Citizens and Justice Courts: Problems of Interaction
(2007-2008)

Coordinator: Lubov Ejova (CISR).
Research within the 2006-2007 project "The Institution of Justice Courts in Russia: Accessibility and Effectiveness" has revealed citizens' different attitudes towards justice courts, the accessibility of this degree of jurisdiction regularly being questioned by citizens. However, research has shown that judges negatively estimate the level of citizens' legal knowledge. Another problem is the different interpretations of the concept of "fair trial". The research therefore aims to explore the interaction between citizens and the institution of justice courts, and to clarify the sense each side ascribes to the relationship. A brochure is to be published on the issue, which will include recommendations for solving problems in interaction between citizens and justice courts. The project also aims to design a training course on fair trial for justices of the peace based on the findings of the research.
Participants from CISR: Elena Bogdanova, Irina Olimpieva.
Supported by Matra/KAP (the Netherlands Consulate-General, St.Peterburg).

The Institution of Justice Courts in Russia: Accessibility and Effectiveness
(2006-2007)

Joint project with the Non-Governmental Human Rights Organization "Citizens' Watch" (St. Petersburg).
Coordinator: Lubov Ejova (CISR).
Justice courts are a new institution in Russian judiciary system that was launched in 2001 in the course of legal reform. The main idea of the new institution is to ensure the shortest way to justice to Russian citizens, the victims of offences. The purpose of the study is to reveal difficulties and obstacles of the interaction between citizens and justice courts that hinder effectiveness of this new institution and its accessibility for citizens. The problem of justice courts' effectiveness is considered from two different perspectives: from the perspective of the Justices of the Peace and from the point of view of citizens appealing to justice courts.
Participants from CISR: Irina Olimpieva, Lubov Ejova, Kira Karchavetz, Elena Bogdanova.
Supported by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

From Nationality to Citizenship: Transformation of Soviet Scenarios of Citizens' Legal Problems Solving
(2007)

The idea of the project is based in the debate about the existence or the lack of tradition of legal society in Russia. Liberal theory describes Soviet society as a continuation of the imperial regime's patrimonial authoritarian traditions. This fact conceals the modern character of soviet (and late-soviet, in particular) society. Relationships between citizens and the state are comprehended in the category of nationality. At the same time mobilization perspectives of Soviet discourse are set aside, as well as the demand on citizens to implement civil functions. The project is an attempt at comparative empirical research of citizens overcoming legal problems in Russian society of the late-soviet and post-soviet periods. The main method of research is discourse-analysis of citizens' appeals to different authorities in the late-soviet and post-soviet periods.
Researcher: Elena Bogdanova.
Supported by A. Gagarin Foundation in Collegiums of the Smolny College of Liberal Science and Arts.

(Re)construction of Boundaries of the Concept of Human Rights in the Conflict between Human Rights and Religious Organisations (The case of "Caution: Religion!" exhibition and a discussion of "The Passion of the Christ" film)
(2006-2007)

The pogrom at the exhibition of modern art entitled "Caution: Religion!" (2003) is an illustrative example of the conflict between human rights organisations and representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church. This conflict has revealed their different logics of actions and their different symbolic rates. It has also demonstrated that "rights" cannot exist independently of social institutions and individuals (although "rights" as a concept has acquired universal meaning fixed in many official documents), and that they are constantly redefined. The project aimed at studying the processes of definition, challenge, redeclaration and determination of the scope of "applying" the concept of human rights as regards freedom of conscience, belief, and thought.
Researcher: Anastasia Zolotova.
Supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation.

The Defense of Rights in the Late-Soviet Period: An Experience that Never Was
(2005-2006)

The aim of the project is an investigation of the advocacy of the civil interests experience in the late-Soviet period (since 60s). The late- Soviet period has defined a "starting point" of the post-Soviet transformations, and research on this period can explain many recent social processes passing nowadays in the Russian society. In the project the main strategies used by the citizens in the conditions of the Soviet society to protect their interests are revealed. This kind of experience is critically considered and conceived in the categories of the contemporary social thought for the first time.
Researcher: Elena Bogdanova.
Supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation.

Applications to the Authority as the Experience of the Citizens' Interests Protection in the Late Soviet Society 1960-1970th
(2005-2006)

Object of the research is complex of relationships accompanying citizens' applications to the authority - agents of the official mechanism of applications in 1960-1970th. Oral and written applications to the authority were the only one legitimate way for the interests' protection accessible to the soviet citizens during whole the soviet period. Formally this is the law relations. Specificity of the soviet system denies the simple answer for the question: what and how regulates these relations in the soviet society? Consequently the research aims to analyze and descript the norms and rules regulating the law relations realized in the conditions of the soviet applying mechanism in a period of 1960-1970th. Design of the research is defined in compliance with the method of critical discourse-analysis. It permits to consider the problem of the law relations regulating on three levels: history, ideology and discourse. Conclusions of the research are formulated on the basis of analysis of empirical material, which consists of late-soviet normative documents, ideological issues, archive materials, press and interviews.
Researcher: Elena Bogdanova.
Initiative project.

Soviet Complaint Practices in Modern Russia:
Transformations in Legal Relations
(2003-2005)

The project investigated the Soviet institution of rights protection, - the Soviet complaints procedure (i.e. submitting official applications to the authorities). In the framework of the project, complaints were considered as a Soviet practice of rights protection, and the institution of the Soviet complaint was analysed as a structure which constructed and reproduced a model for interaction between citizens and the authorities. The aim of the project was to research the formation of the post-Soviet institution of rights protection, and to clarify the transformation of the Soviet model on the level of practice. The meaning of the category of "complaint" was explained as a genre of communication with the authorities, and also as the genre closest to traditional Russian legal relations. On the basis of the texts of complaints, the strategies of Soviet complaints were analysed and the transformation of the Soviet concept of legal relations was described.
Researcher: Elena Bogdanova.
Supported by the European University at St. Petersburg.

Tradition of Legal Self-Protection or "Waiting for Care"
(2003)

The category of "care" in many respects defined the Soviet human rights tradition on the level of ideology and practice. Detailed research of methods of representation, interpretation and practical use of the "care" category in official discourse gave an overview of the Soviet tradition of agents' interactions in the sphere of human rights. The project aimed to analyse discursive production and reproduction of the Soviet model of civil-state interactions in the civil rights protection field through the prism of the "care" category.
Researcher: Elena Bogdanova.
Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the CISR.

The Dissemination of Human Rights Consciousness in Russian Society
(2002)

Joint project with the University of Arizona and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (USA).
Coordinators: Theodore P. Gerber (University of Arizona), Sarah E. Mendelson (Center for Strategic and International Studies), Viktor Voronkov (CISR).
The project aimed to clarify the level of human rights consciousness of different groups of citizens in Russian cities. Within the project focus-groups were conducted in Perm, Rostov, Ryazan and an analytical report on regional aspects of the human rights movement was prepared.
Participants from CISR: Viktor Voronkov, Boris Gladarev, Lubov Ejova.
Supported by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (USA).

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