In the Kremlin

The death of the profession

December 24, 2005 Alexander Golts

Russian reality sometimes throws amazing stories. So this week the Constituent Congress of the Association of Russian Lawyers took place literally the day after the Constitutional Court of our country noted the actual liquidation of this profession.

It was unlikely that it could be assumed that, even analyzing an extremely important matter, the CS would come to such a global conclusions. However, this happened. The trial was faced with a non -trivial task: it was necessary to refute its own decision of nine years ago. Then the Constitutional Court calculated the unconstitutional number of the provisions of the Charter of the Altai Territory, which suggested the election of the head of the region by the regional parliament. This precedent was referred to by those who filed a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court about the unconstitutionality of the order established by the Kremlin, according to which the regional parliaments should be approved by Putin's candidates of the governors. And constitutional judges made an amazing decision. It turns out that the decisions of the KS “In the system of previous legal regulation” may be specified or changed “taking into account specific socio-legal conditions for their implementation, including taking into account changes in the system of legal regulation”.

I note that the constitution did not change. And here are the most authoritative lawyers of the country who are entrusted with the interpretation of the Basic Law, said this interpretation depends on some “socio-legal conditions”. I do not presume to judge whether the whole power vertical, rebuilt by Putin V.V., is included in the list of conditions, or was the threat of the threat to relocate the Constitutional Court to the Northern capital.

Until now, I believed that the meaning of the profession of a lawyer is to develop, interpret and apply laws. And now it turns out that the law is not primary (which, I repeat once again, has not been changed), but the changed “socio-legal conditions”. But if so, then make court decisions, investigate crimes, do not understand the disputes of business entities-no lawyers, but those who form these very “socio-legal conditions”: politicians, officials, political technologists. So lawyers will have to choose some of the above professions for themselves in the near future.

The fact that the decision of the Constitutional Court is not only helpless attempts to prove the legality of obvious lawlessness, but also reflects state policy, was confirmed by the president who spoke at the constituent congress of the Association of Russian Lawyers. He demanded that lawyers provide legal means of the “national interests of the country”. Note, not the laws, but the national interests, the right to formulate which belongs, of course, to the president. In the same way, the interests of the world proletariat were set above the law at one time.

In the Anglo-Saxon, for example. Traditions The concept of "professional" is much already interpreted than ours. It is applied only to representatives of three professions: doctors, clergy and lawyers. It is assumed that the social significance of these three professions is not comparable with others. The professional requires not only knowledge of his subject, but also following the unshakable ethical and moral standards.

Members of the KS thanks to the Constitution are very protected people. They cannot be deprived of their position. The only thing that could be scared of was small household inconvenience like moving to St. Petersburg. But all this security makes no sense if there is no one and nothing to protect. If professional lawyers do not resist an open perversion, they are not professionals.
Alexander Golts

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