Sheverdyaev S.N.

This article makes a hypothesis about the possibility of stimulating the development of constitutional and legal institutions through the anti-corruption mechanisms that are developing in Russia today. The question posed in this way is in many respects innovative for the domestic legal debate and is only beginning to gain influence. Although for a broader sociological view, especially in Western literature, this formulation of the question has become quite traditional. The material provides illustrations of a number of forms in which constitutional law is enriched with new anti-corruption senses, ensuring its qualitative development.

For the development of Russian constitutional law, international anticorruption standards are of great interest, which are beginning to spread their influence on the ideas of national governments about modern requirements for regulating power relations. A good example of a traditional topic for constitutional law, which is affected by the anticorruption conventions of the United Nations and the documents of the “soft law” of the Council of Europe, are the issues of electoral law. Specialized international legal standards that try to curb corrupt practices during the electoral process have been developing since the early 2000s. The most well-known group of such standards is related to guaranteeing transparency in the financing of election campaigns and political parties. This article examines the Russian experience of implementing Part 3 of Article 7 of the 2003 UN Convention against Corruption through participation in a specially created “Mechanism for reviewing the implementation of the Convention”, and also analyzes the specifics of implementing the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe “On Common Rules for combating corruption in the financing of political Parties and election campaigns” 2003 through the mechanisms of GRECO — A special organization of the Council of Europe, designed to monitor the progress of States in improving national legislation in the spirit of pan-European anti-corruption ideals. Despite Russia’s formal withdrawal from the Council of Europe in 2022, the European anti-corruption conventions and mechanisms of this international organization continue to be an interesting object for study.

This article elaborates and illustrates the theses presented by the author in the scientific report “Research on the problem of combating corruption in society in the Russian science of constitutional law” at the meeting of the Academic Council of the Faculty of Law of Lomonosov Moscow State University on October 20, 2023. 

Anti-corruption issues are considered as a promising area of research that can intensify discussion of the shortcomings of the legal structure of power relations as a subject of constitutional law. The article contributes to the development of scientific tools for studying the problems of political (systemic) corruption by means of constitutional and legal knowledge. The author substantiates not only the possibility, but also the inevitability and great potential of studying the problem of corruption in society in the domestic constitutional and legal science. 

The following topics are revealed: 1) The reason for the emergence of anticorruption research in the Russian science of constitutional law; 2) The main incentives for the development of interdisciplinary anti-corruption theory; 3) The concentration of scientific research in the field of combating corruption directly within the framework of Russian constitutional and legal science; 4) The structure of anti-corruption problems in constitutional and legal science; 5) The importance of anti-corruption issues for the development of modern sciences of Russian constitutional law. Conclusions are drawn about the need to support this topic, which is at the same time practically in demand and allows us to develop serious scientific research in domestic constitutional law in the current conditions.