The participants of the "round table" are discussing the question of the place and the role that national traditions can take and play in the legal systems of modern states, the question of whether the national traditions are compatible with the processes of globalization and unification of legal systems, the question of what is the boundary that separates acceptable traditions from unacceptable ones, as well as the question of what role the philosophy of law can play in answering these questions.

In May, 2008, a Round Table was carried out at the Institute of Philosophy, RAS. In the discussion took part well-known Russian political philosophers, political scientists and sociologists A.A.Gusseynov, I.K.Pantin, V.T.Tretyakov, A.G.Glinchikova, A.A.Kara-Murza, T.A.Alekseyeva, A.V.Shubin, B.Yu.Kagarlitzky, S.L.Chizhkov, P.M.Kudyukin, I.M.Klyamkin, V.L.Tzymbursky, A.G.Sytin, M.M.Fyodorova, G.G.Vodolazov, V.I.Pantin, as well as their German collegue E.Altvater. The problems discussed referred to the understanding of the content of democracy, to the diversity of its models and to their correlation with real historical practice, to specific character and prospects of the democratic process in Russia.

В мае 2008 г. в Институте философии Российской Академии наук прошел Круглый стол, организаторами которого выступили Институт философии РАН, а также журналы «Полис» и «Политический класс». В дискуссии приняли участие видные российские политические философы, политологи и социологи А.А.Гусейнов, И.К.Пантин, В.Т.Третьяков, А.Г.Глинчикова, А.А.Кара-Мурза, М.М.Федорова, Т.А.Алексеева, А.В.Шубин, Б.Ю.Кагарлицкий, С.Л.Чижков, П.М.Кудюкин, И.М.Клямкин,. В.Л.Цымбурский, А.Г.Сытин, В.И.Пантин, Г.Г.Водолазов, а также их немецкий коллега Э.Альтфатер. Обсуждались проблемы понимания содержания демократии, разнообразия ее моделей и их соотнесения с реальной исторической практикой, специфики и перспектив демократического процесса в России.

The fate of liberalism in Russia almost automatically brings to mind the image of something tragic, of something that perished in its very prime. The fate of the theoreticians and political leaders of liberalism, from B.N. Chicherin to P.A. Stolypin and P.N. Miliukov, reflects the fate of the movement itself—disgrace, exile, violent death. The Bolshevik October Revolution can be dated as the final ruin of the liberal movement in Russia. The lifespan of Russian liberalism thus dates from the middle of the nineteenth century to 1917.

The fate of liberalism in Russia almost automatically brings to mind the image of something tragic, of something that perished in its very prime. The fate of the theoreticians and political leaders of liberalism, from B.N. Chicherin to P.A. Stolypin and P.N. Miliukov, reflects the fate of the movement itself—disgrace, exile, violent death. The Bolshevik October Revolution can be dated as the final ruin of the liberal movement in Russia. The lifespan of Russian liberalism thus dates from the middle of the nineteenth century to 1917.