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#7
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001
From: Donald Barry <ddb0@Lehigh.EDU>
Subject: Belin on Constitutional Amendments

Dear David,

I'd like to submit the following comments on Laura Belin's comments in #5595 on the constitutional amendment process in Russia. Sincerely, Don Barry Donald Barry Political Science Lehigh University 302 Maginnes Hall 9 W. Packer Ave. Bethlehem, PA 18015 Tel. 610-758-3338 FAX 610-758-6554

Correcting Belin's Corrections

Laura Belin in #5595 correctly points out some inaccurate or misleading statements about the amendment process as provided in the Russian Constitution. But in the process she makes some misstatements herself.

Article 135, as she indicates, states that chapters 1, 2, and 9 cannot be amended by parliament, but only by convoking a constitutional assembly. This is called not by a two-thirds vote in both houses, but by a three-fifths vote. She then says that the constitutional assembly "can approve amendments." But what Article 135 actually says is that the assembly can either "confirm the immutability" of the existing constitution or develop a draft of a whole new constitution. Of course this new draft might differ from the old only by including the proposed amendments that parliament had in mind in the first place in calling for the constitutional assembly. But it might go further, too. The delegates to the convention in Philadelphia in 1787 were under instructions that their sole and express purpose was to revise the Articles of Confederation. Belin then says that the constitutional assembly can approve amendments by a two-thirds vote, but that the amendments must then be approved by a nationwide referendum. But this is not what Article 135 provides. It indicates that approval of the new draft may be either by two-thirds of the constitutional assembly or by referendum.

Regarding Article 136, Belin says that "a federal constitutional law should be adopted to govern the amendment procedure for articles in chapters 3 through 8..." What Article 136 actually says is that amendments to this part of the Constitution "shall be made in accordance with the procedure established for the adoption of a federal constitutional law." That procedure, as indicated in Article 108 of the Constitution, requires an affirmative vote of at least three-quarters of the members of the Federation Council and at least two-thirds of Duma deputies. As Belin indicates, such amendments must then gain the approval of the legislatures of at least two-thirds of the federation subjects.

The only other provision for amendment in the Constitution is Article 137. It concerns only Article 65, on the composition of the Russian Federation. Article 137 provides that changes in Article 65 (creation of new subjects or other changes in the status of subjects) may be effected through the adoption of a federal constitutional law. This would require the same extraordinary majorities in parliament that were mentioned above. But Article 137 requires neither a nationwide referendum nor approval by the subjects of the federation themselves.

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