This article focuses on the legal backgrounds and aspects of the reform of Russian federation initiated by President Putin
Of course, the reform of Russian Federation is an important event in Russian politics. But without understanding the legal background and aspects, we can not comprehend the feature of Russian Federation reform fully, because the federation reform by President Putin is a reaction to the fact that some of federation subjects have formed its own legal system since the early stage of the transition in Russia, and others began to legislate its own laws and decrees after the adoption of new Russian Constitution. As a result, Russia came to have two legal system, federal law and regional law, and the legal aspects became more important in the relation between the federal center and federation subjects. Putting it in another way, it is not enough to restore to political negotiations in order to resolve the problems and conflicts between the federal center and federation subjects.
Since the beginning of the transition process in Russia, the federation reform has been a main and difficult issue. 1993 Russian Constitution provides that Russian Federation is a democratic federal rule-of-law state and federation subjects each are equal subjects of Russian Federation. It divides jurisdictions between Russian Federation and federation subjects - the jurisdiction of Russian Federation, the joint jurisdiction, the jurisdiction of federation subject. At the same time, 1993 Russian Constitution allow concluding treaties on the delimitation of scopes of authority and powers between the federal center and its subjects (power-sharing treaties) . In 1993 Russian Constitution the relation between the division of jurisdiction provided by Russian Constitution and the delimitation of scopes of authority and powers decided by the treaties is not sufficiently clear.
1993 Russian Constitution has two contradicting elements. On one hand, it allows Russian Federation to be stronger in the sphere of the legislative power and judiciary power. The Article 76 of the Constitution provides that on issues within the jurisdiction of Russian Federation federal constitutional laws and federal laws shall be adopted and on matters within the joint jurisdiction federal laws shall be issued, in accordance with which federation subjects shall adopt their laws and decrees. According to the Article 71 of the Constitution“law courts; Prosecutor's Office; criminal, criminal-procedural and criminal-executive legislation; amnesty and pardon; civil, civil-procedural and arbitration-procedural legislation; legal regulation of intellectual property”belongs to the federal jurisdiction. Because of this the federation subjects have few powers in the sphere of the judiciary power. Russian judiciary system has common features of that of unitary states. On the other hand, 1993 Russian Constitution contains unique articles, the origin of which can trace back to the principles of the federation embodied in the form of USSR. Article 11 is a typical example of this.
President Eltsin concluded 49 power-sharing treaties with individual federal subject from 1994 to 1998. While some of power-sharing treaties contributed toward maintaining the Russian Federation, the conclusion of the power-sharing treaties served as a method for Elttin to get the supports from the federation subjects. Power-sharing treaties individualized the relations between federal center and federation subjects. On the contrary, Putin's challenge is to establish the legal order between federal center and federation subjects. While under the federal structure stipulated in Russian Constitution the federal center has strong powers, the federal center did not have enough ability to force the federation subjects to comply with Russian Constitution and federal laws. President Putin became aware of this weak point in the Russian Federation.
