Legal problems of the federal territory as a new form of territorial organisation in the Russian Federation
Abstract
The 2020 constitutional reform in the Russian Federation introduced a new institution into the Russian political system: the federal territory, defined as an internal administrative unit that does not have the status of a constituent entity of the federation and is subject to direct administration by the federal authorities. This institution, which has no precedent in Russian constitutional law, forms part of a broader reform aimed at consolidating power and strengthening the constitutional position of the President. This article aims to analyse the legal basis and nature of the federal territory as a specific form of territorial organisation of public authority in the Russian Federation, highlighting the doctrinal and practical issues arising from the adopted constitutional and statutory provisions. For this study, legal acts, the case law of the Russian Constitutional Court and legal doctrine have been utilised. The analysis concludes that a federal territory is a quasi-entity of the federation, operating outside the closed list of its constituent units specified in Article 65 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Using the example of the only existing federal territory, ‘Sirius’, it has been demonstrated that this institution deepens the state’s centralisation, although its objectives could have been achieved without amending the Constitution.
Keywords:
constitutional law, federal territory, legal order of the Russian Federation, the 2020 constitutional reform in Russia, authoritarian constitutionalism, centralisation of public powerReferences
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