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INSTEAD OF A FOREWORD
The humanity has entered the new millennium with a need for revaluing many basic values of social consciousness and for a serious search of ways to regulate social life and ensure sustainable development. "Globalisation", "universalism", "super-state constitution", "international terrorism and struggle against it", and a number of other concepts in use require not only general but also thorough juridical and political interpretation as well as some correlation with basic principles of democracy and rule of law in order to determine criteria of sustainable civil development and the frames of effective international cooperation.
The major factors to dictate new solutions are - in general outline - as follows:
1. The democratic developments in the international
aspect have reached such a height that new level and quality of harmony
and stability is required;
2. A severe contradiction has arisen between the introduction of democracy
into relationships within a state and command of force in interstate relations;
3. The economic globalisation has created a completely new state of social
integration which gave rise to unprecedented international coalitions,
such as the European Union, in the framework of which the concept of a
common Constitution inevitably comes forth. In the meanwhile, boundaries
between democratic systems within a state and economic relations between
states are loosening ;
4. The problem of conciliation of universalism and national peculiarities
is growing more urgent. Instead of consonance, the contradictions between
nation-focused and person-focused public structures are sharpening;
5. In the course of time, human society is transforming from a spiritual-cultural
community into a mercenary-material one;
6. Religion and the spiritual area, having lost their essential role of
inspiration the people with divine values, are transforming into a formal,
reserved, in-church phenomenon, alien to man. Also, fanatic extremism
with various sect manifestations is blooming;
7. In conditions of expansion of free market and global economic competition,
moral norms are losing their primary role of social relations regulators
and stimulators;
8. The gap between wealth and poverty has become so extremely polarized
that they are becoming incompatible ;
9. The role of international law in the international legal area is essentially
changing. In the same time, the distinctions of traditional legal systems
are getting more relative. In European legal system precedent has become
an important source of law, while human rights - in spite of national
boundaries - have become an object of international protection;
10. Terrorism has become the most horrible world evil; it has its economic,
social, and political motives and is opposed to the value system which
presently is the basis of establishment of democratic relationships reached
by civil consent ;
11. New fulcrums of international balance are being searched for in the
post-cold war conditions of democratic developments in the post-Soviet
area. The bi-polar world has transformed into unstable uni-polar system
with real trends to multi-polarity. On the one side, the fulcrums of international
system stability are still in the process of defining, on the other side,
existing institutions designed for that purpose are losing their primary
role;
12. In the same time, many countries have got into the zone of uncertainty
caused by reforms, when the creation of new value system to be the base
of problem salvation has become inescapable;
13. The mankind has long ago created enough premises for self-destruction
and either a casual factor or natural calamities can make that probability
real;
14. The need for united fight against all-planet dangers has become urgent;
15. Achievements of scientific thought and modern possibilities of providing
information, including experiments on creation - in technical or biological
way - of an artificial man, dictate new approaches to the overall value
system.
The above list may be continued. However, what is mentioned is enough
to convince that all basic issues related to sustainable and coordinated
society development, in both, national and international aspects, should
be discussed in this context.
Naturally, the problem of human rights legal protection, which has lately become one of the major European constitutional development problems, also belongs to those basic issues.
Since establishment of the UN and conclusion of a number of fundamental international agreements, norms of human rights have occupied a fundamental position in interstate and in-state relations. However, the activities of the European Court on Human Rights, Court of Justice of the European Union, and starting from 2002 also the International Criminal Court make it obvious that the mankind has entered the new millennium "crashing" the national models of legal concepts and protection of law, and the issue of protection of law has become a super-state phenomenon. This was stipulated also by the fact that establishment of civil society and rule of law, creation of a democratic state have become universal ideals and also precondition for best realization of man's virtue and creativeness. It was not by a chance that all constitutions adopted or radically amended in the world, especially, in Europe after World War II, have stipulated as a norm-purpose and a norm-principle the importance of being and a democratic state of rule of law, and they also recognize the superiority of international legal norms over national constitutional norms.
Value system integration process was more active in Europe, where economic, political, humanitarian, and, generally, value systems cooperation based on mutual interests has brought to such a quality of interstate cooperation that the created common economic, legal, and structural base, quite normally, brings an urgent necessity of creation of a constitution common for all states. This is a completely new quality of legal globalization which has been inherent only in the European Union so far. Thus, a common legal system with its inherent features and effective impact is gradually spreading throughout the world.
The changing world puts forward new issues for flawless process of dynamic and harmonious development of social systems, guaranteed protection of human rights and freedoms and citizens' right to constitutional justice. These questions essentially relate to constitutional justice systems, as warrants of sustainable and coordinated development of a social organism, and predetermine the nature and logic of their further development.
Naturally, many questions in this area require serious scientific evaluation and generalization. In the framework of the conference on Constitutional Supervision Bodies of Emerging Democracies held in Moscow, November 2001, discussing development perspectives of constitutional law in countries in transition, the idea of publishing a special annual chronicle was advanced and it got unanimous approval. Later, renowned constitutional law experts constitutional court members from over 60 countries were proposed to periodically publish articles devoted to basic issues related to constitutional law in the new millennium in the annual chronicle. The aim was to discuss the issue in three aspects: a) theoretical-methodological approaches, b) generalization of practical experience, c) analysis of decisions which are of special interest for constitutional courts.
The present first issue of 2002 Annual Chronicle introduces in alphabetical order 20 authors' considerations related to the issue. We are sure that the Chronicle will arise big interest among experts and will be published every year to become platform for establishing active dialog between experts of theory and practice of constitutional law.
G. Haroutjunian, Dr. of Law,
President of RA Constitutional Court,
Chairman of the Council of RA
Constitutional Law Center
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