Abstract: This article explores certain problems within the current processes of regionalization in Central Asia as a means of self-identification of the region in the new conditions. The different starting potential for economic development among the newly independent states has predefined the strategy for forming intergovernmental relations. A special attention is given to the analysis of the political situation in the region after collapse of the Soviet Union in the context of problems concerning disputed territories and questions of the use of water resources of transboundary rivers. Unfair (in the opinion of the countries of Central Asia) division of state borders demarcated during the Soviet era still prevents the regional neighbors from structuring an adequate relations. Territorial conflicts often result in armed clashes. The water-energy resource is another important factor of cooperation in Central Asia and often leads to an open confrontation between the states of the upper reaches of the transboundary rivers and the countries of the lower reaches concerning the use of the hydroelectric potential. The article implements factor analysis and interdisciplinary approach in studying the intraregional conflicts regarding the use of water resources of the transboundary rivers. The author reviews various attempts of intergovernmental collaboration and the causes that stand in the way of these processes. The article reveals the negative role of the border, energy and water conflicts within the regional cooperation. Researching the processes of transformation in Central Asia allowed the author to determine that the political and economic development of the countries progresses unevenly, and forms on the background of objective and subjective factors. The low level of intraregional cooperation outside integrational unions leads to economic and political dependency of each of the countries upon the influential global players.

Keywords: Central Asia, transformation, territory, problems of transboundary rivers, regionalization, border conflicts, international organizations, integration, conflict of interests, international relations

Abstract: This article examines the transformation of the passive electoral right within the Russian Federation after the acts of protest “For Fair Elections”. The author highlights that the transformation of this right retained its centralized vector, imitating the democratization of the electoral system. The analysis of the legislation and the political practice demonstrates that the limitations of the Russian citizens’ passive electoral right contradicts the norms of international law and the Constitution of the Russian Federation; in the area of political practice they infringe upon the essential principles of electoral right, including government non- involvement into the electoral process and equality of the voters. The mass protests of 2011-2012 did not produce changes, nor gave the citizens the opportunity to be elected as officials of the branches of government, and were further restricted by additional limitations that have a significant impact in the area of the selective functions of the government. The electoral system of the Russian Federation continued the transformation in the direction of interests of the federal president and the highest government bureaucracy, which leads to a collapse of the feedback system, degradation of Russian politeia, and imitation of the right to be elected.

Keywords: representative democracy, elections, delegative democracy, presidentialism, authoritarianism, centralization, passive electoral right, limitation of rights, constitutionalism, democracy

Abstract: The author analyzes the project of Federal law "On the free port of Vladivostok" in light of the economic zones provided by the Russian legislation, with special regime that corresponds to the Federal Law of the United States. The author point out the flaws within the legal regulation of the economic zones of the Russian Federation, and proposes consideration of the positive experience of the foreign countries. The low economic efficiency of the currently existing zones and the corruption component of their functioning casts doubt on the possibility of creation of a special economic zone (free port, porto franco) in the Primorsky Krai. The main conclusion of the conducted research is the fact that the present legislation on special economic zones does not account for participation of the Russian Federation in the international trade agreements within the framework of the World Trade Organization and other organizations. Using the positive experience of the foreign countries would allow avoiding financial, public and governmental, as well as management and reputation losses. Placement of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) is possible not only around the sea ports, but also on the land of the country at the crossing of major transport flows. The stated above testifies to the need for reforming the legislation with consideration of the present results of the functioning of the economic zones, foreign experience and its further unification taking into account the concept that has been devised and confirmed on the government level, which would place the government and public interest at the core of the purpose for creating such zones.

Keywords: residents, international trade agreements, free customs zone, grantee, foreign-trade zone, porto franco, special economic zone, cabotage, public interest, international worker rights

Abstract: The subject of this research is the categories of foreign investments and foreign investor within international investment law of Russia and Moldova through the prism of three levels of legal regulation – national legislation, bilateral, and multilateral international agreements. Although it is based upon the widely used legal constructs and instruments, the national legislation, which regulates international investments, within the framework of conceptual construct can significantly differ between the country that is the recipient of foreign investments, and the country of the origin of a foreign investor. This situation is very characteristic of Russia’s and Moldova’s legislation that are both current participants of the key integrational process taking place across the post-Soviet space within the framework of CIS. The main conclusions of the conducted research consist in determination of the similar traits and differences within the legal regulation of Russia and Moldova pertaining to the categories of foreign investments (including concepts, types, and forms of investments) and foreign investor (including legal entities, and private parties), reviewed through the prism of the normative acts of international organizations of economic integration.

Keywords: investing, national legislation, international agreement, foreign investor, foreign investments, international investment law, partnerships, branch, subsidiary, investment fund

Abstract: This research is dedicated to the Eastern Europe and its current geopolitical status. The political query explores the period that includes the post-war times. The author examines the cultural, social, economic, and political aspects that shape the Eastern Europe and its current development. Attention is given to the uniqueness of this region. An important part of this research is dedicated to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. The author looks at the evolution of the role of UN in Europe, which in author’s opinion represents one of the key causes for the present Ukrainian crisis. The author illustrates the modern development of the Eastern Europe on the example of Pakistanization and characterizes it as Urkainianization. The author claims that Ukraine and Europe became a hostage to the politically aggressive United States. The author also notes that by annexing Crimea Moscow has shown the United States and Europe that Ukraine remains the key geostrategic element of Russia’s security; Ukraine is tied to Russia by the historico-civilizational heritage – the Russian policy in Ukraine is aimed at maintaining Christian and European values.

Keywords: politics, Europe, Eastern Europe, United States, Ukraine, UN, Russia, crisis, political beliefs, geopolitics

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the research of the global integration processes with participation of Russia, including the sphere of international commerce. The object of the research is the activity of Russia within such organizations as WTO and Customs Union, which requires research on the issues of adopting the rules of foreign trade to the social and economic conditions of country’s development, taking into account the environmental component of this development. The special relevance lies in the expansion of the issues related to the development of legal regulation of industrial activity, financial and landing provisions of this activity, and insuring the economic security of Russia under the conditions of its membership in the WTO and Customs Union. It is necessary to recommend the legislator to devise adequate mechanisms for state regulation within the current situation in Russia.

Keywords: mechanisms of regulation, foreign organizations, foreign economic activity, economic policy, food security, health of humans, protection of life, technical regulations, internationale trade, regulation of industrial activity

Abstract: This article examines the functionality, institutional structure, work and main types of normative acts of CIMA. The author reviews the correlation between this organization and national insurance organizations of the African member-states, as wells as analyzes the impact of its work upon the legislation of the member-states. The author notes that this organization is a supranational regional organization, as it deeply integrates the legislation of the member-states with the supranational law developed by this organization. The article highlights the fact that the deep integrational processes that we can observe within the framework of this organization are limited only by a separate sphere of legislative cooperation between the member-states – the insurance industry.

Keywords: Inter-African Conference, insurance, unification of legislation, harmonization of legislation, integration, regionalisation, institutional structure, member states, integration processe, treaty

Abstract: The Russian law doctrine practically has no research on the statutory legislation on Private International Law (PIL) of the United States, even though this country did participate in the global processes of codification of PIL. The subject of this research is the legislative act of the State of Oregon on the choice of law to be applied towards the contractual obligations (2001, rev. 2013). This act codifies the precedent of the State of Oregon; the structure of the act reflects its “judicial orientation”, meant to serve as a guide for the judges. At the same time, the act is “scientifically oriented”, and its positions reproduce the most successful doctrinal experience of American Choice-of-Law Revolution. The authors conclude that the rules of the act are based on the synthesis of flexible choice-of-law approaches and certain norms. Oregon’s legislators were able to achieve the optimal balance between flexibility and predictability of the choice-of-law regulation of contracts.

Keywords: conflict approach, choice-of-law rules, Private International Law, the USA, Oregon, codification, contractual obligations, conflict regulation, the American choice-of-law Revolution, statutory legislation

Abstract: The subject of this research is the specific constitutional control on complaints of the citizens in the Constitutional Council of France and Constitutional Court of Russia. The purpose of this work is to determine the specific aspects of constitutional control with regards to citizens’ complaints from the perspective of its doctrinal and value bases. In this context, a review is made of the notions such as “human rights” and “general (public) interest” and their meaning within the practice of the reviewed branches and doctrine. A special attention is given to the values that express these notions, as well as the analysis to the correlation of these notions. The author concludes that specificity of the subsequent control on the citizens’ complaints consists in the approach, which involves private interest into the argument. At the same time, the branches of constitutional control are searching for a balance between protection of human rights and public interest, both of which simultaneously represent value categories.

Keywords: human rights, private interest, citizen complaint, subsequent constitutional control, Constitutional Council of France, Constitutional Court of Russia, public will, public interest, values, social rights

Abstract: This article examines the institution of referendum in the Russian Federation, which is one of the forms of exercising democracy and is an indicator of the political regime. The research includes the assessment of the current state of the institution of the federal and regional referendums within the framework of the following positions: assessment of the state of the current Russian legislation on referendum; requirements for its initiation and gathering of signatures in support of the referendum; assessment of the participation of political institutions, including branches of government, in realization of the institution of referendum; list of questions raised at a referendum. The referendum institution is being reviewed from the problematic and praxeological perspective. The author reveals the mechanisms for limiting the rights of the Russian citizens at a referendum. On the federal level, they are: defects in the Russian legislation; the requirements of creating regional groups to conduct a referendum, their numbers, and period of their creation; the requirement to gather signatures; responsibility of the federal president to introduce the documents for the referendum into the Constitutional Court of Russia even if there is already a decision on constitutionality of the questions presented at the referendum. On the regional level, it is the ability of the federal government to form mitigation committees on the issue of holding a referendum.

Keywords: delegative democracy, presidentialism, authoritarianism, centralization, constitutionalism, national sovereignty, direct democracy, referendum, limitation of rights, political stability

Abstract: This article seeks to shed light on the main stages of the evolutional path of development of Russia's criminal procedural policy with regards to juvenile offenders in the context of the need to study the historical experience in devising possible future directions of improving the modern juvenile criminal court procedure. For many centuries, in Russia along with many other European countries the age was not a basis for creating a separate order of criminal court procedure. Substantial progress in this area was made in the second part of the 19th century with the enactment of the Statute of Criminal Court Procedure. Further development of criminal court procedure with regards to juveniles in Russia was difficult and controversial, and was defined by the priorities of the criminal and criminal procedural policy of one or another time period. The author proposes to look at the evolution of criminal court procedure pertaining to juveniles in Russia through four main stages. As a starting point, the author proposes the review of the judicial reform of 1864. 

Keywords: Procedural reform, model of court procedure, juvenile court, Statute of Criminal Court Procedure, criminal court procedure, criminal procedure policy, juvenile offenders, judicial specialization, judicial reform, historical periodization

Abstract: This article contains a historical legal analysis of the origination and development of world justice on Russia. The author substantiates the approach towards the concept of world justice according to which, it is comprised of not only world courts, but also other institutions carrying out the functions of justice. A research is made on the legislation and other materials on the status of judicial bodies active in Russia prior to the judicial reform of 1864. The existence of Russian world institutions carrying out judicial functions (such as community courts, courts of conscience, etc.) allows us to conclude that world justice in the pre-revolutionary Russia presents in itself a phenomenon that has strictly domestic roots and specificity.

Keywords: status, competency, court procedure, limited jurisdiction, judicial bodies, world court, world justice, verbal courts, court of conscience, world intermediaries

Abstract: The subject of this research is the structural and functional analysis of the activity of treasury chambers prior to the creation of the chambers of state property and determination of the causes for the reform of the system of branches of local management of state property in 1838. Based on the Code of Laws and materials from the Russian State Historical Archive, and State Archive of the Kirov Oblast the author analyzes the results of the work of the treasury chambers in various branches of managing state property: taxes, state peasants, land, tributes, forest plots, payoffs. The use of the principle of historicism allowed the author to examine the circumstances of the reform of the branches of local management of state property in 1838 in relation to specific historical circumstances of that time. The author enters new archival sources into the scientific circulation. The author makes a conclusion on the predominance of a fiscal function of the treasury chambers at the expense of its intended management function.

Keywords: governorate, local government, chambers of the state property, tribute articles, state peasants, management of the state property, treasury chambers, Chamber of the Criminal Court, Chamber of the Civil Court

Abstract: This research focuses on determining tendencies and the current state of crime in Russia based on the data of victimological statistics for the period from 2009 to 2013. The purpose of this research is to find and assess the trends of the criminality in Russia taking into account the data from the official victimological statistics. This work focuses on the following tasks: a) assessing the dynamic indexes of modern criminality in Russia; b) describing and explaining the structure of modern criminality in Russia; c) determining the nature of danger of obvious negative indexes within the modern criminality in Russia. Based on the official statistical data the author determines the evident positive trends within Russia's criminality - drop in its level, but also the negative trends that demonstrating an increase in the child and female death rate and bodily injuries as a result of a crime. The data acquired provides a glimpse at the current state of criminality in Russia. 

Keywords: victim, victimology, victimity, child death rate, female death rate, victimological statistics, crime, consequences, criminology

Abstract: The article examines the qualifying factors of inflicting a severe harm to a person's health - a permanent disfigurement of the face, which does not necessarily pose a serious threat to the subject's health in form of preventing them of being able to perform day-to-day duties or a complete loss of ability to perform work functions. The author notes that the proposal of some scholars to introduce criminal responsibility not only for disfigurement of the face, but also any other part of the body, is rather controversial, as face is an exposed part of the human body and is a part of forming a perception about them and can often invoke a negative reaction towards them. The proposed amendments place the face in the same position as other parts of the body. The author believes that in resolving such matters on the disfigurement of the face it is necessary to consider the victim's perception of beauty, as well as their national anatomic features as a whole: gender, age, type of activities, etc. As a solution to this problem, a proposal is made to allow the prosecutor to request an aesthetic examination, entrusting the task to portrait artists or specialists in the area of visual arts, who would provide the criteria on the presence or absence of disfigurement of the face, taking into account the national features and perceptions on beauty and uniqueness.

Keywords: face, body parts, disfigurement, disfiguration, bodily harm, damage, crime, qualification, aesthetic examination, responsibility

Abstract: The subject of this research is the legal relations pertaining to the changes and termination of the land lease agreements associated with the discontinuation of lease obligations, where the object is a piece of land. These legal relations carry a mixed character, as they are regulated by the civil, land, and other legislation of the Russian Federation. The article presents a few debatable aspects of termination of a land lease agreement: correlation between termination of the agreement and discontinuation of obligations; the questions of consequences of termination of a land lease agreement. The author examines termination of a lease based on a mutual agreement, as well as by a unilateral decision. In conclusion the author proposes making changes to the current legislation of the Russian Federation.

Keywords: lease, land, amendment, termination, contract, discontinuation, obligation, legal relation, registration, basis

Abstract: This review examines the methodology and results of the research on the protest movement of the German citizens. The environmental acts of protest in Germany are common and often influence the political and legal decisions made in this country. Protection of the environment is backed by a strong support from the citizens. The protests in Germany mostly aimed against various large-scale projects, laying transportation hubs, construction of environmentally unsafe objects, etc. The book describes the history of the forming of the protest movement, examines the value orientations of the activists, their motives and political positions. It reviews urban protests in Hamburg, Stuttgart and Munich, aimed at protecting the environment, including cultural, architectural and historical heritage. A special attention is given to the anti-nuclear movement that is widely supported throughout Germany and has reached great success.

Keywords: public opinion, law, protest, politics, environment, anti-nuclear movement, citizens, activists, social group, democracy

Abstract: The subject of this research is the issue of forming a conceptual and terminological system within the sphere of safe handling of computer information within the criminal law aspect. Research is conducted on such concepts as cybernetics, information space, computer crime, cybercrime, information-technology terrorist act, information threat, information attack, etc. The author examines the examples of use of similar terminology within the foreign criminal legislation. Propositions are made on borrowing certain terminology from the foreign legislation and adopting it into the Russian criminal law. The main conclusion of the conducted research is the fact that improving terminology and conceptual apparatus within the system of national security would contribute to the development of its normative-legal functionality, as well as improving the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation within this sphere, which would in turn help prevent information warfare and information terrorism.

Keywords: information warfare, information terrorism, information crime, information threat, information space, information security, hacker, computer virus, criminal responsibility, cybersphere