Abstract: The subject of this study are the concepts used to regulate public relations related to the realization of ownership of goods transported across the customs border, power relations between customs authorities and persons exercising ownership of goods, as well as public relations related to the regulation of customs affairs. The authors consider in detail the established legal and scientific approaches to the definition of the basic concepts of customs law, the analysis of which reveals their essential features, essence and content. The authors study in detail such concepts as customs legal relations, customs control, customs regulation, customs business, customs administration, customs policy, customs law, customs legislation and others. Special attention in the framework of the study is paid to providing a comprehensive analysis of these concepts, taking into account the specifics of approaches to their understanding in various spheres of public relations. The authors used general scientific methods (abstraction, induction, deduction, hypothesis, analogy, synthesis, typology, classification, systematization, generalization and others) as well as special methods of scientific cognition characteristic of jurisprudence (comparative law, historical, formal law, legal hermeneutics, system-structural, legal modeling and others). The scientific novelty of the research lies in the conclusions and proposals aimed at improving the basic terminology of customs law, based on ensuring uniform approaches to the unambiguous definition of the basic concepts of customs law, which do not contradict the current legislation and are aimed at its development. The authors substantiate the critical importance of unifying the understanding of customs law terms in order to achieve a unified customs regulation, uniformity of law enforcement practice during customs control and customs operations both in the customs territory of the Eurasian Economic Union and in the Russian Federation. A special contribution of the authors is the realized attempt to integrate the approaches of the legislator, representatives of legal and economic sciences to the definition of customs law concepts as the only guarantee of effective regulation and management of public relations in the field of foreign economic activity.

Abstract: The maximum possible acceleration, simplification and cheapening of all operations that make up foreign economic activity or accompanying it has always been one of the priority areas for the development of cross-border trade. Currently, in the context of a significant increase in the negative impact of political factors and, as a consequence, the complexity and reorientation of supply chains, the tendency to maximize the reduction of time, material and other costs on the way of goods movement is becoming most relevant for business structures. Meanwhile, the transformation of the economic activities of foreign trade participants at a certain stage creates prerequisites, and then – the objective need for a corresponding change in legal relations with administrative bodies, improvement of mechanisms of state control (supervision). In this case, problems naturally arise to ensure dynamic, organized and harmonious mutual development of administrative bodies and economic entities, their legal relations, as well as mechanisms of state regulation. Economic incentives that determine the directions of foreign economic activity development do not always correspond to the prevailing institutional and legal conditions of economic activity. In this regard, it is of particular importance to ensure the possibility of building a constructive dialogue between customs authorities and the business community.