Andreeva G.N. The place of the Constitution of Ionian Islands of 1799 in the global constitutional process: problem statement

Abstract: The very first Greek constitution, the Constitution of Ionian islands of 1799 is an example of constitution conferred by Russia to other state while lacking constitution and constitutionalism. It was developed just after the joint Russian–Turkish military operation against France has finished and the Ionian Islands were protected by the Russian fleet under command of admiral F.F. Ushakov. The circumstances of the development of the Constitution was thoroughly researched by the historians; from the constitutional point of view, however, many aspects of the constitutional process were studied insufficiently. Referring to the analysis of the historical materials about the making of the Constitution of the Ionian Islands, the author gives her own appraisal of the Constitution as an act of «transitional type»: it hardly could be treated as a leading act, compared to the revolutionary constitutions. The value and originality of that Constitution lies in its compromise nature (it demonstrates the mutual settlement of the positions of two cooperating states as well as of the domestic legal traditions), and in it its contribution to the experience of the constitutional expression of the transition to the independence.

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