Abstract: Worldwide efforts to eliminate bank secrecy and foster transparency in international currency flows have accelerated significantly in recent years. The identification of tax havens and potentially harmful tax practices and regimes gives rise to a considerable potential for preventing distortions and violations that could undermine the benefits of enhanced capital mobility in today’s global economy. In the light of the aforementioned, the aim of this article is to detail: 1. efforts of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to eliminate «unfair tax competition»; 2. efforts of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) to reduce international money laundering; 3. steps being taken in the European Union (EU) to combat money laundering and tax evasion. The author analyzes the OECD's efforts to create a firm international platform for global tax information exchange. The Article also touches upon the FATF initiatives to combat money laundering: a) the FATF Forty Recommendations setting out a comprehensive and consistent framework of international standards which countries should implement in order to combat money laundering and terrorist financing; b) identification of jurisdictions which have the substantial and on-going money laundering and terrorist financing risks and strategic deficiencies; c) inclusion of certain anti-money laundering recommendations applicable to business and professions beyond the financial services industry; d) ongoing investigations of compliance with the Forty Recommendations by FATF members and by other states (mutual evaluations); e) helping national governments and financial institutions to ensure adequate and accurate information on the beneficial ownership. In the last part of the Article, the author analyses enforcement measures to combat money laundering adopted in the EU that go further beyond FATF recommendations.

Keywords: FATF, customer due diligence, harmful tax competition, international financial system, tax haven, offshore financial center, terrorist financing, money laundering, Egmont Group, OECD

Abstract: The article examines the assessment of the activities of private military and security companies through the prism of the legitimacy of their activities, the legitimacy of the decisions of the authorities on the basis of which they act and the legal norms regulating these relationships. An important issue is the difference in the legitimacy of state institutions, such as the army and the police, which traditionally implement the functions of the state associated with the monopoly on the use of force and private military and security companies, historically dating back to mercenary groups. The author touches upon the role of various national approaches to the regulation of PMSCs and their impact on public perception of their activities. The main conclusions of this study are to highlight the importance of the issue of the legitimacy of the activities of private military and security companies and the legitimacy of government orders for a balanced legal assessment of existing legislation, its problems and prospects for development. The philosophical and political dimension of the legitimacy problem makes it possible to expand the view of the situation for political actors and legislators in order to be able not only to create retrospective norms that can only respond to crisis situations in a limited way and not keep up with the development of the industry, but also to establish promising parameters that form the legal basis for the activities of private military and security companies.

Keywords: privatization of security, state institutions, armed conflicts, mercenaries, monopoly on violence, functions of the state, legitimacy, private security companies, private military companies, outsourcing

Abstract: The subject of the research is the legal regulation of public relations in the process of circulation of healthcare technologies. The purpose of the research is to analyze the features of convergence of legal regulation of the circulation of healthcare technologies in order to develop theoretical and practical proposals to counter modern challenges and threats in this area. The article is prepared using general scientific methods of cognition, including formal-logical and situational, and private-legal methods, such as comparative-legal, historical-legal and formal-legal. The novelty of the research lies in revelation of legal convergence in the system of international law as an important mechanism for the formation of access to safe, high-quality and effective technologies for healthcare and human security. The article summarizes the main threats in the sphere of circulation of healthcare technologies that require the introduction of uniform regulatory standards. The author analyzes the features of the harmonization and integration on the example of the activities of regional integration associations in order to form recommendations for the development of legal regulation of the circulation of healthcare technologies within the common market of the EAEU countries. The novelty of the article lies in the systematic consideration of legal convergence in the system of international law as an important mechanism for the formation of access to safe, high-quality and effective healthcare technologies and ensuring human safety. Justifying the lack of a systematic approach to the convergence of international legal regulation of the circulation of healthcare technologies, the author suggests considering the possibility of preparing a normative legal act of a universal nature in this area, by analogy with codifying conventions in other branches of international law. The author analyzes the features of the harmonization and integration on the example of the activities of regional integration associations in order to form recommendations for the development of legal regulation of the circulation of healthcare technologies within the framework of the common market of the EAEU countries

Keywords: eu, The EAEU, regional integration, single market, the right to health, international health law, healthcare technologies, harmonization, convergence, human security

Abstract: Usage of sting operation in law enforcement for documenting the facts of bribery and commercial bribery faces practical issues substantiated by imperfection of the current federal legislation on operational search activity. There is no legislatively secured definition of string operations along with regulation of the procedure for its conduct. The indicated gaps generate contradictory situations pertaining to the assessment of lawful actions of law enforcement agencies during string operationss. The departmental procedure for conducting operational search activity is insufficient for verification and assessment of performance of operational units by investigators, prosecutors, judges, and lawyers. Work on further amendments to the Federal Law “On Operational Search Activity” is relevant and reasonable. Currently, case law on this issue is quite ambiguous due to such formulations as the defense failed to prove the instance of provocation, and that there were no substantial violations or misuse in during conduct of operational search activity. For ensuring legal guarantees for persons against whom is conducted the string operations, it is essential to address the question of availability and quality of professional legal aid during the conduct of operational search activity, due to the fact that all evidence obtained by the operatives in the absence of lawyer and strictly regulated procedures of the conduct of operational search activity, often become key evidence in a case, which are hard to argue in court.

Keywords: bribe, corruption, operational search activities, red-handed detention, commercial bribery, bribery, experiment, provocation, ECtHR, judicial precedent

Abstract: The subject of this research is the review of the phenomenon of strategic partnership between the countries through the prism of normative legal regulation. The goal consists in comprehensive examination of the normative base of strategic partnership for extraction of the practically applicable conclusions. The results of the conducted research lies in formulation of the term of strategic partnership, as well as a list of recommendation on the improvement of existing legislation in the area of regulation of international economic relations. The article carries a cross-disciplinary character, since simultaneously touches upon several branches of law: administrative law, international law, and economic law. The acquired information can be used by a wide circle of scholars in the field of international economic relations, as well as by government officials for adjustment of the existing international agreements. The author concludes on the objective need to reform the system of international normative legal regulation of strategic partnership with regards to clarification of formulations, terminology, as well as implementation of quantitative and qualitative target indicators.

Keywords: strategic-like partnership, strategic partnership, treaties, declarations, international agreements, foreign trade, international economic relations, comprehensive strategic partnership, regulatory framework, target indicators

Abstract: The matter under research is Articles 8 and 21 of the International Child Abduction Convention of 1980 and Clause 1 of Article 244.11 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, the legal acts that establish a scope of persons who have the right to claim custody or access to a child. The object of the research is the relations arising between an individual that has the right to make such a claim and the national court of the country where an under-aged child has been unlawfully taken or where such a child is wrongfully retained. The author notes that legal acts do not provide a clear scope of persons thus she offers to make amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. In her research the author has used such methods as logical analysis and systems approach, comparative law methods, formal law methods and others. The main conclusions of the research demonstrate imperfection of the current Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation on persons who have the right to claim custody or access rights; contestability of conclusions made by the European Court of Human Rights on convention affairs; and problematic creation of the European Court of Human Rights precedent about recognition of rights of access for individuals who substitute for parents. The author's special contribution to the topic is her suggestions on elimination of problems in the Russian procedural law, recognition of a child over 14 years old as a rightholder (and giving him or her a lawyer as a representative), extention of the list of individuals who have the right to make aforesaid claims and non-recognition of custody and access rights in case genetic parents are not proved by the legal entry. The scientific novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author carries out a complex analysis of the provisions of Clause 1 of Article 244.11 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation and how it correlates to the provisions of The Convention of 1980. 

Keywords: rights of access, rights of custody, parents, child, international child abduction, wrongful retention of child, The Hague Convention, European Court, right to claim, cross-border protection

Abstract: The paper analyzes the standards of proof applied at the pre-trial phase of proceedings in international criminal courts and tribunals. The author raises the problem of differences in the procedures of various international institutions of criminal justice at the pre-trial phase of the proceedings; reviews the set of standards of “prima facie proof” and “reasonable grounds to believe”; considers the requirements for issuing the arrest warrant and preliminary confirmation of a letter of accusation. The proof standards analysis is based on the practice of international criminal courts and tribunals. The research methodology is based on general scientific methods of cognition: structural-logical, formal-logical, dialectical, deductive, inductive, system analysis, and specific methods: historical-legal, logical-legal, comparative-legal, formal-legal, and the system-structural approach. The key research methods are analysis and comparative analysis: the author analyzes judicial practice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court. The author approves the thesis that further development of regulation of proof standards, applied at the pre-trial phase, will help develop an effective mechanism of protection of rights of the accused and raise requirements to prosecutor’s investigation. The author formulates the essence of proof standards, applied at the present time in different institutions of international criminal justice, and suggests regulating the time limit for detention prior to confirmation of accusation at the pre-trial phase of the procedure. The formulated essence of proof standards can be used in discussions about the possible adaptation of proof standards to the realities of Russian procedural law and for preparation and submission of procedural documents in international institutions of criminal justice. 

Keywords: standards of proof, international criminal justice, international criminal tribunals, international criminal courts, international criminal procedure, prima facie, reasonable grounds to believe, ICC, ICTY, pre-trial phase

Abstract: The research object is the relations, emerging in the process of ensuring the rights of women migrants in the context of struggle against HIV/AIDS. The author outlines the peculiarities of the legal mechanism of protection of the rights of women migrants in the context of struggle against HIV/AIDS: in the active involvement of employers and their organizations, social organizations and trade unions. The author studies the international tendencies of interaction between employers and trade unions and every particular role of each of the mentioned actors within this mechanism. The study emphasizes the coordinating role of international organizations in the protection of rights of women migrants by employers and trade unions. In order to obtain the most reliable scientific results, the author applies the range of general scientific methods (system-structural, formal-logical and hermeneutical) and special legal methods of cognition (comparative-legal and formal-legal). These methods are used as a single complex. Employers and trade unions play a special role in the provision of rights of women migrants in the context of struggle against HIV/AIDS. They determine the observance of the non-discrimination and gender equality principles at work. Multinational companies have activated their work, aimed at the protection of employees’ rights, including those of women migrants, in the sphere of HIV/AIDS for economic reasons: customers prefer buying the products, produced by the companies, which don’t violate human rights; the realization of programs, aimed at HIV/AIDS prevention, reduces the expenses on diseased workers. The active role is played by employers’ associations – business coalitions, which develop joint programs for HIV/AIDS prevention. Being focused on human rights, trade unions actively protect the rights of employees using the existing instruments: educational programs and courses and the representation of employees’ rights before the employers. The International Labor Organization ensures cooperation between employers and trade unions, using the three-party meetings mechanism. Collective talks between the employer and the trade union are the important institution of protection of rights of women migrants which promotes the consolidation of obligations of the employer to the employee in the sphere of struggle against HIV/AIDS in collective agreements and the anti-HIV/AIDS policy. 

Keywords: multinational companies, discrimination, HIV/AIDS, women's rights, human rights, international migration, trade union, legal mechanism, minimum standards, decent work

Abstract: The research object is social relations in the sphere of human rights and freedoms ensuring. The author studies international legal instruments providing the right to sex education as a personal rights and freedoms guarantee. Sex education is considered as a guarantee of children’s, girls, women’s and migrants’ rights protection. The author emphasizes the role of sex education for combating HIV/AIDS, outlines the necessity to apply the comprehensive approach to education based on the understanding of sexuality as a sphere of human potential. The author studies the role of a corporate sector and social, particularly, religious, organizations for ensuring sex education as a human rights and freedoms guarantee. The author applies the set of general scientific methods (system-structural, formal-logical and hermeneutical) and special methods of jurisprudence (comparative-legal and formal-legal). They are used as a complex. The author comes to the following conclusions. Each person possesses the right to sex education regardless of his or her age and sex, and women and children have special guarantees of its enjoyment due to their vulnerability. International standards provide for an active cooperation of state bodies, the society, educational institutions and parents in the implementation of this right. Sex education is aimed at guaranteeing a whole range of human rights and freedoms, the violation of which leads to teenage pregnancies, infant and maternal mortality, gender violence, sexual exploitation and the spread of HIV. International sex education standards are developed with the involvement of internationally recognized experts in various fields of science (medicine, psychology, pedagogics, sociology, statistics, etc.) with the help of evidence-based methods making them an effective instrument of human rights ensuring. 

Keywords: gender, trade union, discrimination, migrants, sex education, guarantees, human rights, rights of a child, violance, HIV/AIDS

Abstract: The research subject is the set of international mechanisms of protection of children and women against violence. The author studies the history of recognition and statutorization of female genital mutilation as a damaging and intolerable practice, infringing women’s and children’s rights. The author studies the normative and institutional international mechanism of combating FGM. Special attention is paid to the factors, hampering the eradication of mutilating practices: migration processes and justification of religious and traditional reasonability. The article studies the foreign experience of combating FGM. In order to obtain reliable scientific results, the author consistently applies general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, the system-structural and formal-logical methods) and special methods of jurisprudence (comparative-legal and historical-legal methods). The author reasons the necessity to sign and ratify the 2011 Council of Europe Convention on prevention and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The author emphasizes the importance of creation of a national legal mechanism of protection of women’s and children’s rights against all forms of violence which should include normative and institutional elements, ideologically and culturally interconnected. The article substantiates the importance of support for religious views and legal education, condemning and denying prejudice, traditions and other practices, based on the idea of inferiority or supremacy of one of the genders, stereotypical roles of males and females and those damaging children’s health. 

Keywords: international organisation, international treaty, female genital mutilation, rights of children, women's rights, human rights, violence, religion, minimum standards, tradition

Abstract: The paper studies the system of views and ideas about international public law developed within Protestantism as a cultural phenomenon. The research subject includes the doctrinal developments defining the essence and the content of the protestant concept of international law. The author characterizes the ideas of the central protestant philosophers which the modern concept of international law is based on – Hugo Grotius, Christian Wolff and Emer de Vattel. Special attention is paid to the protestant concept of human rights and the justification of their special nature. To acquire trustworthy scientific results, the author applies the set of general scientific and specific research methods which are complemented with the principles of dialectics: analysis, synthesis, the formal-legal, historical-legal and comparative-legal methods. Particularly, the hermeneutical approach is used to define the content of the provisions of doctrinal developments of philosophers depending on the particular meanings of culture. The contribution of protestant ideas to the development of international law consists in the positivization of international law and its further dehumanization, when a premium is rather placed on an absolute power of the state than on the rights and interests of a person. Ignoring the doctrine of God as a sole sovereign, Positivists authorized only the state with an absolute sovereignty, and this positivist theory of sovereignty turned into an instrument protecting and justifying the violation of personal rights and freedoms within the state. Ultimately, this positivist-protestant concept of international law had led to the inability of international law to resist to humanitarian disasters of the world wars of the 20th century. 

Keywords: Protestantism, international law, human rights, concept of law, religion, Christianity, natural law, civil law, law of nations, culturology

Abstract: The research subject is the set of provisions of international law and the U.S. national legislation in the field of legal regulation of commercial activities aimed at the survey and extraction of space resources by private entities. The author studies the legal regime of minerals, contained in planets and asteroids, and the legal possibility of their commercial use by citizens (legal entities). The author analyzes the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act and compares it with the provisions of international law. To reveal the importance of provisions of the American legislation in the field of commercial space resources extraction, the author applies the comparative-legal and the technical research methods, analysis, and synthesis. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the research of legal regulation of commercial survey and extraction of space resources in foreign states hasn’t been carried out in the Russian Federation so far. The author comes to the following conclusions: international law doesn’t prohibit the survey and extraction of space resources by private entities; persons, extracting minerals form planets (asteroids), have to follow the rules of the state of their citizenship; the Russian legislator should revise its attitude toward private space activity and initiate the development of the concept of the respective law. 

Keywords: The Outer Space Treaty, the United States, the minerals, ownership, the Moon, space resources, Space, res nullius, the UN, terra nullius

Abstract: The article is devoted to the Senegal River Basin Development Organization, the history of its creation, its functioning, institutional structure, and regulatory acts. The article discusses the objectives and main directions of the organization's activities, the projects implemented within the Senegal River water resources development activities. They include the projects in the environmental and navigational areas, the spheres of fishery and agriculture, construction and infrastructure. This organization has wide experience of cooperation of its member-states, which can be an effective example of the river basin management organization and a successful example of sub-regional cooperation.Cooperation within this organization is narrow-purpose, and applies only to the projects of development and utilization of water resources (including agriculture and transport). In the process of its development, the organization's objectives had been transformed from the economic orientation in water resources development to the sustainable utilization of water resources by the member-states.

Keywords: international law, Regional law, national law, water resources, Africa, integration, secondary law, international commitments, international agreements, State - party

Abstract: The subject of the research is the range of problems in the sphere of international-legal regulation of exhibition, fair and congress activities within the system of the modern international (public) law in general. The object of the research is the set of public relations emerging in the process of cooperation between the world community member-states in the course of legal regulation of the institution of exhibition, fair and congress activities from the viewpoint of international public law. The research is based on the general scientific method of study of the regularities, the appearance, formation and development of international-legal phenomena, in combination with the comparative-legal, historical, structural-logical and deductive approaches. The novelty of the research lies in its very theme which is considered in this formulation for the first time. The paper presents the legal problems of international-legal regulation of exhibition, fair and congress activities from a new scientific perspective. 

Keywords: international legal relations, international law, separate legal category, international economic law, congress activity, exhibition and fair activities, international law institution, international-legal positioning, legal terminology, classification of exhibitions

Abstract: The article is devoted to the study of definitions of armed conflict, offered since the end of World War II to the present day. The author analyzes treaty and doctrinal definitions, as well as definitions proposed by international and national NGOs. The purpose of the study is, on the base of the offered definitions, to formulate new definitions of international and internal armed conflicts, and to outline the main elements (criteria) of such definitions, allowing them to claim for universality and legal normativity. Special attention is paid to the qualitative criteria, which should form the basis for international and internal armed conflicts definitions.The study is based on the combination of the specific historical, comparative, formal-legal and political-legal methods.The international-legal and the comparative analyses of definitions of armed conflict are made for the first time in Russian legal science. On the base of the analysis of international instruments (Geneva conventions of 1949, Additional protocols to them of 1977), policy documents and projects of international and national NGOs, authoritative opinions of international relations researchers, the author reveals the main criteria that should form the basis of these definitions.

Keywords: International humanitarian law, Additional Protocols, Geneva Conventions, definition, armed conflict, International law, ICRC, IHL applicability, threshold for applicability, human rights

Abstract: The author studies the types of ground for exclusions from the norm on the exhaustion of the domestic means of legal protection, as recognized in the international law. In particular, he analyzes such grounds as the lack of access to the domestic means of legal protection, inefficiency of domestic means of legal protection, unjustified delay in  justice, etc. The exception from the rule of exhaustion of domestic means of legal protection is based upon the provisions of international treaties. The author states that usually exempting the claimant from the obligation to exhaust the domestic means of legal protection has to do with the lack of funds for payment to the legal representative.  The author notes that the absence of procedural guarantees of fair and public judicial proceedings, fair and impartial court characterizes the means of judicial protection as being inefficient, an unjustified delay in dealing with the case by the court or other bodies may also serve as grounds for exemption to the rule of exhaustion of the domestic means of legal protection.  Finally, the author notes that in the general provisions of international law it is possible to exempt from the application of certain means of legal protection, if it shall lead to the repeated or continued violation of rights, and it may also lead to the situation where the rule on the exhaustion of the domestic remedies may not apply.

Keywords: international law, European law, the Council of Europe, the European Court, judicial practice, exhaustion of remedies, judicial protection, domestic legal order, international courts, domestic courts

Abstract: The article concerns three existing forms of participation of victims in the processes of the international criminal tribunals ad hoc: as witnesses, as amicus curiae, as significant statements of victims. The author analyzes the rules for the functioning of hte international criminal ad hoc tribunals and their judical practice. The author notes considerable difference in attitude towards regulation of access of victims as such to the judicial proceedings in the ad hoc tribunals and the permanent criminal court (the International Criminal Court). In the tribunals the victims as such do not gain much of a right to participate, they are just involved as witnesses.  Therefore, the ad hoc tribunals fail to recognize that the victims may have lawful interests in the participation in the proceedings in this very status. The tribunals have made attempts to change the rules,  and the significant statements of victims were introduced.  However, the Prosecutor remains the main source of protection of the interests of victims, since the victims have no access to tribunals. Obviously, this unfortunate experience of the tribunal caused the ICC to take a different approach towards the victims. Their access to the hearings is acceptable, while the provisions regulating this access are not sufficiently clear, and are rather ambigous.

Keywords: international law, international criminal court, international criminal tribunals, international criminal process, complainant, victim, party to the process, judicial proceedings, injured party, ad hoc