Case Law in Russian Approaches to International Law

In her comparative study on the use of case law in international law textbooks, Anthea Roberts demonstrates a number of structural differences between textbooks in different countries. This chapter further explores the Russian situation and asks whether Roberts’s comparative findings regarding Russian international law textbooks reflect the dominant approach in Russian international law scholarship, and whether they also reflect a distinct approach in Russian state practice. It then discusses what might explain both Russian scholarly and governmental approaches and, finally, what international lawyers can learn from this practice in the context of comparative international law. Cautiousness about case law and international courts has historically been characteristic of the Russian approach to international law. The main method used in this chapter is a historical one, because only the history of international law and its ideas can teach us how concrete legal-political circumstances in a country have come into being.