The Role of International Legal Regulation of Local Self-Government in BRICS Countries

In addition to national norms that define the functioning of local self‑government in the state, there are principles and standards established in international agreements to which this state is a party. The aim of the research is to examine the systems of international norms applicable to local self‑government issues in the BRICS countries and to determine the effectiveness of the influence of the relevant regulations adopted at various levels on the development of municipal institutions in individual BRICS jurisdictions, including Russia. The study conducted within the framework of the dialectical method of scientific cognition, as well as using other general and specific scientific methods, allows the author to conclude that the imperative international norms adopted at both the global and regional levels, targeting issues of local self‑government organization, are relatively ineffective. The author maintains that unification based on the similarity of the relevant political and legal principles for states with their own unique specifics and history of mechanisms for solving local issues, interaction between levels of government, ensuring accountability of lower authorities to higher authorities and to the population is hardly possible in principle. Such states can only be unified by solving common problems related to the economic feasibility and effectiveness of solving local problems, without entailing a rejection of the values embodied in the foundations of the constitutional system of each specific state. At the same time, the so‑called “soft” law formed within the activities of BRICS, reflecting in form and content the goals of creating the association in the first place, has significant potential in solving many problems facing municipal institutions in its member states.