PARLIAMENTS IN THE STATES OF THE FORMER SOVIET UNION

Abstract

Introduction: the article studies the structure, formation procedures, and powers of parliaments in the CIS countries. These are considered through the prism of the theory of separation of powers. We also carried out a comparative study of the status of parliamentarians in the countries of the ormer Soviet Union – their rights, duties, restrictions, and responsibilities. The purpose of our research is to trace the mutual penetration of all the branches of power into the functions of one another, which has an impact on the powers of legislative bodies in the CIS countries and the way they perform their functions. Methods: apart from general scientific methods, we employed specific scientific methods, including comparative legal and systemic ones. Results: the study has shown that many ex-USSR countries tend to adopt so called rationalized parliamentarism, a system borrowed from the constitutional practice of France and some other foreign countries. There are noted two major trends in the CIS countries: the strengthening of the powers of heads of state in some countries and their weakening in others, which cannot but affect the structures and powers of the parliaments. In countries such as Kazakhstan, the powers of the parliament are expanding and the influence of the head of state on the formation of the parliament and its autonomous activities is reducing. However, in Belarus and Turkmenistan, an opposite trend has been observed. Conclusions: in some states, the methods mostly typical for the parliamentary practices of Anglo-Saxon countries are applied, namely the parliamentary shuttle method and pocket veto. Thus, parliamentarism in the CIS countries turned out to be open to adopting various legal institutions and norms that cannot be found within the framework of a single national legal system in other foreign countries. The article describes the structure of parliamentary immunity in the CIS and Baltic countries, including parliamentarians’ immunity and indemnity (non-responsibility and witness immunity as well as the right to remuneration).