Expansion of the directions of experimental legal regimes (on the example of the federal territory "Sirius")

Akhmadova Maryam Abdurakhmanovna ORCID: 0000-0003-1423-7044 PhD in Law Senior Lecturer; Department of Business and Corporate Law; O.E. Kutafin Moscow State Law University (MGUA) Head of the Legal Support Department; GBU 'Analytical Center for Control Activities' 14/4 Tatyanin Park St., Moscow, 119618, Russia 4ernijkvadrat95@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Schunina Tat'yana Evgen'evna Postgraduate student; Institute of Social Sciences; Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), Project Manager, Lecturer, Junior Researcher, RANEPA Analytical Center under the Government of the Russian Federation INION RAS 82 Vernadsky Ave., Moscow, 119571, Russia tatyanashchunina@gmail.com

At the beginning of 2022, Russia found itself in new geopolitical realities, when access to critical technologies became one of the key aspects of ensuring state security and overcoming the negative consequences of anti-Russian sanctions ^[1] on the domestic economy. In these conditions, the state faced the task of ensuring the formation of national technological sovereignty, which is based on a qualitative breakthrough in the field of scientific and technological development ^[2].

This idea is reflected in a number of strategic planning documents, where a key role is assigned to Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 642 dated December 1, 2016 "On the Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation" (hereinafter referred to as the Strategy) (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 642 dated December 1, 2016 "On the Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation Russian Federation" // Federal Law of the Russian Federation. 2016. No. 49. Art. 6887), which sets out the goals, objectives, directions and priorities of the innovative development of the country's economy, as well as ways to achieve such a technological breakthrough.

In this context, Federal Law No. 523-FZ of December 28, 2024 "On Technological Policy in the Russian Federation and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" (hereinafter referred to as Federal Law No. 523), adopted in accordance with these national goals to ensure the country's technological leadership, deserves attention (Federal Law No. 523 of December 28, 2024 No. 523-FZ "On Technological Policy in the Russian Federation and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" // Federal Law of the Russian Federation, 12/30/2024, No. 53 (Part I), art. 8533), which enters into force one hundred and eighty days after the date of its official publication.

In this regard, in a dynamic reality, as Professor A.V. Gabov rightly notes, science has actively begun to produce new technologies, the introduction of which requires changing existing approaches to the legal regulation of relations in the field of their use ^[3]. It should be noted that Federal Law No. 523 highlights, among other things, the creation of favorable legal conditions for the implementation of technological policy activities as one of the objectives of technology policy.

In the field of regulating the use of innovative technologies, the law-making process is complicated by the lack of any experience in analyzing the use of such technologies and the ability to predict risks associated with changes in established models of regulating legal relations. In order to overcome such difficulties, forms of experimental rulemaking have developed rapidly in recent years, providing an opportunity to introduce and test new legal norms to a limited extent before scaling them up. Of course, provided that the final approval is recognized as having taken place.

For this reason, the subject of this article is of obvious interest in modern legal doctrine. In this format, the theoretical basis of the research was the works of such specialists as Demchenko M.V. ^[3], Dakhnenko S.S. ^[3], Degtyarev M.A. ^[11], Efremov A.A. ^[9] and others. The works of Tarasenko O.A. ^[4], Dmitrik N.A. ^[10] on the risks of using forms of experimental rulemaking for the legal system, Buyanova A.V. ^[6] on reforming the education system in Russia, etc. are also touched upon at various stages.

The methodological basis of the study was the dialectical method, which substantiates the interdependence of all social processes, including in the field of experimental forms of rulemaking. To obtain the final conclusions, the author used such general scientific methods of formal logic as induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis.

Experimental rulemaking is gaining extraordinary momentum, and this is mainly evidenced by the number of regulatory legal acts adopted in recent years that are experimental in nature. Thus, according to a study conducted by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, from 2016 to 2023, the number of legal experiments conducted annually increased 14-fold (The concept of forming a new organizational and legal model for establishing experimental legal regimes in the Russian Federation // URL: https://asi.ru/library/research/200471 / (date of request: 05.01.2025).

At the same time, it is obvious to us that, taking into account the expansion of the scope of Federal Law No. 258-FZ of July 31, 2020 "On Experimental Legal Regimes in the Field of Digital and Technological Innovations in the Russian Federation" (Federal Law No. 258-FZ of July 31, 2020 // CP RF, 08/03/2020, No. 31 (Part I5017) the prerequisites for their further growth are obvious. This state of affairs allows us to conclude that this instrument is becoming one of the key tools for the development of the Russian legal system ^[4].

At the same time, recognizing the positive effect of establishing experimental legal regimes, experts rightly draw attention to the risks of using such a tool, since expanding its use "carries the risk of law and order losing its stability" (Letter No. 01-28/305 from the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation to the Agency for Strategic Initiatives dated 09/18/2023). At the same time, another position is voiced in the doctrine. Thus, according to N.A. Dmitrik, the prospects for using forms of experimental rulemaking are rather limited, since they apply only to a limited range of subjects, while, for example, breakthrough digital technologies transform all spheres of society and therefore legal certainty does not decrease, but, on the contrary, increases ^[10]. M.A. Degtyarev He adheres to similar scientific views, noting that the Law 258-FZ greatly narrows the subject areas of application of experimental legal regimes, no matter how broadly we interpret "digitalization" ^[11]

In order to mitigate these risks, the scientific community needs to pay special attention to the formation of a fundamental scientific and theoretical framework in order to bring the conceptual and terminological apparatus to uniformity, and to develop an exhaustive list of criteria that determine the case when the establishment of experimental legal regulation is justified ^[5]. Similar studies are already being conducted by scientists, and among those worthy of attention are works in which the authors formulate specific proposals to improve current regulation. Thus, A.A. Efremov, recognizing the fragmented nature of the legal regulation of experiments, suggests, among other things, systematizing the norms on their introduction, as well as ensuring a systematic relationship between strategic planning and planning the rule-making process ^[9].

Technological progress is based primarily on scientific achievements. And science, in turn, is about people. Consequently, scientific and technological progress is impossible without intensive training of relevant personnel in a short time and with maximum immersion in the field of information technology. This idea runs through all the key documents, including the aforementioned Strategy, the Concept of Technological Development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 05/20/2023 No. 1315-r), etc.

At the same time, we note that one of the 9 federal projects included in the new national project "Data Economics and Digital Transformation of the State" (National Project "Data Economics and Digital Transformation of the State" // URL: https://d-russia.ru/nacproekt-jekonomika-dannyh-i-cifrovaja-transformacija-gosudarstva-novye-svedenija-obnarodovany-na-prof-it.html (accessed: 05.01.2025) is the project "Personnel for Digital Transformation". All this points to the need for reform in a certain part of the field of education and science, including with the aim of involving business in the educational process in order to form personnel that meet the needs of high-tech businesses. High-tech business in Russia is currently being viewed from the rostrum of leading venues (Eastern Economic Forum, session "Digitalization of Public Administration and the Data Economy: competitors or Partners?" // URL: https://forumvostok.ru/programme/business-programme / (date of application: 05.01.2025) to discuss key issues of economics and law, they state that, for example, graduates of leading domestic educational institutions have to retrain for 3 years.

This state of affairs indicates the need to reform the education system at all levels. At the same time, the sphere of education and science is an important component of the state's social policy and therefore requires extreme caution, since any changes can have both negative and positive sides ^[6].

To date, the approbation and testing of innovative approaches to the issue of reforming the education sector is carried out in the federal territory of Sirius. The procedure for developing such an experimental legal regime is determined by a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation. The program of the experimental legal regime in the federal territory of Sirius was developed in accordance with item 10 of the list of instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, which recommended that the public authorities of the federal territory of Sirius, together with the Sirius University of Science and Technology, ensure the introduction of an experimental legal regime for organizing intensive training in the field of information technology in 2022-2030. and information security (List of instructions following the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Talent and Success Educational Foundation (approved by the President of the Russian Federation on 07/10/2022 № Pr-1224) // https://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_421687 / (date of access: 07.01.2025). The program of the experimental legal regime provides for the creation of an integrated educational program combining a general and higher education program, which will provide a critically important reduction in the training time for information technology research engineers with complex competencies at the level of a system architect.

Before proceeding to a substantive analysis of the specifics of the implementation of the experimental legal regime (hereinafter referred to as the EPR) in the federal territory of Sirius, we note that Russia currently implements EPR in two main areas – in the field of digital and technological innovations (united under general regulation by Federal Law No. 258–FZ dated 07/31/2020) and in the field of education..

Of fundamental importance for EPR in these areas is Federal Law No. 247-FZ of July 31, 2020 "On Mandatory Requirements in the Russian Federation" (Federal Law No. 247-FZ of July 31, 2020 // SZ RF, 08/03/2020, No. 31 (Part I), art. 5006), which contains the condition that "the procedure for establishing and the period of validity of the EPR in the field of application of mandatory requirements are determined in accordance with federal laws." This provision makes it possible, by making amendments (additions) to federal laws, to provide for the possibility of creating an EPR in the areas of their regulation. It was along this path that the creators of EPR in the field of education (as well as in the future of creating EPR in the field of physical culture and sports development) took in parallel from digital innovations, through amendments to Federal Law No. 273-FZ of December 29, 2012 "On Education in the Russian Federation" (Federal Law of December 29, 2012 No. 273-FZ // Federal Law of the Russian Federation, December 31, 2012, No. 53 (Part 1), Article 7598) and Federal Law No. 329-FZ of December 4, 2007 "On Physical Culture and Sport in the Russian Federation" (Federal Law No. 329-FZ of December 4, 2007 // Federal Law of the Russian Federation, 12/10/2007, No. 50, art. 6242), respectively.

Consequently, EPR in the field of education is not carried out within the framework of the "regulatory sandbox" created by Federal Law No. 258-FZ on 07/31/2020 in order to create favorable conditions for the development and implementation of digital innovations ahead of current legislation by removing barriers and restrictions inherent in current legal regulation.

It is worth noting that in the absence of a single upper-level regulatory legal act regulating the goals, objectives, list of criteria required for consideration when creating the EPR, as well as the general procedure for their formation, today the emerging practice of experimental rulemaking is not structured.

At the same time, the actual absence of a unified legislative structure of the EPR was partly due to the creation of a number of peculiarities in the regulation of those territories in which EPR began to be created. We are talking about the established features of the organization of public authority and the implementation of economic and other activities in the federal territory of Sirius ^[7].

Comparing the structure of EPR legislation in the field of digital innovation and education, the following differences should be noted.

Thus, according to the structure of the EPR, digital innovations are primarily regulated at the level of federal law, which defines the goals and principles, the circle of participants, and regulates relations related to their establishment and implementation, including modification, suspension, termination, monitoring, and evaluation of their effectiveness and efficiency.

The next stage of regulation is the creation of a number of resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation approving:

1. Lists of technologies used in the framework of EPR in the field of innovation;

2. Rules for maintaining the EPR registry and accessing it;

3. Rules for suspension of the EPR in the field of digital innovation, termination of the EPR, notification of the subject/subjects of the EPR about the suspension or termination of the EPR;

4. Regulation on the adoption by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation of a decision to suspend or terminate the status of an EPR entity in the field of digital innovations in the EPR and on notifying the EPR entity of such a decision;

5. Rules for monitoring EPR, evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of EPR implementation, and public discussion of the effectiveness and efficiency of EPR implementation.

The final stage of the legislative regulation of EPR in digital innovations is the list of departmental acts of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation regulating the procedure for applying for membership, notifying and joining the EPR, maintaining a register of contacts of the EPR participant, the procedure for reviewing complaints by EPR participants, and the procedure for submitting reports by EPR participants.

The peculiarities of EPR in the field of education include, first of all, the presence of instructions from the President of the Russian Federation following a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Talent and Success Educational Foundation on the need to ensure the introduction of EPR for the organization of intensive training in the field of information technology and information security in 2022-2030. The purpose and scientific hypothesis of this EPR is to abolish part of the regulatory requirements by testing the created integrated educational program that combines the program of secondary general and higher education, which should ensure a critically important reduction in training time. By abolishing the regulatory requirements for admission to the higher education program only after completing secondary general education, EPR participants (students) will have the opportunity to enroll not after 11th grade, but after 9th grade.

Considering the regulatory regulation of the EPR creation processes, the next step at the federal level, as previously noted, is the introduction of amendments to the relevant federal law regarding the establishment of the possibility of conducting EPR in the field of education in the federal territory of Sirius. In addition, the Rules for the Development of the Sirius Experimental Legal Regime Program in the federal territory have been approved at the federal level, aimed at the development, testing and implementation of new educational programs, educational technologies, educational resources, teaching and upbringing Tools (approved by the Government of the Russian Federation). By Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 05.09.2023 No. 1450).

In turn, at the level of the Sirius federal territory, the following list of local regulatory legal acts has been developed and adopted, designed to regulate the procedure for implementation in the field under study, namely:

- The Regulation on the introduction of an experimental legal regime in the federal territory of Sirius aimed at the development, testing and implementation of new educational programs, educational technologies, Educational Resources, Teaching and Upbringing tools" (approved by the Decision of the Council of the Federal Territory of Sirius dated February 2, 2024 No. 1-34/235) (hereinafter – EPR position) (URL: https://nextcloud.sirius-ft.ru/index.php/s/gwtXjAYRrEj3ZPp (date of request: 09.01.2025);

- The program of the experimental legal regime in the federal territory of Sirius aimed at the development, testing and implementation of a new educational program in the field of information technology and information security (Resolution No. 8-p of the Head of the Administration of the Federal Territory of Sirius dated February 9, 2024) (hereinafter referred to as the EPR Program) (URL: https://nextcloud.sirius-ft.ru/index.php/s/28W9gQpykrigimb (date accessed: 09.01.2025);

- Regulations on the Commission of the Council of the Federal Territory of Sirius on education and Training in the field of information technology and Information Security" (approved by the Decision of the Council of the Federal Territory of Sirius dated February 2, 2024 No. 1-34/236) (hereinafter referred to as the EPR Commission) (URL: https://nextcloud.sirius-ft.ru/index.php/s/HakwAJdJk8RAzMB (date of request: 09.01.2025).

In this legal structure, the EPR Regulation is an upper-level legal act structuring the goals and objectives of the EPR implemented in the federal territory of Sirius in the field of education, as well as its introduction procedure, a list of requirements for EPR participants and other conditions that may partially be specified in the EPR Program depending on the specifics of the direction of the EPR implemented in the field of in the field of education.

An important feature in the current EPR in the field of education is the obligation to coordinate the draft EPR Program in the field of education, as well as to send annual reports on the progress of EPR implementation to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, as well as the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.

Also, in the specifics of the EPR in the field of education, it is possible to note the deadline for its implementation – until July 1, 2033. While the EPR in the field of digital innovation is set for a period of 1-3 years. This state of affairs is related to the peculiarity of the EPR in the field of education, due to the duration of testing of the integrated educational program, when in order to confirm the validity of its replication, it is necessary to conduct from 4 to 5 graduates with verification of the planned values of the target indicators. Thus, the duration of the EPR in the field of education forms a feature of the duration of its implementation.

The direct control of the implementation of the EPR in the field of education is the assessment of the effectiveness of the EPR in the field of education, which is carried out by the EPR Commission as part of regular monitoring in accordance with the approved EPR performance indicators in the field of education, approved by the EPR Program. These indicators include both countable (the number of applicants, the number of participating companies, the proportion of successful graduates, the proportion of employed graduates) and unique indicators that measure the level of satisfaction. It is worth noting that the availability of satisfaction indicators correspond to the vector of work of the Government of the Russian Federation, in particular, we are talking about the updated national development goals of the Russian Federation, which for the first time introduced five indicators on the level of satisfaction of the population and this trend has prospects for development as an assessment of the level of public confidence in decisions taken by the authorities. And the success of the legal experiment and the possibility of scaling it to the country without encountering resistance from the population as something unknown depends on this factor.

Based on the above, it can be concluded that the expansion of the practice and scope of experimental rulemaking has obvious prerequisites, however, the authors of the article believe that in the absence of a single upper-level regulatory legal document for EPR in various fields, in order to mitigate the risk of loss of stability by the rule of law, it is necessary to form a fundamental scientific and theoretical framework in order to bring uniformity the conceptual and categorical apparatus, the development of an exhaustive list of criteria that determine the case when the establishment of experimental legal regulation is justified, etc.

Based on the results of the study, the authors of the article believe that, first of all, it is necessary to create a federal regulatory legal act that will form a single conceptual and categorical framework for all experimental legal regimes introduced in the legislation of the Russian Federation ^[9], introduce a standard (procedure) for establishing experimental legal regimes, and create a parametric scale of performance monitoring indicators and the effectiveness of experimental legal regimes. When implementing this recommendation, the regulatory legal framework will be qualitatively improved and systematized, which will allow us to speak about the systematic use of the mechanism of experimental legal regimes as an effective tool for adapting legislation to the updated national development goals of the Russian Federation, set out in Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated May 7, 2024 No. 309 "On the National Development Goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 and for the future until 2036" (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated May 7, 2024 No. 309 // NWRF, 05/13/2024, No. 20, art. 2584).