Russian Legal Reform Since Independence

In this thesis, we would describe the legal reformation in Russia since 1993 from the profile of legislation, jurisdiction and administration.After the establishment of the Constitution of Russian Federation in 1993, thesociety runs peacefully. The legislative organ begins to work normally. Russian Parliament has passed a series of federal constitutional laws, federal laws and codes in many basic social fields. As a consequence, laws have controlled the socialrelationships. At the same time, the disorder of legislation, the contradiction amonglaws, and the slowness of law enacting are also very serious.The central focus of my paper lies in the juridical reforms. During last decade, three integrated court systems (the Federal Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Arbitration Court) came into being; the innovation in proceedings was realized (the introduction of Jury-Trial system); many efforts were contributed to guarantee the independence of courts and judges. All these achievements belong to the wisdom of Russian specialist in law. Some successful experiences of Russia could undoubtedly benefit our country.The lack of political and financial supports is an obstacle to the juridical performance. Although such conceptions as "legal reformation", "juridical reforms" often appear in the President's state of the Union Address and in the Government Work Reports, there were little actual political efforts to fulfill these ideas. The financial shortage remained another factor that puzzled juridical reformation. So the chairmen of courts were obliged to consider the economic problems.Mr. Putin himself starts a new cycle of legal reform after having dealt with the tensions between central government and other federal objects. With the great support of new president, many social needed laws and codes were enacted. In order to ameliorate courts' financial situation, Vladimir Putin prepared a large-scale "five-year-plan".It is evident that the process of legal reform might be quite complicated and endless, even when the country's leader has firm will. At present, the resistance from bureaucrats, oligarchs and criminal groups has gradually become the biggest obstacle in the course of legal reforms. Moreover, Russians are still reluctant to believe in juridical reforms, which is also related to the tradition of legal nihilism. As a Slavic scholar Aksakov noted, "Russians never believe in laws, never need laws. For them what is important is belief and salvation." Under such cultural background, theopenness, the justice and the approachability in the juridical judgments, as well as the legal publication and educations seem like very essential.