International Center for Continuing Education is one of the new departments of the Institute of Law and Public Policy aiming at bringing together fundamental constitutional and legal and political studies, political and public practice, and training of specialists of a new level!

Main areas of the Center activities:

• bringing experts together to develop competence in comparative constitutional law of the post-Soviet countries;
• search for and exchange of information in this area among legal and political experts in these countries;
• training of specialists with an up-to-date ability to analyze and provide support to constitutional reforms in transient societies ;
• promotion of promising educational programs and technologies.

The Center offers to its students specialized lecture and practical courses based on innovative educational methods and revealing interconnections between constitutional law and functioning of political institutions and processes, the role of constitutional law in democratic transformation of political regimes. 

Course topics:
Constitutional Reforms in Russia and Post-Soviet Countries
The course is based on the idea that understanding essence of transition processes in the post-Soviet society requires not only knowledge of constitutional and statutory provisions, but also practice of their implementation. We ensure access of the target group to major political and academic figures engaged in making decisions that influence direction of constitutional reforms in their countries. The course is unique in its detailed study of alternative drafts of constitutional reforms, legal and political technologies of their implementation. 

Law-Making in Russian Federation
The course reveals the content of parliamentary procedures and gives students a possibility to work with the heads of legal services of the Russian Parliament and Government. These classes provide the students with information on legislative initiative, preparation of financial and economic justification, hearing of a draft law in the Parliament Chambers, role of the Government and President, stages of a law issuance. 

Economic Constitution of Russia in Court Practice Context
The course reveals establishment of private ownership institution, constitutional and legal mechanisms of transition from one form of ownership to others, land law, implementation of constitutional provisions in civil and tax law, changes in approaches to interpretation of the Constitution, and challenges of practical implementation of constitutional provisions and interpretations. 

Constitutional Justice
The course is built entirely on practical analysis of the Constitutional Court decisions and interaction with its members and experts. The students get to know legal basis of establishment and performance of constitutional justice in Russia, specifics of constitutional and legal status of judges in constitutional and statutory courts, operation of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, main areas of its work. 

Administrative and Court Reforms
The course reveals progress and results of the post-Soviet administrative and court reforms in Russia and other countries of this region. In particular, the students will be presented with lectures on challenges in reforming of executive system, civil service, improvement of relations between federal and regional executive bodies, as well as on the problems connected with establishment of administrative justice. During introduction to the court reforming process, the students will be taken through transformation of judicial systems, reform of judges’ status, as well as the problem of “demand for law”, including phenomenon of legal nihilism, refusal to go to state courts and demand for alternative (non-state) ways to settle conflicts (intermediation, conciliation, referees court or arbitration); access to justice, enforcement of court decisions.

Subject area of the offered courses will broaden and vary.

The Center also:

• coordinates activity of various academic and educational institutions (first of all, universities) in the countries of this region in the field of introduction of innovative educational practice and guidance materials;
• develops new educational programs and techniques in this sphere – textbooks, lecture courses, readers;
• monitors (together with the target group) constitutional events in the East-European, CIS and Baltic countries;
• implements research programs in this area.

Participation in the Center work will allow you to:

• receive consolidated and first-hand new and hard-to-get factual data on  constitutional developments in one of the most dynamic regions of the world;
• study new legislation in civil, land, criminal, tax, administrative and procedural law of the countries in this region (within specialized courses);
• learn how to search for information in this area on your own (major databases, expert analyses and country-specific literature)
• acquire a unique capability to independently analyze legal norms in comparative constitutional law, court practice and political developments in required countries;
• have a possibility of direct interview with Russian and foreign experts and policy-makers engaged in development of a constitutional reform strategy;

For more detailed information on the Center for Continuing Education as well as on registration and Schedule for 2008, please contact Institute of Law and Public Policy at +7 (495) 608-62-07.