Status of international agreements in the Russian constitutional law

International agreements are an important element stabilizing the international law and Russia’s relations with other countries. Bordering with 14 countries and being a politically active member of several dozen international organizations, Russia is a party to the vast number of contracts and international agreements concluded between countries as well as international organizations. In April 1986, the Soviet Union ratified the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 22 May 1969. After the changes in the political system, the Russian Federation as the successor to the Soviet Union defined the status of international agreements in the Constitution of 12 December 1993 in the Federal Law of 15 July 1995 on the international treaties of the Russian Federation and the Federal Constitutional Law on the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. The purpose of this article is to present the status of international agreements of the Russian Federation, in particular the primacy of international law over national laws – in the light of Federal Constitutional Law, case law and the doctrine, including latest changes in the Law on the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of December 2015.

Social associations in the Russian Federation. Legal status with particular emphasis on laws on organizations fulfilling the function of a foreign agent and undesirable organizations on the territory of the Russian Federation

The aim of this article is the general characteristics of the legal status of associations in Russia. They include the origin of association movement, overview of current legal sources, basic terms, and discussion of selected regulations limiting the right to association, with particular emphasis on law of 20 July 2012 on organizations fulfilling the function of a foreign agent and law of 23 May 2015 on undesirable organizations on the territory of the RF. This paper also highlights the political aspect of the origin, shaping and transformation of the legal position of associations. The legal status of associations in Russia is always linked to the political situation in the country. Constitutional traditions of Tsarist and Soviet Russia were not conducive to bottom-up self-organization of society and only perestroika in the late 80s enabled unrestrained participation in public life. Currently in Russia, there are over 101 thousand registered social associations and undoubtedly it is a record number in the historical context. However, in order to maintain internal security against the growing threat of terrorism, as well as to the risk of the outbreak of the color revolution, in recent years Russia started to re-introduce significant restrictions on the freedom of association. The basic research method is the dogmatic analysis of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and selected federal laws. The issue discussed is rarely raised in Polish scientific publications. This paper constitutes an attempt to fill the gap in the subject literature aiming at contributing to the development of scientific knowledge in Polish-Russian comparative studies.