The Constitutional Foundations of Human Rights Protection: Lessons from Russia
Wednesday 26 November 2025
On Wednesday 26 November, the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies (CCCS) held a seminar on the constitutional foundations of human rights protection. This seminar was structured as a conversation between Associate Professor William Partlett and Pavel Chikov, moderated by Dr Liz Hicks.
The Russian Constitution guarantees individual rights and creates a strong Constitutional Court to enforce them. But this Constitution has failed in providing a robust basis for a rights protecting democracy. Pavel Chikov, one of Russia’s leading human rights lawyers, and Associate Professor William Partlett, the author of a recent book entitled Why The Russian Constitution Matters, considered the causes of this constitutional failure and its lessons for rights protection more broadly.
About the panel
Pavel Chikov is one of Europe’s leading human rights lawyers. In 2023, he was awarded the OSCE Democracy Defender Award for his legal work protecting journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society activists in Russia. In 2014, he received the prestigious Rafto Prize for his work defending the rule of law. Currently Pavel leads a team of security and legal consultants for NGOs in Europe, South Asia, Middle East, Africa, and the U.S. He is also a member of the Expert Council on NGO Law of the Council of Europe.
William Partlett is an Associate Professor at Melbourne Law School, Co-Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies, and Stephen Charles Fellow at the Centre for Public Integrity. He writes and teaches in the field of public law. Associate Professor Partlett’s research takes a historical and comparative approach to questions of public law. He is particularly interested in the role of constitutional structure in ensuring democratic governance.
Liz Hicks is a Lecturer at Melbourne Law School. Her research interests sit broadly across law and environment, comparative public law and democratic design, the influence of legal culture on doctrinal development, and the relationship between public and private law. Liz holds an LLM in German and European Law and Legal Practice from Humboldt University of Berlin and a Bachelor of Arts (German, Honours) / Law (Honours) from Monash University. She has previously worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Teacher at the University of Münster, as a Teaching Associate at Monash University, and as a freelance academic translator. She is also a member of the Verfassungsblog Advisory Board and Climate Conscious Lawyers legal education network.