Study Soviet Law Online

(Image from the course’s official website)

STUDY SOVIET LAW ONLINE

Free University Moscow is announcing its Fall courses. Among those is “Soviet Law, Its Origins, and Development (1917-1948)”, taught by Anna Lukina, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge. The course is going to examine the way the concepts of the law and state evolved during the first thirty years of the Soviet state, focusing on the intersections of revolution and evolution, politics and law, and terror and legality in the light of a detailed examination of primary and secondary sources. The course syllabus in English and Russian, as well as other information about the course, can be found here.

The course will be taught online in two groups – in English and Russian. Knowledge of Russian is not a prerequisite.

The course is free, but students are welcome to make a small donation to the Free University Moscow.

To apply, submit the following to info@freemoscow.university till September 14:

  • Your name
  • Your e-mail
  • Group preference (Russian or English)
  • An essay of no more than 500 words replying to a prompt ‘Soviet law: an oxymoron?’. Essays would be assessed based on the following criteria: (i) focus on the question answered; (ii) quality of argumentation; (iii) structure; and (iv) originality.

You will find out whether your application has been successful within two weeks after the application deadline.

You can find other courses that might suit your interests in the Free University Moscow course catalogue for the Fall.

Russian Law Talks 4 recording now available!

The seminar ‘Russian Law Talks 4 – Protection of Foreign Investment in Russia’ was held on the 12th of May 2021.

Watch the seminar here:

https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/e5515693-3669-4afc-aa2c-3c790de499d0

The original description of the event:

In 2020, Russian regulators made further steps at creating an attractive regime for doing business. According to the World Bank, Russia has improved its business climate (it climbed three places and now ranks 28 out of 190 countries). At the same time, foreign investments in Russia plummeted. The flow of foreign direct investment in Russia has decreased 96% in 2020 ($1.4 billion in 2020 compared to $29 billion in 2019). This trend partly reflects the global decline of foreign direct investments on 42% in 2020 influenced by the COVID-19. In 2020, Russian legislation introduced new measures aimed at easing the life of foreign investors. The measures ranged from substantive law changes to shaping a new regime for dispute resolution. The experts will talk about the current trends in regulations affecting foreign investment in Russia, including the introduction of Agreements on protection and encouragement of investments into Russian Law, and the arbitration reform.

Main presentation:

Leonid Kropotov, PhD, Legal Director at DLA Piper

Leonid is a legal director at international law firm DLA Piper. He has over 15 years’ experience in handling cross-border disputes (both litigation and arbitration) and M&A transactions. Leonid is an author of a monography on investments and a series of articles on international arbitration. He is holding PhD in Law from St. Petersburg State University and teaches there a post-graduate course and a master program on resolution of international disputes, investments and M&A.

Vladimir Talanov, Counsel at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners

Vladimir is a Counsel at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners Law Offices. He is a recognized expert in international trade law and provides clients with support in structuring international investment projects. Vladimir took part in developing a number of federal laws, including the Federal Law “On Industrial Policy in the Russian Federation” and the Federal Law “On Protection and Encouragement of Investment in the Russian Federation”. Alongside his law practice, Vladimir teaches at the National Research University “Higher School of Economics” and St. Petersburg State University, where he lectures on public international law, international trade, cross-border dispute settlement and regional economic integration.

Watch the seminar here:

https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/e5515693-3669-4afc-aa2c-3c790de499d0

Gender aspects of violations of the right to freedom of assembly in Russia: first observations and quantitative data

(from ural56.ru)

Gender aspects of violations of the right to freedom of assembly in Russia: first observations and quantitative data

Denis Shedov, Natasha Smirnova \ OVD-Info

Text is based on the discussion on the seminar ‘Russian Law Talks 2 – Gender and Protest’, which was held on the 8th of March 2021. The relevant slides are available here.

Gender and Protest in Russia

The right to freedom of peaceful assembly is dramatically limited in Russia. Since 2011, the human rights media project OVD-Info has been monitoring detentions at peaceful assemblies and cases of political persecution in Russia.

In 2020, in connection with the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and association’s request for contributions to his report about women and protest, we published our first review on the persecution of women for exercising the right to freedom of assembly in Russia from early 2010 to mid-2020. Since then we have been monitoring women’s participation in the protests which intensified during the mass protests of January-February 2021.

Over the years we have documented explicit exploiting gender roles or even sexism regarding protesters when arrested, while at police stations and when their actions get evaluated for criminal charges.

  • The comments or statements by the police officers who use explicitly gendered or sexist remarks to marginalize participants of the protest or the protest itself. In 2019 while detaining a woman during the mass arrests in the summer protests, a police officer noticed a ring on her finger and said that she was a married woman who was not to go to protests and that her husband had to spank her for that. Similar examples regarding both female and male which we collected in the special chapter of our report, confirm gender bias of the police.
  • Threats of violence are gender-specific. An intersex women detained during a public event in Makhachkala in 2019 described her experience, “At the station I was humiliated, threatened, verbally degraded in various ways, but not beaten. They threatened to reveal my status so that the locals would kill me, and threatened to murder me and blame it on the Wahhabis. They said they’d do that so that creatures like me would not exist. They forced me to undress; they examined me, and they conducted a lengthy interrogation regarding my genitals. It was extremely unpleasant.”
  • Criminal charges are gender biased. Zarifa Sautieva, an attendee of the 2018 Ingushetia protest, was charged with organisation of violence dangerous to the life and health of public officials carrying out official duties. According to the prosecutor’s version of what happened in her case, she “provocatively called to masculine dignity and national unity,” urging other protesters to protect the elders and the woman (Sautieva) by any means.

Many restriction of the freedom of assembly could be considered as deeply gendered: arbitrary refusal to authorize gatherings, suppression of rallies and mass arrests, use of force against detainees, state control over information regarding assemblies, administrative and criminal prosecution, threats, expulsions and other means of non-juridical pressure and so on.

Russian legislation is not gender neutral and has an impact on exercising of different rights and freedoms, particularly freedom of assembly. Some of the issues include:

  • Police officer is prohibited from using special means against women with visible signs of pregnancy;
  • In administrative prosecution, community service does not apply to pregnant women, women with children under the age of three;
  • Pregnant women and women with children under age of 14 cannot be sentenced to administrative arrest;
  • Women are not placed in colonies of strict and special regimes;
  • Life imprisonment is not provided for women;
  • Men between the ages of 18 and 27 are subject to military service, which becomes additional means of pressure and creates the risk of being drafted if expelled from a university.

The majority of gender-specific provisions are based on women’s reproductive role and aimed at protecting her reproductive function which further objectifies women. However, not many of those provisions are implemented.

Participation of women in Navalny-related protests

In January and February 2021 Russia experienced mass protests in connection with the return and subsequent detention of Alexey Navalny. Women played a visible role in these protests.

According to estimates from Moscow and St. Petersburg protests conducted by a group of scientists including Alexey Zakharov, Alexandra Arkhipova and a number of volunteers from the project White Counter and the group of Contemporary folklore monitoring, women accounted for 45% of protesters on January 23 in Moscow and 44% in St. Petersburg.  The share of women was lower on the former protests in Moscow: on August 3, 2019, 36% of all the participants were women.

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/5483030/

In Moscow, according to OVD-Info’s data, more than 1500 people were detained on January 23, 12% of them were women.

The most common type of negative consequences for protesters is charges with an administrative offense. According to the case data, available on the court’s websites, since the beginning of the protests on the 17 of January 2021, 4515 cases were transferred to Moscow courts by March 4, 15% of them were against women and 85% — against men.

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/5483120/

The most typical punishment for participation in the protests is a fine. The court hearing is preceded by the arrest after protesters had been detained.

Based on our analysis, in Moscow, the average fine for women was larger, and arrests on average shorter, than in cases against men. Surprisingly, according to this piece of data, arrests have been imposed on women even more often than on men. Though both women and men got arrested ten times more often than before: according to official court statistics, in 2019, when rallies with mass detentions took place in Moscow, the share of arrests was only 4% of all indictments.

In February, the Interior Ministry reported on the initiation of 90 criminal cases after mass protests. Among the suspects and accused in these cases, by the beginning of March, we have learnt that of 68 men and 12 women. That is an extraordinary number considering that from the year 2015 till the middle of 2020 there were only 8 criminal cases against women in Russia connected with rallies.

Among these 12 women, 5 were charged with violation of epidemiological rules — that article of the Criminal code was significantly changed last year and its enforcement seems to be gender-neutral.

On the contrary, women are rarely charged with violence against police officers, though that is the most common accusation for protesters. We know about only one such case against a woman after the January protests, and about only 3 such court verdicts since 2011 compared with 86 verdicts against men. Also, the penalties for women were milder than the average for similar cases against male protesters.

In 2021, the number of men injured during arrest was significantly higher than the number of women (90 vs 10%). Also, the cases of police violence towards male protesters seem not to contradict the existing social norm that much. Usually, the information spreads wider, and we see more reaction when women get injured, as the violence by a police officer, who is expected to be a strong man, towards a woman, who is expected to be weaker, is condemned and criticised by society.

Conclusion

We see a huge potential in studying how the state institutions prevent people from exercising their right to freedom of assembly through a gender perspective.

If limitations in this area differ for men and women, the research may reveal how gender specific tools of oppression work and suggest a way to deal with them. Also, it may show how gender inequality being entrenched in different spheres of life results in unequal access to freedom of assembly depending on the gender.

Looking deeper into the quantitative data presented above, it is possible to study the dynamic of changes, the regional aspects, variations for different types of events and protest topics, and focus not only on the gender of protesters but also of those who prevent them from protests and those who are involved in the defence of the freedom to assemble. Still more qualitative data is needed to study the influence of the position and responsibilities in the family on limitation of access to freedom of assembly.

Additionally, there is the context of special female experience of detention, escorting and prosecution, connected with misfit conditions and increased stigmatization, as well as the context of gender difference of participation in public and political life and recognition as a political entity. We believe that such context is necessary to interpret our data and get some knowledge about current social and legal life in Russia.

 

OVD-Info research team is ready to provide data and is open to conducting joint research on these topics.

To contact us, write to us at  data@ovdinfo.org. You can also subscribe to OVD-Info data newsletter to get updates about our research and data HERE.

Russian Law Talks 3 recording now available!

Russian Law Talks 3 – Foreign Agents 2.0: Civil Society, New Legislation on the NGOs and Educational Activities in Russia – recording now available!

 

The seminar ‘Russian Law Talks 3 – Foreign Agents 2.0’ was held on the 19th of April 2021.

Watch the seminar here:

https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/80bc7341-0baa-4e44-b1b2-4c2d6595a02c

The original description of the event:

At the turn of 2020-2021 a series of bills broadening the oppressive “foreign agents” legislation, first introduced in 2012, were passed by the Russian State Duma. The new laws expand the scope of individuals and groups that can be designated “foreign agents,” introduce new restrictions and registration and reporting requirements, and oblige the media to note the designation whenever they mention these individuals or groups. Educational activities — which are now defined as any activities aimed at «intellectual, spiritual, moral, creative, physical and professional development of a person» shall be controlled by the government.

A team of NGO representatives and scholars will discuss the situation and the prospects of the Russian civil society under the new restrictive legislation.

Speakers

Alla Chikinda, Resource center for LGBT

Alla Chikinda is a communications manager in Resource center for LGBT based in Yekaterinburg, Russia. It is one of the strongest local LGBT organisations in Russia, working since 2014. Alla is responsible for external communications, notably with the media on local, national and international level, as well as potential partners and allies for Resource center. In 4 years Alla has established strong links with many well-known media and ensured that every year there are over 150 mentions of Resource center in various sources. Among the media outlets writing about the work and achievements of Resource center are Novaya gazeta, Takie dela, Radio liberty, Meduza and BBC Russian service. Ms Chikinda has also contributed to the visibility of Resource center among NGOs in Yekaterinburg and its region, taking part in and organising various  talks, podcasts and other public events.

https://www.facebook.com/alla.chikinda/

Diana Barsegyan, communications specialist at Nasiliu.net Center

Diana graduated from The Russian State University of Cinematography with a degree in screenwriting in 2018. She became an employee of the ‘Nasiliu.net’ Center in the summer of 2020. During her work, she participated in organizing discussions for experts in the field of domestic violence, organized awareness campaigns about the problem of domestic violence,  participated in a promo campaign related to the release of the center’s own clothing line. Diana took part in the filming of a video about gender equality ‘Girls are such girls’, the video can be seen on the Center’s YouTube channel. Diana also regularly communicates with journalists on behalf of the Сenter: during her work she gave comments or interviews to dozens of newspapers and magazines.

https://www.facebook.com/diana.endtitles

Tatiana Glushkova, HRC “Memorial”

Tatiana Glushkova holds a degree in law from Lomonosov Moscow State University (2011). She works as a lawyer at Human Rights Centre “Memorial” (Moscow, Russia). In this capacity she represents applicants before the European Court of Human Rights in cases brought against Russia on matters including right to life, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, right to respect for private and family life, right to non-discrimination. Tatiana engages in international advocacy before the UN and the Council of Europe bodies. In 2018 she was elected as a board member of HRC “Memorial”.

https://www.facebook.com/glush.tat/

Maria Davidenko, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Higher School of Economics, Moscow

Maria Davidenko is an Assistant Professor in the School of Sociology at Higher School of Economics (Moscow). Her research interests include gender inequality in organisations, state-civil society relations, and non-state actors’ participation in policymaking. Maria’s current research project examines possibilities and limitations for participation in policymaking for Russian NGOs working with the issue of domestic violence. Maria is also a member of a project group “Women and gender in public administration” (at HSE) that organises seminars and carries out research on gender segregation in public service as well as problems faced by women who seek to climb the career ladder in public administration, including gender stereotypes, the need to balance work and family responsibilities, and sexual harassment at work.

https://www.hse.ru/en/org/persons/202139458#sci

Watch the seminar here:

https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/80bc7341-0baa-4e44-b1b2-4c2d6595a02c

Russian Law Talks 4 – Protection of Foreign Investment in Russia

12 May 2021

Time: 16:00 (Helsinki time)

Via Zoom

Event description:

In 2020, Russian regulators made further steps at creating an attractive regime for doing business. According to the World Bank, Russia has improved its business climate (it climbed three places and now ranks 28 out of 190 countries). At the same time, foreign investments in Russia plummeted. The flow of foreign direct investment in Russia has decreased 96% in 2020 ($1.4 billion in 2020 compared to $29 billion in 2019). This trend partly reflects the global decline of foreign direct investments on 42% in 2020 influenced by the COVID-19. In 2020, Russian legislation introduced new measures aimed at easing the life of foreign investors. The measures ranged from substantive law changes to shaping a new regime for dispute resolution. The experts will talk about the current trends in regulations affecting foreign investment in Russia, including the introduction of Agreements on protection and encouragement of investments into Russian Law, and the arbitration reform.

Speakers:

Leonid Kropotov, PhD, Legal Director at DLA Piper
Leonid is a legal director at international law firm DLA Piper. He has over 15 years’ experience in handling cross-border disputes (both litigation and arbitration) and M&A transactions. Leonid is an author of a monography on investments and a series of articles on international arbitration. He is holding PhD in Law from St. Petersburg State University and teaches there a post-graduate course and a master program on resolution of international disputes, investments and M&A.

Vladimir Talanov, Counsel at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners
Vladimir is a Counsel at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners Law Offices. He is a recognized expert in international trade law and provides clients with support in structuring international investment projects. Vladimir took part in developing a number of federal laws, including the Federal Law “On Industrial Policy in the Russian Federation” and the Federal Law “On Protection and Encouragement of Investment in the Russian Federation”. Alongside his law practice, Vladimir teaches at the National Research University “Higher School of Economics” and St. Petersburg State University, where he lectures on public international law, international trade, cross-border dispute settlement and regional economic integration.

Russian Law Talks 2 recording now available!

Russian Law Talks 2 – ‘Gender and Protest’ recording now available!

The seminar ‘Russian Law Talks 2 – Gender and Protest’ was held on the 8th of March 2021.

The original description of the event:

Since 2011 Russians are back on the streets expressing their opinion of the regime and protesting its new laws and measures. The authorities have chosen the path of criminalization of the protest activities which increased the number of arrests and introduced harsher punishments for using the constitutionally guaranteed right of the freedom of assembly. Since the Pussy Riot’s anti-Putin prayer, women have become increasingly visible in the protests.

OVD-INFO, an independent media project that monitors protests in the Russian Federation, upon the request of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association, created a special report on women’s participation in the protests. A team of experts and scholars will be discussing the report and wider issues related to gender and protest in Russia on 8 March 2021 at 14.00-16.00 EET (Helsinki).

Main presentation:

Denis Shedov and Natalia Smirnova, OVD INFO

Violations of the Right to Peaceful Assembly for Women and Girls in Russia from 2010 to 2020. A Report for the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Discussion:

Olga Zeveleva, University of Helsinki

Aleksandra Rumyantseva, Centre for Advanced Governance, Russia

Andrei Semenov, Yale Macmillan Center, Yale University

Dmitry Kurnosov, Carlsberg Fellow, University of Helsinki

Watch the seminar here:

https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/a04fd5ab-f3cb-4895-bd4a-415a962860d7

The earth system, hydrosphere, and outer space: Cosmo-legal approaches

A new article by Elena Ćirković

For #Volkerrechtsblog : As the #anthropocentric #architecture of law does not correspond to the Earth’s system, legal instruments like the #EU Water Framework Directive don’t reflect the impacts of #ClimateChange. Elena Ćirković calls for a #cosmolegal approach and #designing with #nature:

(Der Völkerrechtsblog ist ein wissenschaftlicher Blog zu allen Fragen des Völkerrechts und des Völkerrechtsdenkens. Wir begrüßen Beiträge aus der ganzen Welt zu diesen Themen)

Read the article here:

https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/de/the-earth-system-hydrosphere-and-outer-space-cosmo-legal-approaches/

Russian Law Talks 1 recording now available!

Russian Law Talks 1 – ‘The Arctic Environment, Sounds, and Posthuman Laws’ recording now available!

The Development of Russian Law team offers a warm thank you to everyone who showed interest in our first seminar in the series ‘Russian Law Talks’. The first seminar, ‘The Arctic Environment, Sounds, and Posthuman Laws’, is now available to watch on Unitube.

The original description of the seminar:

Please join us for a discussion on contemporary issues in the Russian Arctic and its changing environments. Dr. Elena Cirkovic will host the session and present on the interactions between different global-local legal regimes, posthumanism, and indigenous perspectives on the region. Dr. Roza Laptander will present her research on sounds in Siberian culture. Susanna Pirnes will present her ongoing doctoral research on the topic “Identity utopias carried by arctic history politics”.

The seminar ‘Russian Law Talks 1 – The Arctic Environment, Sounds, and Posthuman Laws’ was held on the 16th of February 2021 at 16:00 (Helsinki time) via Zoom.

Update 5/2021: Susanna Pirnes asked for her part of the talk to be cut out.

Watch the seminar here:

https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/8fccefbf-7880-4ea7-abd2-fc9ca61c77d3

Russian Law Talks 2 – Gender and Protest

Gender and Protest in Russia

8 March 2021 14.00-16.00 EET (Helsinki)

Zoom

Watch the seminar here:

https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/a04fd5ab-f3cb-4895-bd4a-415a962860d7

Since 2011 Russians are back on the streets expressing their opinion of the regime and protesting its new laws and measures. The authorities have chosen the path of criminalisation of the protest activities which increased the number of arrests and introduced harsher punishments for using the constitutionally guaranteed right of the freedom of assembly. Since the Pussy Riot’s anti-Putin prayer, women have become increasingly visible in the protests.

OVD-INFO, an independent media project that monitors protests in the Russian Federation, upon the request of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association, created a special report on women’s participation in the protests. A team of experts and scholars will be discussing the report and wider issues related to gender and protest in Russia on 8 March 2021 at 14.00-16.00 EET (Helsinki).

Main presentation:

Denis Shedov and Natalia Smirnova, OVD INFO

Violations of the Right to Peaceful Assembly for Women and Girls in Russia from 2010 to 2020. A Report for the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Discussion:

Olga Zeveleva, University of Helsinki

Aleksandra Rumyantseva, Centre for Advanced Governance, Russia

Andrei Semenov, Yale Macmillan Center, Yale University

Dmitry Kurnosov, Carlsberg Fellow, University of Helsinki