Russian PM against revising international laws; praises European integration

(Interfax – May 15, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev believes that the basic principles of international law must not be revised even in the face of global crises, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 15 May.

Speaking at the International Legal Forum in St Petersburg on the same day, Medvedev admitted that “many things that seem unshakable to us lawyers in the last century don’t seem so unshakable any more this year, or last year, during the period of crisis.”

At the same time he said: “There are fundamental legal positions, fundamental values, which I believe are not subject to any revision even in this century, for example, the principles of international law. Mankind has spent a lot of effort creating them. And, of course, we must not dispense with them even during a period of international crisis or for any other reason,” Medvedev said.

Meanwhile, speaking at the forum, chairman of the Constitutional Court Valeriy Zorkin called for launching a process of revision of certain rules of international law.

“We need to launch a cautious, thoughtful, but necessary audit of the system of international law, including the UN’s norms and conventions,” Zorkin said.

He said in particular that two of the 10 UN principles are contradictory – the principle of state sovereignty and the right to self-determination.

For his part, Medvedev said he did not want his speech to be “perceived as a call for national trends and national laws to take over”.

“No, of course, both these trends will evolve (the national trend and the trend towards globalization of law), with the understanding, of course, that the principle of sovereignty of states is still valid and remains one of the fundamental principles of international law,” the prime minister said.

Medvedev also believes that, despite economic difficulties, the European Union as an integrated union is a very good idea and will prove its usefulness in time. In integration processes, Russia will be learning from mistakes made by its European counterparts, he said.

Speaking at the forum, Medvedev reminded that Russia together with Kazakhstan and Belarus were already involved in integration processes.

“We are closely monitoring events in the European Union. We will try to learn from mistakes made by our European friends and try to avoid them. Of course, we wish our European friends to overcome the difficult period in the European Union. In my view, this is still a good idea – to create an integrated union. It will also bring economic benefits and, of course, will serve their states and their peoples for many more years,” Medvedev said.