Russian Legislation – Trends to ChangeRussia began its legislative reform right before the USSR disintegration. In June 1990 the first Congress of Russian Deputies adopted a declaration of state sovereignity. Until that Russian legislation was completely the same as the USSR legislation.Year 1991 was marked by the adoption of two important documents in which the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation defined a completely new concept of human rights and set up the basis for the further legal reform and changes in the legislative system. The adopted documents – “Declaration of Civil and Human Rights and Freedoms” and “A Concept for Judicial Reform in the Russian Federation” – had no legal force, but they were very important because they gave a significantly more clear notion of Russian legal system than any of the previous documents.December 12, 1993 – elections to the upper and the lower chamber (Council of Federation and State Duma respectively) of the Russian parliament took place along with the referendum on the draft of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The Constituion was approved by most of Russian people and this was a milestone in the history of modern Russia.Since its adoption in 1999 the Russian Constitution is the supreme law of Russia. According to its Article 15, the Consitution “shall have supreme legal force and have direct effect, and shall be applicable throughout the entire territory of the Russian federation.” All federal and local laws should correspond to the norms of the Constitution and it guides Russian courts as well.The main legal source of Russian law are the statutes, which are enacted strictly through the legislative process. There are also Codes. These are the 
basic sets of laws on a certain matter. Though many Russian legilsative 
Codes do have some gaps unable to regulate certain aspects, they still 
give the basis for judges to provide correct decisions on certain cases. 
It is often possible to interprete Codes in a flexible way and it is 
possible to base the interpretation on "general principles" of each 
given Code. These principles are given in the first chapters of the 
Codes. It is also allowed to reason by analogy.
Let’s 
have a brief overview of Russian codes:
The new
Customs Code of the 
Russian Federation was adopted on May 14, 2003 to substitute the old 
one dated back to 1993. The need to adopt a new Code arose from the 
problem of the development of Russian economy and foreign trade. The new
Customs Code of the 
Russian Federation is to increase the efficiency of custom 
authorities through simplifying customs formalities and procedures, and customs agent activities. 
Tariffs are regulated by the
Customs Tariff of the 
Russian Federation document which became eligible on April 1, 2000.
The 
present Criminal Code of 
the Russian Federation came into force on 1 January 1997. Moreover, 
on the 8 January President Yeltzin signed the Criminal Correction Code 
to regulate the conditi