Constitutional Evaluation of Contemporary Legal Reality: Lawmaking, Law Enforcement, Jurisprudence and Bioethics

 

On December 14, 2019  the  Chair of the Constitutional Law and the Centre for Bioethics of the Ural State Law University hosted a round table discussion on Constitutional  Evaluation  of Contemporary Legal Reality: Lawmaking, Law Enforcement, Jurisprudence  and Bioethics.

The use of biotechnologies raises far-reaching ethical and legal implications, yet there is little regulatory oversight of these medical  and constitutional procedures in Russia. In the field marked by the rapid technological innovations the Constitution of the Russian Federation  must navigate questions related to the conception of human values and dignity in a landscape of shifting cultural norms and ideological divisions.

The objective of this round table discussion was to analyze the effectiveness of the Russian Constitution  in the light of the developments in the biomedical field and the perspectives with a view to define the elements of a “strategic action plan”.

The round table discussion provided a platform for presenting new ideas, debate, discussion, learning and networking with other professionals  the fields of constitutional and municipal law, constitutional judicial process, human rights and bioethics.

More than 50 professionals and  stakeholders from various regions from the constitutional, civil and  criminal law as well as from public authorities and academics (medicine, political science, philosophy) were brought  together ( from Sverdlovsk Region, Tyumen region, Krasnoyarsk Region).

The Professor Marat Salikov[1]  opened the round table discussion and welcomed speakers and participants. He invited Professor Svetlana Nesmeyanova, Associate Professor Maxim Gonchavov and Associate Professor  Irina Krylatova to make some opening remarks.

 

 

The first session of  the round table discussion was opened by the Vice-Head of the Centre of Bioethics and Law, PhD, Medical Sciences, Senior Scientist,  Institute for Immunology Michail  Bolkov, who provided the audience with a dynamic overview of  the new challenges of the medicine of 21 century.  Irina Krylatova provided background on the understanding  of the key bioethics issues  and  the concept of boiconstitutionalism. She remarked that it is the notion of human dignity which lies at the heart of the entire human rights edifice and this concept is prevalent in and connects the disciplines of law and ethics. Then discussion moved on to the core  legal and ethical issues of child transplantology moderated by Svetlana Nesmeyanova   and Ekaterina Kalinina   as well as medical screening and storage of genetic samples (Andrey Nechkin).

The second  session began  with  the study  of Gregory Yakimov on constitutionalism and contemporary Constitution which moved further to flexibility of public policy by  Dmitriy Avdeev. The point was made that mentioned issues interrelated with the constitutional identity and legal awareness (Alexandr Bleshik). Participants of the forum agued that decision-making policy is impossible without  the social partnership with religious organizations  (Vera Ilichenko) and good governance  and rule of law (Valentin Agafonov).

In addition,  4  post-graduate students  presented  the several studies on the  budget  and constitutional judicial process (Mark Lesuk, Miсhael Sadovy, Alexander Tupikin, Igor Epiphanov).

Maxim Goncharov concluded the discussion by remarking that legislators have a responsibility to explain and clarify what the concept of  constitutional values  means. To solve  this problem he  proposed to adopt the special legal act.

Our special thanks  are to the panelists for  the meaningful and motivating academic discussion  which seemed to  be truly enjoyable.