. Some of these elements have even been incorporated into and formalized by the new Fundamental Law of Hungary. The present contribution will point out how the originally broad competencies of the President have been narrowed in the practice, and what role the Constitutional Court and political actors played in this process.
{"title":"Shaping Presidential Powers in Hungary: Convention, Tradition and Informal Constitutional Amendments","authors":"A. Vincze","doi":"10.1163/15730352-bja10057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15730352-bja10057","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000There was no tradition of a republican president in Hungary before the fall of communism, and the transitory constitution of 1989 was unclear about the exact role the President should play in the constitutional system of Hungary. Some provisions even resembled those of presidential or semi-presidential systems; some ambiguities were clarified during the first two decades after the transition. Conventions, however, were established to some extent and sometimes very quickly. This period gave rise to guidelines as to how the powers of the President should be exercised. Some other powers were concretized and interpreted foremost by the Constitutional Court. These conventions and judicial interpretations formed the character of the Presidency to the extent of informal constitutional change. Some of these elements have even been incorporated into and formalized by the new Fundamental Law of Hungary. The present contribution will point out how the originally broad competencies of the President have been narrowed in the practice, and what role the Constitutional Court and political actors played in this process.","PeriodicalId":42845,"journal":{"name":"Review of Central and East European Law","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75782279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-08DOI: 10.1163/15730352-bja10052
Caroline von Gall
In discussing the concept of the ‘living constitution’ in Russian constitutional theory and practice, this paper shows that the Russian concept of the living constitution differs from U.S. or European approaches to evolutive interpretation. The Russian concept has its roots in Soviet and pre-revolutionary Russian constitutional thinking. It reduces the normative power of the Constitution but allows an interpretation according to changing social conditions and gives the legislator a broad margin of appreciation. Whereas the 1993 Russian constitutional reform had been regarded as a paradigm shift with the intention to break with the past by declaring that the Constitution shall have supreme judicial force and direct effect, the paper also gives answers to the complexity of constitutional change and legal transplants and the role of constitutional theory and practice for the functioning of the current authoritarian regime in Russia.
{"title":"The Concept of the ‘Living Constitution’ in Russian Constitutional Theory and Practice","authors":"Caroline von Gall","doi":"10.1163/15730352-bja10052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15730352-bja10052","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In discussing the concept of the ‘living constitution’ in Russian constitutional theory and practice, this paper shows that the Russian concept of the living constitution differs from U.S. or European approaches to evolutive interpretation. The Russian concept has its roots in Soviet and pre-revolutionary Russian constitutional thinking. It reduces the normative power of the Constitution but allows an interpretation according to changing social conditions and gives the legislator a broad margin of appreciation. Whereas the 1993 Russian constitutional reform had been regarded as a paradigm shift with the intention to break with the past by declaring that the Constitution shall have supreme judicial force and direct effect, the paper also gives answers to the complexity of constitutional change and legal transplants and the role of constitutional theory and practice for the functioning of the current authoritarian regime in Russia.","PeriodicalId":42845,"journal":{"name":"Review of Central and East European Law","volume":"138 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73311097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-08DOI: 10.1163/15730352-20210001
S. Akopov
The present review analyses key ideas of professor Mikhail Antonov’s 2021 book on formalism, decisionism and conservatism in Russian Law. This review essay is written in the form of an imaginary dialogue between the reviewer (a political philosopher) and the author (legal philosopher). Its main aim is to explore legal dimensions of Russia’s new ideology of conservatism. Divided into five sections, it covers five conceptual foundations of the book – sovereigntism, statism, collectivism, civilizationism and exceptionalism. This review essay also examines the links between the respective ideas of legal philosophy of Mikhail Antonov and an overview of arguments from the contemporary political and critical international theory, aiming to engage in a critical discussion with the author about Russia’s insecure collective identity.
{"title":"Ideological Concepts in ‘Formalism, Decisionism and Conservatism in Russian Law’ (2021) by Mikhail Antonov","authors":"S. Akopov","doi":"10.1163/15730352-20210001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15730352-20210001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The present review analyses key ideas of professor Mikhail Antonov’s 2021 book on formalism, decisionism and conservatism in Russian Law. This review essay is written in the form of an imaginary dialogue between the reviewer (a political philosopher) and the author (legal philosopher). Its main aim is to explore legal dimensions of Russia’s new ideology of conservatism. Divided into five sections, it covers five conceptual foundations of the book – sovereigntism, statism, collectivism, civilizationism and exceptionalism. This review essay also examines the links between the respective ideas of legal philosophy of Mikhail Antonov and an overview of arguments from the contemporary political and critical international theory, aiming to engage in a critical discussion with the author about Russia’s insecure collective identity.","PeriodicalId":42845,"journal":{"name":"Review of Central and East European Law","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75583498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}