Anti-Rawls or the Russian Way of Eurasian Integration

Abstract

This article examines Eurasian integration in the context of the ideas which accompany it and make possible the implementation of its practices, especially law-making and law-enforcement practices. The central theme of the article is the competition among values and social technologies claiming to play an integrating role. The starting point of this analysis is the theory of justice by John Rawls presented in the form of many interpretations thereof by legal theorists, as well as experts in the field of political and moral philosophy. It is examined based on assessments made from the standpoint of the politico-legal and socio-historical development of the West, as well as on attempts to look at this theoretical concept from a different cultural and civilizational point of view. Detailed consideration is given to the ideas and images of justice formed within the philosophical symbiosis of Confucianism and Legalism and providing a value-based legal identity of the Chinese civilization. The article shows that the ideas and values of the Rawlsian theory of justice are rooted in the political and legal history of European civilization and the dependence thereof on the philosophical and theoretical language of European enlighteners and even on the Indo-European national language family. As the main alternative to the neoliberal theory of justice, the article studies the philosophical and theoretical and politico-legal heritage of the Eurasianists. The theory of Eurasian law advanced by representatives of this movement is analyzed in depth. This type of legal relations, based on obligations, is considered as a special type of law capable of uniting heterogeneous entities without requiring their full unification or depriving them of their civilizational and value-based peculiarities. The authors analyze the real experience of economic and politico-legal integration, both within the framework of international organizations and at the level of inter-governmental [inter-country] cooperation. An assessment is made of the justifiability of the claims of Eurasianist philosophy regarding its ability to successfully provide integration processes in this part of the world.