BRICS as the object of Russian legal studies: selective review of 2012-2024 articles

Astakhova Marina Anatol'evna ORCID: 0000-0002-5550-0614 PhD in Law Associate Professor, Department of Theoretical and Public Law Disciplines, Tyumen State University, 69 Nemtsov str., Tyumen, Tyumen region, 625002, Russia ast-marina@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

At the beginning of the XXI century, a new subject of relations emerged in the international arena - the BRICS interstate association (English BRICS is an abbreviation for Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). As practice shows, the emergence and formation of BRICS is not a one-time act, but a multi-stage and progressive process of a dynamic nature. Thus, the starting point in the creation of the association, originally called BRIC, can be considered June 2006, marked by a meeting of the Ministers of Economy of Russia, Brazil, India and China during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Further interaction also took place in the form of meetings of representatives of the member countries. In particular, in September 2006, on the sidelines of the 61st session of the UN General Assembly in New York, a meeting was held between the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Brazil, China and the Minister of Defense of India, which ended with an agreement on the development of multifaceted cooperation. In May 2008, a meeting of the foreign ministers of the BRIC countries was held in Yekaterinburg. In July of the same year, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China met at the summit of the Group of Eight in Toyako (Japan) on the initiative of the Russian side. On June 16, 2009, the first BRIC summit was held in Yekaterinburg, which ended with the adoption of such acts as the "Joint Statement of the Leaders of the BRIC countries" and the "Joint Statement of the BRIC countries on Global Food Security". In the following years, summits and other official meetings became permanent. In 2011, the Republic of South Africa became a member of the association, and the abbreviation "BRICS" (BRICS) was established as its name. On January 1, 2024, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia officially joined the BRICS, but this did not lead to a change in the current abbreviation "BRICS" (BRICS).

The emergence of a new actor not only revived the international political reality, but also became a factor in the intensification of research activities both in Russia and in foreign countries. For example, an analysis of the content of leading research platforms as of November 8, 2024 shows the following picture. According to the data of the Cyberleninka scientific electronic library, the term "BRICS" is found in domestic research in various scientific fields. Subjectively and quantitatively, the distribution of the research presented in the Cyberlenink is as follows: the direction of "Economics and Business" - 5615 articles; the direction of "Political Science" - 2313 articles; the direction of "Law" - 953 articles; the direction of "Science of Education" - 387 articles; the direction of "Social and economic geography" - 364 articles; direction "History and Archaeology" - 336 articles; direction "Mass media (media) and mass communications" - 286 articles; direction "Sociological sciences" - 194 articles; direction "Philosophy, ethics, religious studies" - 132 articles; direction "Linguistics and literary studies" - 133 articles. Scientific Electronic Library "Elibrary.ru " at the request of BRICS, the title of the journal article shows the presence of 2405 publications. Regarding the term "BRICS", the ScienceDirect full-text database provides information on the existence of 4,747 review and 7,1971 research articles. At the same time, the subject-quantitative differentiation of articles is as follows: the subject area "Medicine and Dentistry" - 27,734 articles; the subject area "Neurology" - 16,715 articles; "Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology" - 12,848 articles; the subject area "Chemistry" - 9375 articles; the subject area "Physics and Astronomy" - 8,684 articles; subject area "Materials Science" - 7,473 articles; subject area "Engineering" - 7,258 articles; subject area "Environmental sciences" - 5,588 articles; subject area "Agricultural and biological sciences" - 5,263 articles; subject area "Energy" - 4,258 articles. Thus, the presented figures indicate the existence of multidimensional scientific interests regarding the BRICS.

In this article, the subject of the review will be the domestic publication situation in the legal research field. Due to the objective limitations of the volume of our analytical space, due to its format of a journal article, the studied publication basis will also be limited. The composition of such a basis is formed only by articles by Russian legal scholars presented in domestic periodical scientific journals. The criteria for selecting such articles were: the language of publication is Russian; the presence of the abbreviation "BRICS" in the title or annotation; full access to the text in the scientific electronic libraries "Cyberleninka" and "Elibrary.ru "; belonging to the thematic heading of the OECD – "Law". As a result, through the prism of these criteria, a pool of articles was selected for our research understanding, quantitatively represented by 131 papers. The time period for the publication of articles is calculated from 2012 to 2024. Conducting a review of the selected articles will provide an idea of the thematic range of scientific interests of Russian BRICS researchers, identify a set of scientific hypotheses and proposals on the identified issues, as well as determine the prospects for future scientific research.

The initial stage of the stated review process, according to our author's idea, is an analysis of the titles of articles for the nature of the use of the abbreviation "BRICS". Based on the results of the analysis, all the studied articles can be divided into two blocks. The first block includes articles focused on the study of BRICS as a monolithic entity in the form of an interstate association. The second block consists of articles studying the BRICS not as a whole, but from the perspective of the participating countries. The revealed differentiation, in turn, determines the further course of this study, which implies both analysis for each of the identified blocks and the formation of a generalized position on the research situation regarding the BRICS as a whole.

A critical understanding of the articles forming the array of the first of the above blocks demonstrates such a picture. Based on the wording of the names, the following works can be attributed to the number of works focused on various legal facets of the BRICS as an interstate association: ^{[1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17]}.

In turn, from the point of view of thematic specificity, two sub-blocks can be distinguished in the designated block of articles. The first sub-block includes research on the general legal status of the BRICS, and the second sub-block is formed by research focused on individual legal aspects of the functioning of the BRICS.

The analysis of the first of the highlighted sub-blocks leads to the following conclusions. Articles by N. M. Bevelikova ^[5], G. G. Shinkaretskaya ^[4], L. P. Anufrieva ^[1], O. V. Shchukina and L. A. Lazutin ^[6], A. H. Abashidze ^[7] are devoted to the issues of the general legal status of the BRICS. The content of the articles is as follows. The study by N. M. Bevelikova ^[5], published in 2015, was one of the first in the format of journal articles to comprehensively position the problems of BRICS development in a legal way. The disclosure of the topic stated in the title of the article is carried out by the author by conducting a legal assessment of the stages of formation of the integration association in question and its status in the context of formal consolidation and creation of an institutional framework for cooperation with subjects of international relations. Also, in the course of the study, an analysis of individual BRICS regulatory decisions (summit declarations, memoranda) is carried out, the author's opinion on the prospects for the development of BRICS in the international legal space is positioned. Another study dating back to 2015 is an article by G. G. Shinkaretskaya ^[4]. In this work, an attempt is made to clarify the status of BRICS on the basis of criteria applied to international organizations: interstate basis, voluntary association, permanent system of bodies, autonomy, function of cooperation. The result of the author's analysis is the conclusion that the BRICS meets these criteria to one degree or another, however, due to the absence of such features as permanent bodies and autonomy, it cannot claim the status of an international organization, and is characterized as a 2-state institutional structure of cooperation, i.e. as a permanent structure that does not reach the level of an international intergovernmental organization2 ^{[4, p.145]}.

The further development of the problems of the legal status of the BRICS in the original author's interpretations can be traced in two publications published in 2019. Thus, in the article by O. V. Shchukina and L. A. Lazutin ^[6], the definition of a category of subjects (not subjects) of international law, to which it would be possible to include BRICS and other associations of states of a similar type, is stated as a research goal. The achievement of this goal is carried out by the authors through a critical understanding of the essence of BRICS through the prism of doctrinal features and the practice of creating various types of international associations. As another research technique, an overview of the features of the BRICS summits held in the period from 2011 to 2018, as well as a selective analysis of regulatory documents (summit declarations, forum recommendations, memoranda) is used. The result of the study is an original conclusion about the status of the BRICS interstate association as an emerging international organization. L. P. Anufrieva ^[1] attempts to establish the legal nature of the BRICS by identifying the presence or absence of signs of an international organization or integration association. In addition, for the first time in the work of this author, such an important aspect as the legal qualification of the principles of cooperation of the BRICS member countries is touched upon. As a result, L. P. Anufrieva concludes that the BRICS in its current state does not meet the criteria of an international organization, does not have the qualities of international legal personality, and is not a subject of international law. Regarding the principles of cooperation, a twofold situation is stated. On the one hand, cooperation within the framework of BRICS is carried out in accordance with the basic principles of international law. At the same time, the BRICS declarative acts contain provisions that have the potential to acquire the status of principles of international cooperation of this informal association as directly legal norms.

Another position regarding the legal essence of the BRICS is presented in the article by A. H. Abashidze ^[7], published in 2024. The author defines the legal nature of the BRICS by a comparative analysis of this interstate association with classical international intergovernmental organizations, and the so-called international para-organizations or quasi-organizations (G7 and G 20). According to the results of the study, the BRICS is positioned as a forum for coordinating the rules of action of the participating countries, which are a kind of international obligations supported by bilateral international agreements of the BRICS member states ^{[7, p. 121]}.

Analytical work with a set of articles forming the composition of the second subblock demonstrates the following. The works of L. P. Anufrieva ^[2], E. M. Shcherbina ^[11], K. M. Belikova and A. A. Ignatov ^[12], M. D. K. Kadavid ^[3], S. A. Kuemzhieva, S. V. Skladchikov and V. V. Goncharov ^[16], O. Yu. Skvortsov ^[15] are devoted to certain legal aspects of the functioning of BRICS], P. V. Krasnova ^[9], S. G. Bunina ^[17], S. A. Sebekina ^[10], G. I. Khalitova ^[13], E. A. Gromova ^[14], A. O. Inshakova ^[8]. It is worth noting that in these works, the highlighted aspects and angles of their illumination are distinguished by the originality of the author's research approaches.

Thus, L. P. Anufrieva uses the principles and imperative norms of international law as tools for studying BRICS, eventually coming to the conclusion about their active role in the process of formation and development of the interstate association. The author also notes the fact that the principle of inclusivity 2 is widely used in BRICS documents,2 which is not currently included in the generally recognized list of principles of international law. E. M. Shcherbina attempts to assess the fact of the creation of BRICS as a step towards the creation of a multipolar world. The article by K. M. Belikova and A. A. Ignatov touches on two key aspects: the role of BRICS in the development of modern international relations and the state of the research situation in relation to BRICS. At the same time, the designated role is assessed as active, and in relation to research, it is pointed out that there is a need to change the vector from BRICS as a set of member countries to BRICS as an international institution. 2The role-2 bias can also be traced in the work of S. A. Sebekin, focused on identifying the role of BRICS in ensuring international information security in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The topic of security is also raised in the work of G.I. Khalitova, devoted to the analysis of the regulatory and organizational activity of the BRICS in the field of international security in general.

In a number of works of the subunit under consideration, the focus of research attention is shifting towards regulatory and legal issues of the functioning of the BRICS. At the same time, the development of the author's views is carried out in various directions. Thus, stating in the title of his work the problems of the BRICS legal perspectives, M. D. K. Kadavid focuses on the need to form a common legal framework of the BRICS member countries, which makes it possible to effectively interact through specific legal mechanisms. S.A. Kuemzhieva and co-authors cover the issues of unification of the national legislation of the BRICS member countries, the need to create model codes and conclude international agreements agreements within the framework of BRICS. The articles by O. Y. Skvortsov and P. V. Krasnova explore the prerequisites and possibilities for the creation of such BRICS judicial bodies as investment arbitration and the BRICS Court of Human Rights. E. A. Gromova raises in her work the research question of BRICS regulatory approaches to the process of creating innovative digital technologies, and A. O. Inshakova positions BRICS as a new legal field of interstate economic integration in the field of nanoindustry, while assessing the role of the association through the prism of the Concept of Participation of the Russian Federation in the BRICS Association approved by the President of the Russian Federation on March 21, 2013. S. G. Bunina analyzes one of the BRICS normative documents - the Johannesburg Declaration of August 23, 2023 "BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Joint Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and inclusive Multilateralism" in her work.

Next, let's turn to a block of articles, the subject of research coverage of which is the BRICS not as a whole, but the BRICS as a conglomerate of participating countries or individual BRICS member countries. The large number of articles in the block, as well as the breadth of the issues covered by them, as well as in the case of working with articles in the first block, determine the expediency of allocating thematic sub-blocks for further analysis. The highlighted sectoral legal issues will be used as a criterion for such allocation. As a result of using this criterion, the following sub-blocks can be positioned: research in the field of labor law; research in the field of private international law; research in the field of intellectual property law; research in the field of dispute resolution; research in the field of constitutional law; research in the field of digitalization and artificial intelligence; research in the field of civil and family law; research in in the field of taxation; research in the field of criminal and criminal procedure law; research in the field of public law regulation of certain types of relations; research in the field of international law; research in the field of legal regulation of environmental protection; research in the field of legal regulation of science and education; research in the field of environmental law; research in the field of social law security. Conducting content analysis within the framework of positioned sub-blocks allows you to model the following analytical position. The sub-block of research in the field of labor law is represented by articles by M. A. Akhmadova ^[18], I. V. Shestiakova ^{[19; 20]}, K. M. Belikova ^[21], P. E. Morozov ^[22]. Based on the titles and content of the articles, it can be concluded that the authors highlight highly specialized aspects of labor relations: regulation of working conditions in the law of such a BRICS member as India; some issues of social responsibility of transnational corporations of the BRICS countries; features of legal regulation of the labor of underage workers in the BRICS countries; specifics of the design of individual labor contracts and regulation of basic working conditions in the BRICS countries; issues of transformation of the BRICS trade union Forum. The next subblock is devoted to the problems of private international law and includes the works of M. A. Petrosyan ^[23], M. A. Akhmadova ^[24], K. M. Belikova ^[25], I. P. Marchukov ^[26], Ya. O. Alimova ^[27], D. D. Startsev ^[28]. From the point of view of the subject distribution of the problem, the situation is as follows. The general issues of the role and importance of private international law in the BRICS countries are studied by only one author ^[23]. The remaining authors focus on specialized aspects of the unification of contractual relations ^{[26; 27; 28]} and individual problems of the application of conflict of laws rules ^{[24; 25]}. The sub-block of research in the field of intellectual property law looks very representative and includes articles of diverse subject specialization, differentiated in meaning into five thematic groups. The names of these groups can be represented as follows: cooperation of the BRICS member countries in the field of intellectual property ^{[29; 30; 31]}; general ^[32] and special ^{[33; 34; 35; 36; 37; 38]} issues of copyright and related rights; individual problems of patent law ^{[39; 40]}; narrow-profile issues of protection and protection of intellectual rights ^{[41; 42; 43; 44; 45; 46;47; 48; 49]}; certain aspects of cloning and bioprinting in the context of intellectual property law ^{[50; 51; 52]}.

In the structure of the sub-block devoted to the problems of dispute resolution, there are both studies on the organization of judicial activity ^{[53; 54; 55]} and studies on alternative methods of dispute resolution ^{[56; 57]}.

The composition of the research sub-block in the field of constitutional law is formed by several articles on diverse topics. In particular, the issues of constitutional and legal regulation of the territorial structure of the state as a way of managing ethnic diversity ^[58], the territorial structure of the BRICS countries ^[59], the constitutional and legal dimension of artificial intelligence in the BRICS countries (on the example of India) ^[60], ethno-confessional security ^[61] fall into the orbit of the authors' research attention. The novelty of the legal aspects of digitalization and artificial intelligence at the present stage of the development of public relations has caused a surge of scientific interest among BRICS researchers and, accordingly, has given us the opportunity to form a separate sub-block. An analysis of the articles forming the composition of this sub-block shows the following. In the context of digitalization, scientists studied the formation of a single digital space of the BRICS ^{[62; 63; 64; 65; 66]}, security in cyberspace ^{[67; 68; 69; 70]}, digital mechanisms of trading activity ^{[71; 72; 73; 74; 75]}, creation of digital technologies within the framework of public-private partnerships ^[76], big data management ^[77]. Artificial intelligence has been studied in the context of legal regulation of the use of technologies ^[78]. Articles dealing with issues covered by civil and family law form a separate sub-block. Thus, the interest of researchers was aroused by a separate problem of property ^[79], personal non-property ^{[80; 81]}, corporate ^{[82; 83]} and binding ^[84] legal relations, the importance of the principle of good faith in family law ^[85].

The subject of the author's interest was also the sphere of taxation, the problems of development of which served as a prerequisite for writing a number of articles forming another sub-block. Scientists have studied such aspects of tax relations as the tax interaction of the BRICS member countries ^{[86; 87]}, countering tax evasion ^{[88; 89; 90]}, the specifics of regulation and application of value added tax ^{[91; 92]}.

A number of articles of criminal law and criminal procedure of problematic orientation are combined into a single sub-block. Among the issues under study, the issues of cooperation ^{[93; 94]}, criminal law assistance to economic security ^{[95; 96]}, the use of modern technologies during the criminal process ^[97], control and supervision ^[98] are clearly highlighted.

The next thematic sub-block includes research in the field of public law regulation of certain types of relations. The content of this block is formed by works devoted to the regulation of public service in the BRICS countries ^{[99; 100]}, the legal foundations of migration policy ^{[101; 102]}, certain aspects of public legal relations ^{[103;104;105]}.

The issues fitting into the context of international law have received diverse coverage in a number of articles forming a separate sub-block. The focus of the researchers' attention was mainly focused on various forms of international cooperation between the BRICS countries ^{[106; 107; 108; 109; 110; 111;112]}. In addition, issues of international security ^[113], economic sovereignty ^[114], and certain areas of international humanitarian law ^[115] were studied.

The organizational and legal aspects of scientific and educational activities reflected in individual works were another reason for the allocation of an independent research article subunit. The issues of scientific and technical cooperation between the BRICS countries are among those subjected to scientific consideration ^{[116; 117; 118; 119]}, grant support for science ^[120], scientific and technical information and technologies ^{[121; 122; 123; 124]}, legal education ^[125].

Among others, the issues in the field of environmental law covered by the articles of the next sub-block were not ignored by scientists. At the same time, the subject of the research analysis was both the general features of national legislation in the field of environmental protection in the BRICS countries ^[126], as well as special regulatory aspects regarding the legal provision of the use of renewable sources ^[127], the climate rights of indigenous peoples ^[128], the procedure for compensation for environmental damage ^[129]. The final sub-block includes articles on the topic of social security law in the BRICS countries. The object of the study of these articles were the rights of pensioners in the BRICS countries ^[130], social security of migrant workers in the BRICS countries ^[131].

As a result, the conducted review of the pool of research articles allowed us to form the following conclusions. The emergence of the BRICS interstate association as a bright event in international political life was also a catalyst for the formation of a separate line of research activity studying the BRICS in various dimensions. For example, as data from leading domestic and foreign research platforms show, the abbreviation "BRICS" is found in the titles of articles of various scientific orientation, and the number of these articles is measured in tens of thousands. Along with others, domestic legal scholars were involved in the process of studying the BRICS, some of whose works were the subject of our review. The frequency of the reviewed material selected by us was due to the limit of space allocated according to the requirements of this journal for expressing the author's position. Criteria such as the language of publication, the presence of the BRICS abbreviation, and free access to the materials of articles served as filters for selecting articles.

The analytical work with the selected articles first of all revealed the fact of the dispersion of research attention to the BRICS in two planes. One part of the researchers focused on the BRICS as a monolithic subject of international relations, while the other part considered the BRICS as a set of member countries or concentrated on individual member countries of the interstate association. The setting of research goals within each of the planes is also characterized by heterogeneity. For example, articles based on the understanding of BRICS as a monolith subject are subject to dichotomous division into substantive sub–blocks by their subject specialization. In the articles of the first sub-block, the authors mainly followed the path of conducting a comparative analysis of unification with existing subjects of international relations, and eventually proposed original definitions of BRICS as an international actor. As for the articles of the second sub-block, it is worth noting their thematic diversity, focus on such aspects as the prospects for the legal development of the BRICS and its structural units, the role of the BRICS in the processes of ensuring international security and international integration, and individual BRICS regulations.

A systematic and analytical approach to the set of articles positioning the BRICS as a conglomerate of member countries through an industry-specific legal prism made it possible to differentiate them into fifteen substantive sub-blocks, including both private law and public law issues. Taking into account the number of articles on a particular industry issue, it is possible to note the increased interest of the authors in the areas of intellectual property relations, digitalization and artificial intelligence

The conducted selective analysis of the articles shows both detailed research segments (the organizational and legal essence of the BRICS, issues of intellectual property law in the BRICS countries, legal aspects of digitalization and artificial intelligence in the BRICS countries) and other segments where potential authors have broad creative prospects. It seems that in the context of the current political situation, characterized by the increasing scale and importance of BRICS on the world stage, it is highly advisable to continue research on this interstate association. In order to optimize research activities on BRICS, it would also be worthwhile to conduct review studies of publications not covered by this work.