The manuscript examines the steps that Russia\u27s courts of general jurisdiction have taken since 2002 to fashion major changes in Russia\u27s civil defamation law. The critical element in this process has been the courts\u27 internalization of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in interpreting the freedom of expression provisions in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia acceded in 1998. The internalization movement in the Russian courts began in 2002 in isolated lower court decisions, and culminated in a generally-applicable Decree of the Russian Federation Supreme Court in 2005. The manuscript examines a number of those lower court decisions, as well as the 2005 Decree, to identify the substantive changes in defamation law and the process by which the European Court\u27s practice has been used to fashion them. The manuscript also assesses the prospects for the courts’ further extension of the European Court\u27s positions to remaining unresolved questions in civil defamation law. In this inquiry, I seek to identify the methodology for implementation of the Supreme Court\u27s 2005 directive that the lower courts take into account the European Court\u27s practice in deciding defamation disputes
