A Milestone or a Millstone? Duma Passes 8,000th Law

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 13 – Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said yesterday that the lower house of the Russian parliament has now passed its 8,000^th law. Not insignificantly, it was written by the notorious Irina Yarovaya and tightened control over regional governments (znak.com/2018-12-13/gosduma_rf_prinyala_vosmitysyachnyy_zakon_avtor_yarovaya).

            Many, perhaps most of these laws passed in the first seven conventions of the Duma are not only justified but necessary to the well-ordered functioning of the present-day Russian state; but many, because they are poorly thought out, repressive, or so badly drafted do more to discredit and harm the legal and political systems than to strengthen them. 

            That is the case, Znak commentator Yekaterina Vinokurova argues, because all too often deputies write laws or at least introduce them without understanding what those laws are supposed to do or putting them in language to ensure the legislature’s intentions are realized (znak.com/2018-12-3/predlagaya_novye_zaprety_v_internete_senatory_i_deputaty_uhudshayut_polozhenie_vlasti).

                In other countries, legislators have more support, hearings about laws are far less pro forma, and stronger extra-parliamentary interest groups are in a position to object to draft bills and to prompt deputies to rewrite them if that is required or drop them altogether if they can’t be adequately recast.

            At present, for example, two bills have been proposed that should be rewritten or rejected because they are less about making law than calling attention to their authors. One would punish those who disseminate “false news” (polit.ru/news/2018/12/12/fakenews/), and another would impose punishments on anyone  who offended officials (znak.com/2018-12-12/v_gosdume_hotyat_sudit_po_state_melkoe_huliganstvo_za_oskorblenie_chinovnikov_v_seti).

            Neither bill defines what would seem to be a requirement: fake news in the first case and offense in the second.  And consequently, if they pass; and in the current environment, they are likely to, they may be law-like but they won’t really be laws. Instead, they will be political advertisements for their authors and an invitation for arbitrariness by those who “enforce” them.

            Russian legal specialists are well aware of this problem, but their proposed solution may be just as dangerous as the current problem is. One argues that Russian laws are becoming “too complicated” to be understood by ordinary people and that the Duma needs to adopt a new law defining how to draft a law (ng.ru/politics/2018-12-12/3_7461_law.html).

            That Russia needs better drafted laws is beyond question; that making them simpler is the solution is certainl not.