Affiliation:
1. Professor, Department of Political Science and IR, St. Petersburg Campus, HSE University, St. Petersburg, Russia, sakopov@hse.ru
Abstract
Abstract
The present review analyses key ideas of professor Mikhail Antonov’s 2021 book on formalism, decisionism and conservatism in Russian Law. This review essay is written in the form of an imaginary dialogue between the reviewer (a political philosopher) and the author (legal philosopher). Its main aim is to explore legal dimensions of Russia’s new ideology of conservatism. Divided into five sections, it covers five conceptual foundations of the book – sovereigntism, statism, collectivism, civilizationism and exceptionalism. This review essay also examines the links between the respective ideas of legal philosophy of Mikhail Antonov and an overview of arguments from the contemporary political and critical international theory, aiming to engage in a critical discussion with the author about Russia’s insecure collective identity.