Lawmaking in times of domestic and foreign-policy instability (the Russian experience)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article is devoted to the phenomenon of the contemporary restrictive and prohibitive legislation that originates from the conditions of domestic and foreign-policy instability. It primarily focuses on the Russian experience, because the current Russian legislation is an obvious example of legislation exercised with the help of restrictive and prohibitive rules. Such recent and much-talked-of acts as the Dima Yakovlev Law, that bans the U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children, and the ‘Foreign Agents’ Law, that has stigmatised Russian NGOs receiving foreign donations and introduced new forms of control over them, are examined. The author suggests that we should call such legislation ‘exceptional’, distinguishing it from the emergency laws. Unlike the latter, exceptional laws do not contain any regulations concerning the situations of armed conflicts, civil unrest or natural disasters; they have ordinary status and place in the legal system and are adopted in an ordinary procedure. It is claimed that exceptional lawmaking radically transforms the whole legal system: being perceived as normal, exceptional laws gradually change the entire system of legislation that previously did not have any exceptional character and in which obligations and prohibitions did not dominate. Particular attention is paid to the use of exceptional laws as tools of foreign policy and as weapons in the present international conflicts.