1. The State of Russia 2. History and Nature of the Constitution 3. Overview of the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation 4. Executive Power, the President and the Government 5. The Legislature and its Formation 6. The Constitutional Role of the Courts 7. Conclusion
Jane Henderson is Senior Lecturer in Law at King's College London and an Adjunct Professor at the Notre Dame Law School in London.
Her scholarship is consistently thorough and lucid, and absolutely
reliable. Henderson is therefore the perfect contributor on the
Russian Constitution for the series 'Constitutional Systems of the
World'. Her new book is no dry recitation of constitutional
provisions. Henderson promises and delivers a contextual and
critical analysis. Her writing is a model of clarity at all times,
even when discussing abstruse theoretical issues in Soviet Marxism.
And she has read an enormous amount, primarily in the English
language literature. Jane Henderson's book is to be recommended
without hesitation for students of the Russian Constitution,
undergraduate, postgraduate and established scholars...[A]
magnificent achievement [and a] highly readable and comprehensive
account of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
*European Public Law, Volume 19(2)*
Russia's embrace of constitutionalism has been slow and incomplete,
and this book helps us understand why. As the title promises,
Henderson situates the current Russian constitution in its
historical and institutional context. She takes the reader back to
988 and the origins of the Russian state under Prince Vladimir
Sviatoslavich, and then works her way to the present day. Key
events in Russia's legal history are highlighted. For those
desiring more detail, the footnotes and the lists of further
readings at the end of each chapter provide a way to dig deeper.
The story is familiar—the tsars' divine right to rule left no room
for a constitution and the adoption of a series of constitutions
during the Soviet period did little to restrain the power of the
state and/or the Communist party— but in Henderson's capable hands,
the story comes alive...The book is ideally suited for university
students interested in understanding not only the twists and turns
in Russia's political fortunes that led to the current
constitution, but also the impact this constitution has had since
its adoption. The deeply contextual analysis is sophisticated, yet
remains accessible to those not versed in the literature on
constitutional theory. Henderson never treats the Russian
constitution as mere words on the page; she never loses sight of
the political and economic context in which the constitution must
operate. The book is essential reading for those interested in the
Russian legal system.
*The Russian Review*
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