Image of military justice in Russia in the mirror of military-judicial reforms: the historical and legal dimension

The article is devoted to the problematic issues of formation of military justice in the course of military-judicial reforms in Russia. A brief description of the literature revealing some questions of the military-judicial system in the history of the Russian state is given. The concepts “military-judicial reform” and “period (stage) of transformations in the military-judicial system” are delineated. An attempt is made to analyze the historical and legal analysis of four major military-judicial reforms, which have shaped the appearance of modern military-judicial bodies. Particular attention is paid to the military-judicial reform of modern Russia, the beginning of which was laid by the Federal Constitutional Law of June 23, 1999 “On Military Courts of the Russian Federation”, which marked the principle of the unity of the judicial system of the Russian Federation. According to the law, the military courts entered a single system of courts of general jurisdiction. The article also emphasizes that the Federal Constitutional Law No. 3-FKZ of June 29, 2009 “On Amendments to the Federal Constitutional Law on Military Courts of the Russian Federation”, implemented the principle of the demilitarization of military courts and, as a consequence, the complete independence of military justice from military command (command). The study of the nature and principles of the military-judicial reform has never been a self-sufficient problem in Russia, and it is still an important link in the understanding of the development of law in Russia as a whole, and without this understanding of many aspects of Russian law is simply impossible. Here, the meaning of statehood is most clearly manifested; the parameters of the relationship “state-personality-right” interact most sharply. This is the key to understanding what the authorities saw as the ideal model of the judicial system. Any military-judicial reform should ideally be carried out, first of all, by the efforts of state bodies, but with a broad involvement of the legal community, civil society institutions, taking into account scientific developments and using within reasonable limits both domestic and foreign experience of past years and modern development military-judicial reforms.