Law and consent: how post-Soviet states are updating their legal systems

The legal systems of the post-Soviet states are actively developing today, but despite the differences in political regimes, economic models, and foreign policy priorities, they retain a number of common features that determine the specifics of regulating interethnic relations and national policy in the region. The most successful practices of regulating interethnic relations and why they can form the basis for closer expert and interstate dialogue are described in the Izvestia article.

In general terms

The Foundation for the Development of Civil Society in cooperation with experts from St. Petersburg‑St. Petersburg State University has prepared a report on "Legal instruments for the harmonization of national and interethnic relations in the post-Soviet space." The work is an attempt at a comprehensive view of the evolution of the legal systems of the states that arose after the collapse of the USSR. The authors analyzed the legal systems of ten countries — Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. As a result, they were able to identify common features that determine the specifics of regulating interethnic relations and national policy in the region.

First, in most States of the region, the constitutions have retained a strong role as a framework document that establishes the foundations of national and state identity, the status of state languages, and key principles of interaction between the center and the regions. At the same time, constitutional norms are often programmatic (that is, they formulate guidelines and ideals), and their implementation is based on an extensive array of sectoral legislation.

Secondly, post‑Soviet legal systems are characterized by an extensive system of laws and regulations on interethnic relations, support for culture and languages, and regulation of the activities of public associations and the media. This complexity allows for flexible response to new challenges, but at the same time creates the risk of regulatory fragmentation and "legislative overload."

Thirdly, an important commonality is the combination of public law and contractual instruments: states actively use agreements with national cultural associations, councils and assemblies of peoples, advisory bodies under government bodies, institutionalizing dialogue with society. Such mechanisms mitigate possible conflicts and allow for the integration of different interest groups into a single political and legal system.

Finally, most post—Soviet countries are gradually shifting from a predominantly punitive approach to ethnic-based conflicts to preventive and mediation models - the development of integration programs, support for intercultural dialogue, and the use of educational and information resources to reduce tension.

All the studied states, despite their actual polyethnicity, have chosen a model for building a single civil nation. The exception is Uzbekistan, whose Constitution's preamble explicitly states the multinational nature of the country. Constitutional identity is formed on the basis of various models: ethnocratic (Armenia), civil-patriotic (Kazakhstan, Belarus), integration (Moldova with its European vector) and historical (Georgia, Turkmenistan).

The balance of language policy and civic identity

A separate section of the report is devoted to positive cases of regulation of interethnic and legal relations, where Kazakhstan occupies a special place. Using the example of this country, the authors demonstrate how a combination of institutional and legal solutions can ensure sustainable interethnic stability and a high degree of inclusion of different population groups in socio‑political life.

Official bilingualism plays a special role: Kazakh is the state language, and Russian is "used officially alongside" in government and local government, which makes it possible to combine the strengthening of the national language with the preservation of the language of interethnic communication and reducing the conflict potential of language policy. Russian Russian and, if necessary, other languages are also supported by the language balance in education: the law "On Languages" guarantees the possibility of receiving education in Kazakh, Russian and, if necessary, other languages, while Kazakh is fixed as the main subject, and Russian as a compulsory subject, which ensures the unity of the educational space without discrimination against linguistic minorities.

There are interesting innovations in other legal spheres of the republic. Thus, criminal law prescribes a strict and detailed approach to crimes of an extremist nature. For example, the age of criminal responsibility has been lowered (14 years) for inciting discord, the statute of limitations, parole and commutation of punishment are not applied to persons who have committed extremist crimes, which underlines the zero tolerance of the state for manifestations of hatred and extremism.

In information law, Kazakhstan forms a model of "information sovereignty". The law "On Online Platforms and Online Advertising" introduces legal concepts of influencer, recommendation systems, profiling and sponsored content, obliges global platforms to have local representatives and remove illegal content no later than two hours, while simultaneously consolidating interface language and moderation requirements, which allows combining protection from divisive information with the development of a national digital the segment.

Another positive aspect of Kazakhstan's experience is the consistent development of legal instruments for conflict prevention. We are talking about mediation practices, the work of special dispute resolution commissions, and the use of the capabilities of local governments and non-governmental organizations to promptly respond to local hotbeds of tension.

Institutional consolidation

The report describes Belarus as a country that relies on institutional and value-based consolidation mechanisms. The key innovative institution is the All-Belarusian People's Assembly, the highest representative body that unites representatives of government and civil society and serves as an extra-parliamentary platform for coordinating strategic decisions, which fits into the tradition of conciliarity and strengthens the legitimization of state policy.

The family law of the republic emphasizes the role of national identity: the Marriage and Family Code obliges parents to raise their children in respect of historical and national traditions, and the child's name should not contradict the norms of public morality and national traditions. In the information sphere, Belarus imposes a requirement on owners of Internet resources not to allow comments without first identifying users, which, according to the report, is considered an effective measure against the anonymous spread of hatred and disinformation.

Traditions and incentive mechanisms

According to the report, the integration of national traditions and customary law into modern legislation serves as a positive resource in a number of Central Asian States. In Kyrgyzstan, for example, the Family Code allows the formation of a child's surname from the name of the ancestors to the seventh generation, which is regarded as a unique way to legitimize tribal traditions and strengthen historical memory while preserving the secular nature of family law.

Central Asian legal authorities pay increased attention to the control of the religious sphere and countering radicalization, but they also use incentive mechanisms. For example, in Kyrgyzstan, administrative legislation provides for exemption from liability for voluntarily reporting the possession of extremist materials, an example atypical for the region of encouraging positive post-criminal behavior aimed at reducing the latency of offenses.

Moldova offers interesting doctrinal solutions in the field of countering extremism and discrimination: Article 134.21 of the Criminal Code introduces the concept of "prejudice", using not the traditional pair of "hatred or enmity", but the concept of biased judgments, which significantly expands the interpretation of the discriminatory motive. At the same time, a crime is recognized as committed for this motive even if there are other competing motives — an advanced approach that removes the difficulties of proof.

A resource for dialogue

The post-Soviet space remains a zone where interethnic relations and identity issues directly affect political stability and development prospects. Therefore, the positive experience of the post-Soviet countries is becoming important not only as a national but also as a regional resource: it shows how legal means can combine the preservation of cultural diversity with the strengthening of a unified political space.

The authors of the report suggest considering successful practices in regulating interethnic relations as a basis for closer expert and interstate dialogue. In their opinion, the exchange of experience, joint research projects and a comparison of legal decisions from different countries can help develop more effective models for the harmonization of national and interethnic relations throughout the post-Soviet space.

In a conversation with Izvestia, Konstantin Kostin, President of the Foundation for the Development of Civil Society, stressed that the presented report shows that the legal systems of post-Soviet states are gradually moving away from the perception of law only as a tool of control, increasing the function of coordinating interests and managing the diversity of identities in the common political and economic space.

— At the same time, the general vector of modernization is realized not through unification, but through the search for their own institutional and value combinations, which is especially evident in the examples of Kazakhstan, Belarus and the Central Asian states. In this context, the general conclusion of the report on the need for the exchange of experience and expert dialogue looks quite reasonable: the accumulated practices can be used to develop more flexible models of interaction throughout the post—Soviet space," he said.

At the same time, Konstantin Kostin added that the continued success of such models will depend on the extent to which states are willing not only to borrow successful solutions, but also to adapt them to their own political realities, the level of trust in institutions and the nature of elite consensus.