THIRD EDITION OF PROFESSOR BUTLER’S RUSSIAN LAW AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS PUBLISHED
March 2021 — In March 2020, with effect from July 4, 2020, the 1993 Russian Constitution was massively amended, an event which attracted media attention throughout the world and a demonstration or two in Russia itself. The length of the Basic Law was increased by nearly a third. These far-reaching changes are integrated, together with other recent materials, into the third edition of Professor William E. Butler, Russian Law and Legal Institutions (3d ed.; Clark, New Jersey, Talbot Publishing, 2021), released on February 23, 2021.
Long a standard work in the field, the volume sets the Russian legal system in the context of comparative legal studies, considers in detail the conundrums of legal translation and their impact on the legal practitioner and judiciary, the foundations of Russian law (history, theory, sources of law, legal profession and education), the full range of law enforcement agencies in the broadest understanding of that term, the constitutional structure of the system, and an extensive bibliography of western sources on the subject.
The full text of the amended Constitution in the author’s translation is an appendix to the book.
Professor William Butler is the John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law; Emeritus Professor of Comparative Law, University College London; and Foreign Member, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine; and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences; Associate Member, International Academy of Comparative Law; member, American Law Institute. He recently published International Law in the Russian Legal System (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Chapter 11 in T. E. Carbonneau, W. E. Butler, and H. A. Blair, International Litigation: Cases and Materials (3d ed.; West, 2020).