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Maria Nikolaevna Kokina
Approaches to the denition of constitutional traditions
constitutional traditions in the process of their formation since this feature
is common only to state and legal traditions (Aranovskii, 2004: 38).
Answering the key question of his research about whether the Russian
society can become constitutional, and if so, how this is achievable, K.V.
Aranovskii believed that there were some similarities between the Russian
environment and the environment with the dominance of constitutional
traditions (for example, respect for law) but there were much more
dierences between them. This applies to both the ethical values that have
developed over centuries and the practice of implementing power relations
(Aranovskii, 2004: 38). In Russia, the ideals of conciliarism, collectivism and
the common good were always fundamental. In the Russian environment,
the triumph of truth and justice is the supreme value in contrast to the
West, where more attention is paid to the correct and proper execution of
laws (Aranovskii, 2004: 38).
It is worth mentioning that this study was conducted 10 years after the
formation of the Russian Federation, therefore its objective and main tasks
were fully justied. Since the country had a 70-year experience in building
a communist society (diametrically opposite to the constitutional one), the
results of this 10-year development show how the idea of constitutionalism
was accepted in society and whether society wanted to further move in this
direction. K.V. Aranovskii neglected the historical impact of Russian law on
constitutional traditions in the process of their formation and development.
He expressed the idea that such continuity can be inherent only in state and
legal traditions. In his opinion, the constitutional tradition can be renewed
in contrast to the Russian state and legal traditions.
Knyazev (2015) claimed that the constitutional tradition aimed at
achieving a balance between individual freedom and public power. The
essence of constitutional traditions is nothing more than a set of inalienable
features of constitutional ideology that are understood as: the rule of law,
recognition and respect for human rights and civil freedoms, democracy
and popular representation, private property and entrepreneurship, the
separation of powers and decentralization, equality before law and court,
political and ideological diversity, multi-party system and freedom of
association, independent judiciary and adversary proceedings (Knyazev,
2015). In general, the author discussed the constitutional tradition but did
not dene this phenomenon.
Another approach presented by Latskii (2013) provides that the
constitutional tradition is formed under the inuence of national legal
systems, including Slavic, Romano-Germanic, Scandinavian and Latin
American. In this regard, the scholar highlighted, for example, the Slavic
constitutional tradition.