A course on Russian Business Law was taught at the Law Faculty of the University of Tromso in March 2010. The necessity for such a course was determined by the growing interest among Norwegian academic and business circles in understanding organizational and legal matters pertaining to the peculiarities within Norwegian-Russian business interaction.
The Rule-of-law principle remains in Russia, to a large extent a declarative one, and it is, within the Russian society, viewed a landmark and a desired goal. In the Russian business environment today the knowledge of the Russian law is not on par with the understanding of the ‘rules of play’. Therefore the ability to orientate oneself to Russian legislation may be useful for international business people, investors, professionals, researchers and everyone who wants to start a business interaction with Russia and Russians or are already involved in it.
The international audience consisted of students from Poland, Russia and France. For all of them the main motivating factor for choosing the course was connected to their study goals. Among those who had signed up for the course there were no practicing lawyers interested in undertaking Russia related business projects. It appears that the absence of practitioners as well as Norwegian attendees resulted not from the lack of interest in the Norwegian business circles to Russian Business Law but rather from people not being informed of the opportunity to study this subject in the University of Tromso.
It is worth noting that teaching Russian Law related disciplines is difficult or impossible without studying the texts of the laws. To the large extent this is needed due to the statutory character of Russian Law. Because of this, efforts need to be made to provide the texts of the main legal normative acts namely the Constitution, constitutional laws, federal laws, decrees of the President, rulings of the Government etc., regulating relations in the area of business activity, translated into other languages.
The translations of some major statutory laws into English are freely available on the Internet though sometimes their quality can be questioned. Also, trustworthy translations edited by renowned English speaking experts of Russian law available in the Law Faculty library do not however contain recent changes and amendments, which came to force after the translations had been published.
Studying the Russian Business Law in the international context becomes complicated as a result of the translators’ lack of uniformed approach to translating Russian legal definitions into English. Thus while studying the subject of bankruptcy it turned out that the same term ‘nablyudenie’ in different publications in English was named ‘observation’, ‘monitoring’ and ‘supervision’, which inevitably raised a question in those who were not familiar with the original text whether it was one and the same bankruptcy procedure or three different ones. On the other hand it is important to note that though English was not the first language for the students nor for the teacher, it did not hinder the understanding of the material.
The availability of the literature on the subject of the Russian Law in English has been of a great advantage. In the library of the Law Faculty of the University of Tromso one can find monographs, textbooks and publications of such well respected English speaking scholars as William E. Butler, William Burnham, Peter B. Maggs, Hiroshi Oda. The assumption made earlier on the Norwegian interest in the Russian Business Law and Russian Law in general, finds its proof in the presence of pencil marks in Norwegian on the margins of the above mentioned books. The readers’ marks can be found in the parts of the books devoted to mortgage, pledge, securities, bankruptcy and transactions.
The content of the Russian business law course taught in Norway differed to some extent from the course of the same name taught in Russia. The reason for this was the necessity to present an overview of particular topics, which students in Russian law schools study in depth as part of such courses as Theory of State and Law, Civil Law, Civil Procedural Law, Arbitrazh Procedural Law, Contract Law, etc. Also it was necessary to add the comparative aspects to the course, which undoubtedly helps the participants gain a better understanding of the material, but on the other hand should not distract them from the main focus of the studies.
An attempt has been made by the teacher to bring the structure of the course nearer to the one being followed when studying in English Business law of other non English speaking countries belonging to the Romano-German law family. The model for such a structure can be found in the book ‘Russian Commercial Law’ by Hiroshi Oda (Hiroshi Oda “Russian Commercial Law” Second Edition, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden - Boston 2007 г.). The only example of the textbook on the said subject in English published in Russia is ‘Russian Business Law’ by A.V. Shashkova of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (the latest Second Edition was published in 2007).
It appears that the depth of the study, the selection of the topics, and the degree of practical applicability of the material should be determined with consideration to the composition of the study group. Since the group can include students, practicing lawyers, employees of international law firms, business people or investors the program of the course should assume necessary flexibility. The course can be also useful for the students of linguistics and translators who want to enrich their English-Russian vocabulary by learning law terminology.
In conclusion it needs to be said that notwithstanding long years of business cooperation between Norway and Russia, judging by the number of publications and courses taught, Norwegian jurists pay relatively little attention to the business aspects of the Russian Law. Hopefully the initiative taken by the University of Tromso in teaching Russian business law will contribute to the change of such a situation.
Yevgeny Mischenko
