Abstract: The article concerns international legal regulation of remote sensing from the space with the use of artificial satellites of the Earth. The author notes that in the sphere of remote sensing, as well as in other spheres concerning information, there is a variety of norms from various national legislations, international and international private law, as well as international treaties and supranational legislation of states, which is specialized on regulation of activities in the space. The author pays attention to the absence of the special international legal document, which would be devoted to the remote sensing of the Earth from the space. It is stated in the article that this sphere is regulated with the general documents of general international space law, including both binding and non-binding acts. The author evaluates positions of the states regarding remote sensing of the Earth from the space, which are expressed within the framework of the UN Space Committee. Special attention is paid to the development of principles of remote sensing of Earth from the space, as provided for by the General Assembly of the UN in its resolution 41/65 and the work of the legal sub-Committee of the UN Space Committee.

Keywords: international law, space, satellite, sensing, committee, sensing principles, international legal disputes, international contracts, international principles, the UNO

Abstract: The article contains analysis of the nature of international integration, and, more specifically, integration of states. The object of studies involves the definition of integration (in its general scientific sence), main categories of integration, phenomenon of international integration, and integration of states in particular, forms of state integration, definition of qualities and characteristic features of state, including sovereignty as a natural quality of the state, as well as the process of obtaining the quality and quantity characteristics of a state by an integrated association. The method and methodological basis for the analysis involve dialectics in combination with the international legal and state legal approaches. The methodological basis makes this study different from other works in this sphere.  Its application has allowed to draw a conclusion that integration is a dialectic process of transiation from the united parts to a single whole, appearing as a results of the leap, which may result in such a whole.  The application of this conclusion to the sphere of international relations (state integration) has allowed the author to draw the conclusion that integration of states is a process of transition of a certain combination of states into a single state as a hypothetical result of such a process, providing the said combination with the qualities and values similar to ones of the state. This definition corresponds to the definition of international integration in its narrow interpretation,  which, speaking more broadly, allows to understand integration as a form of cooperation of a certain group of states, within which the said states jointly achieve their goals in various spheres of cooperation, allowing to bring these states closer to each other. Both theoretical and practical value may be found in the issue of contents of the process of quality and quantity definition of the state by an integrated association, since it allows to reveal the aspects of improvement of the state integration.

Keywords: international integration theory, integration dialectics, methodology of international law, interdisciplinary approach, integration unions, sovereignty, forms of state integration, improvement of state integration, supranationality, integration association law

Abstract: Multinational companies resident in the states with high taxes, wishing to lower the tax burden in the group of companies as a whole, become involved in the complex international tax planning. They have two goals: on one hand to lower the source taxes at the investment states, and on the other hand to lower the income tax in state of their residency. The latter is a complex of activities for the diversion of income from the states, where the profit is earned to the third party states (also called intermediary states), where the profits are accumulated and then distributed in the state, where the investor is situated. The third party states may be offshore jurisdctions and states with favourable holding regimes. The state of residency of an investor does not wish to accept this situation as it is, and it is interested in legislative limitations to such practices.  The state of residency of the investor (e.g. a multinational company or a wealthy individual) is interested in counteractions against the attempts of such a resident to gain maximum delay in taxation of incomes earned. Such a delay is possible by so-called "parking" of passive incomes in the foreign jurisdictions with low taxes without distribution of such incomes into the state of residency of a resident. The resident state may achieve it by various taxation mechanisms for the non-distributed incomes of foreign controlled companies (well0known as CFC (Controlled Foreign Company) rules). In this article the author studies the CFC rules, which exist and are applied for decades by now in the states with high taxes, first of all, in the OECD states. The studies include defining the spheres of application of such norms, means of identification of foreign companies, whose tax basis should be included into the taxable basis of the parent company, the procedure for calculation of the tax basis, popular exceptions, as well as the modern international practices of developed states in this sphere. Currently the Russian tax legislation provides virtually no anti-avoidance norms, preventing the above-mentioned practices for the transfer of the tax basis abroad. However,   after the Budget Address of the President of the Russian Federation in December of 2013, the Ministry of Finances of the Russian Federation has announced its intention to introduce the rules similar to CFC, that is, the norms on controlled foreign companies, into the Russian tax legislation. In this article for the first time in the Russian legal science the author provides comprehensive analysis of the CFC rules, which are popular abroad. In this sense the contents of the article may provide the interested readers with the necessary context, within which the Russian tax rules on CFC shall be developed and further applied. 

Keywords: controlled foreign company, basic company, CFC, taxation delay, anti-avoidance norms, neutrality of capital export, passive income, active income, CFC, jurisdition with low taxes

Abstract: The author studies the issues of participation of international courts in the development of international law. The author studies this issue from the standpoint of the judicial practice of various international courts. Within the framework of this issue the author also studies the scientific doctrine. The author considers that via formation of precedents or by participating in the codification of decisions the international judicial institutions take part in the general process of development of the international law. The author also singles out a novel matter in the activities of the judicial institutions - de facto delegation of law-making function to such institutions. Quite a vivid example is posed by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, since Art. 15 of its Statute directly provides that the judges of the ICTY shall accept procedural rights for giving testimony for the pre-trial investigation, invstigation and appeal, taking testimony, protection of victims and witnesses, etc. Finally, the author singles out the specific method for participation of courts in the law-making - consultative opinions.

Keywords: international law, international court, judicial proceedings, judicial precedent, judicial practice, decision, international dispute, codification, development of law, the UNO

Abstract: The author studies the issues regarding legal status of a victim in the international law.  The author studies both the univeral law and the regional (European) law. The author also studies the role of the Statutes of the international ad hoc tribunals in defining statuses and rights of victims. The author notes that at the universal level there is almost no international legal regulation of rights of victims of international crimes, and the existing regulation is mostly "soft law". The regional acts in Europe provide some regulation of this matter, and they also have limited application. The author explains these imperfections with the fact that criminal law is the sphere, where the states are unwilling to limit their sovereignties. Therefore, development of norms on rights of victims at the international level is rather slow, and it seems to be a complicated problem due to the  significant discrepancies in legal and political positions of the states.

Keywords: the UNO, criminal court, human rights, victim, European law, criminal law, international law, soft law, victim, sovereignty