N.J. man gives Russia historic help.
When Russia finishes its constitution, an American can
take some credit.
By Fen Montaigne
Inquirer Staff Writer
MOSCOW - A year ago, constitutional
expert Albert P. Blaustein and Soviet scholar Oleg Rumyantsyev were standing
in Philadelphia's Constitution Hall, the Soviet visitor eagerly taking
in the sights.
"He was asking, 'Is that where Ben Franklin sat? Is that where
James Madison and George Washington were?'" recalled Blaustein, a professor
emeritus at Rutgers Law School and president of the Philadelphia Constitution
Foundation. "He really was inspired. You could see it in his face."
The week of July 8, Blaustein, 69, and Rumyantsyev
found themselves together again, here in the Soviet capital. And this time
they weren't contemplating history. They were making it: The two are playing
a key role in writing a new constitution for the Russian Republic, one
that will make a clean break with the communist past.
For Blaustein, a resident of Cherry Hill, it's old
hat.
The constitutional scholar has spent years travelling
the globe advising 25 countries - from Brazil to Poland to Zimbabwe - on
how to write new constitutions.
"My son calls me a jewish James Madison," said Blaustein.
For Rumyantsyev and the Russians, however, it's
all brand-new. Under their fiery president, Boris N. Yeltsin, they are
scrapping the old Soviet and Russian communist constitutions and starting
from scratch.
In place of what was essentially a sham document
that bestowed virtually all rights on the state, Russia's new constitution
will enshrine such principles as free speech, private property, and defense
of human rights. The new constitution does not mention the words socialism
or communism.
With Blaustein's help, the immense Russian Republic
- home to half the Soviet Union's 290 million people - will create an extensive
court system, a new legislative branch and such institutions as an auditor
general and an electoral commission.
"After 73 years of living an abnormal, illegal,
irrational public life, we are trying to build the foundations for a normal
existence," Rumyantsyev, the 30-year-old secretary of Russia's Constitutional
Commission, said in a recent newspaper interview. "the four previous Soviet
constitutions were not a foundation for the rule of law. They were ideological
texts."
During a trip to America last year, Rumyantsyev,
the man in charge of creating a new Russian constitution, heard about Blaustein
and sought his help. Blaustein eagerly agreed to come here and offer advice
on the new document. As it turns out, he was well-suited to the task.
In more than 30 years of helping countries draft
new constitutions, Blaustein said, he had not tried to impose the United
States' legal system on other countries. Such tact is particularly useful
now in Russia, where many leaders are sensitive to accusations that they
are aping the West.
"A constitution has to spring from native soil,
to meet the basic needs and wants of a given people," Blaustein said in
an interview at his hotel opposite Red Square. "I am not here to tell them
what to do. These people need a Russian constitution. I am basically here
to answer questions."
With financial help from the Philadelphia law firm
of Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish & Kauffman- the founders of the nonprofit
Philadelphia Constitution Foundation - Blaustein flew into Moscow during
the week of the Fourth of July. He soon began a series of meetings with
Russia's Constitutional Commission, which hopes to have a document ready
for presentation to the Russian Parliament by year's end.
Blaustein has answered questions and offered advice
on a host of subjects, from the creation of an appeals court system to
how to constitutionally limit the role of the military in Russia. He has
helped draft the section on free speech and has tussled with members of
the commission over the shape of the future Russian legislature.
He has also grappled with some uniquely Soviet problems,
such as the longstanding propiska system, which requires
citizens to live in the city where they are officially registered and greatly
restricts freedom of movement. Many Soviets consider the system a gross
violation of human rights, but Blaustein and the constitutional commission
have come to the conclusion that it is a problem best addressed in the
legislature, not in the constitution itself.
Blaustein later this year might return to continue
working on the Russian constitution, a job he is doing for free. "Don't
you envy me the chance to make history like this?" he said, "I would pay
them
to do it."
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