Abstract | Published in a book focusing on the relationship between international and national law in the Belgian legal order the contribution looks at the application of international law in Belgium from a comparative perspective. The Belgian system is compared to the Russian system. With the constitutional reform of 1993 Russia departed from its dualistic tradition and like Belgium espoused a monistic approach to the issue. After explaining the monistic and dualistic theories and the question of primacy of international law, the contribution explains and compares the Belgium and Russian systems. Both the questions of the application and primacy of treaty and customary international law are discussed. A distinction is also made between statutes and the constitution since courts often distinguish the constitution from statutes when it comes to the question of primacy of international law. When referring to international law special emphasis is given to international human rights law since the Russian constitution addresses the question in separate provisions. |
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