Public Finance: Process of Constitutionalization and Internationalization

Abstract

The subject-matter of this article is the processes of constitutionalization andinternationalization of public finances. The modern system of government is constitutional.The activities of the governmental bodies in the financial and budgetary spheres areexercised in legal forms. The fundamental principles and rules of this activity are laid down bythe constitutions. It relates to the key directions of the financial regulation (the elaborationand adoption the law on budget, the legislation on taxes etc.). The constitionalization ofpublic finances is a long historical process. Due to it, new principles and rules of financialregulation have been established in the organization and functioning of the government.Constitutionalization of public finances meant the transition from the era of absolutism tothe system of constitutional (responsible) government. The era of constitutionalism led tothe expansion of the financial provisions in the national constitutions. Some of the modernconstitutions are called therefore “financial”. Surely, the process of constitutionalizationis uneven. It is manifested in the embodiment of financial rules and norms in the textsof the constitutions as well as in their implementation in the practice of governmentalbodies. There are some peculiarities of constitutionalization of public finances in theRussian Federation, due to some special features of its historical evolution. One cansee the growing interest of the Russian legal scientists to the problem. The process ofconstitutionalization of public finances is not completed yet. It will be expanding becausethe growing role of public finances in the economic and social development. In the era ofglobalization, the internationalization of public finances has become a universal trend. Itis manifested in various forms. First of all, it is strengthening of the supranational financialstandards. It is also the structural changes concerning national governmental bodies andinstitutions of the supranational organizations. The most evident example is the EuropeanUnion. The general trend is going on the direction of expansion of financial activities. TheUnion has its own budgetary system. The list of the budgetary principles and rules isincluded in the Treaty of European Union and the Treaty on functioning of the EuropeanUnion. Some of rules have been reproduced from the constitutional law of the memberstates.The new phenomenon is the implementation of the rule of the budgetary discipline,which was elaborated on the supranational level, in the national constitutional systems ofsome Member-states. One can see the trend towards the growing harmonization andconvergence of the national and supranational financial systems in the modern world.