Military Thought
By V.P. Seregin
March-April, 2002

Dear readers! This starts a new section in our journal of a very special character. (1) The Editors plan to publish discussion materials on topical legal problems in the sphere of military development and offer methods of their settlement. We invite specialists from the army, research and educational establishments of the Defense Ministry and other power structures, and from all branches of power who determine the future of Russia's military organization to contribute to the section.

The two articles that follow below are of an informational rather than discussion nature. This should not be taken to mean that no discussion would follow in the next issues. What we want to do here is to outline the range of authors in this and other sections: from a young researcher (A. Timoshenkova) to well-known academic who represents here the staff of the State Duma (V. Seregin).

In the context of world history the phenomenon of civil society is quite clear. * It was born and advanced to its most complete classical form in European civilization. Civil society was a result of historical processes that went on in the majority of European countries and implemented some of the civic traditions, the law-governed state in the first place, in ideological and structural forms.

 Commodity-monetary and market relations that embraced all social and economic groups were one of the key factors of civil society. The 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation and setting up of the Federal Assembly created legal and political frameworks for the market economy and the legal basis of the reforms. The Constitution formalized the main conditions and prerequisites of the new economic system and civil society as a whole: equality of all property forms, unified economic expanse, and a wide range of rights and freedoms.

The armed forces are part of society, therefore their development is directly and indirectly connected with the development of civil society. There are two major aspects in the army and civil society problem: first, armed forces should be recognized as society's organizational structure relatively independent because of its specific organization, tasks, and functions and yet closely connected with society and depending on it; second, certain system of relations between civil society and the military part of society at all levels of state administration should be recognized and taken into account in practical activity.

I believe that the "army and civil society" problem should be settled by giving the armed forces a clear constitutional status that would answer the questions: Who is responsible for the armed forces? Who control them? and How this control should be realized? This, and the problems related to the use of the Armed Forces in domestic armed conflicts should be clearly registered in the RF constitution.

Military service is a special type of civic service, therefore the question about the interconnection between the armed forces' and civilians' problems is especially topical. To a great extent, the relations with the civil society depend on how the military understand their duty, on their moral feelings and readiness to fight, the army's material and technical equipment and the degree to which the armed forces are controlled by the supreme state (civilian) leadership, how they fulfill its commands while not claiming an independent political role.

Today, these aspects are receiving more attention in Russia yet when people talk about the army as connected with the problems of civil society they concentrate on army's democratization and civilian control over the Armed Forces. I believe that the problem requires a much wider approach especially from the point of view of the economic changes that have taken place in the country and a more profound understanding of the essence of civil society itself. The new Civil Code that can be described as an economic constitution because it serves the legal foundation for economic practices and economic reforms was an important stage in the process of formation of civil society in Russia. It ensured economic freedom in the country.

The freedom of realization of the right of property fixed in the Civil Code embraces the Armed Forces and the military: a military detachment is a subject of civil legislation while the military have all civil rights and duties the Code envisages for the physical persons. This fact plays an important role in creating more democracy in the army.

People's participation in the relationships regulated by the civil norms presupposes that they are legally competent. Civilian legal competence presupposes that a person has civil rights and duties unrelated to his age, psychic, and physical condition. Legal competence belongs to all citizens (the military are no exception) irrespective of sex, race, nationality, language, origins, property, the place of domicile, attitude to religion, convictions, and membership in public organizations, etc.

The content of legal competence of the military is the same as that of any other citizen. The military have the right to have property, to inherit and bequeath it, to be engaged in any legal activity, to enter into any deals not banned by law and into obligations, to possess copyrights as authors of scientific discoveries and innovations, works of literature and art, and other results of legally protected intellectual activity, have other property and personal rights unrelated to property.

Source: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JAP/is_2_11/ai_89021704