Professor Partlett will discuss his new book, Why the Russian Constitution Matters: the Constitutional Dark Arts (Bloomsbury 2024).  This book tells us a great deal about the system of governance that lies behind the person of President Vladimir Putin.  This system helps shape Russian actions today on the world stage and will play a critical role in shaping a post-Putin Russia. It also demonstrates the role that the constitutions play in populist authoritarian systems around the world such as Hungary and Turkey. 

Finally, it reveals that democratic constitutions are more fundamentally political texts that create a balanced state with political checks on the centralisation of political power. These checks and balances do not just limit state power and protect rights; they also enable the state to better understand and advance the general well-being of its citizens.

Q&A will be moderated by Professor Rouben Azizian, former Deputy Head of Mission at the Soviet Embassy in Wellington until 1994 and current NZIIA Auckland Branch Chair.

Biography

William Partlett is an Associate Professor at Melbourne Law School. He writes and teaches in the field of public law. Before coming to Melbourne, Professor Partlett was an Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University Law School, and a Fellow at The Brookings Institution.  

Professor Partlett holds a JD from Stanford Law School as well as a DPhil in Soviet History and MPhil in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Oxford (where he was a Clarendon Scholar). He also holds a bachelors degree in International Affairs and Public Policy from Princeton University and speaks Russian.