The paper provides an expanded version of the theses of the author’s report delivered at the scientific and educational conference «Your duty is to preserve the laws … " dedicated to the 280th anniversary of Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin held at the Kutafin Moscow State Law University (MSAL) on July 5, 2023. The paper deals with the issues of understanding of law as the initial category of jurisprudence in Derzhavin’s ideological and creative semantic space and understanding of the Constitution, bearing in mind G. R. Derzhavin participation in the formation of the project-doctrinal origins of Russian constitutionalism. The author focuses on ideological and spiritual legacy of G. R. Derzhavin directly reflected in his state-political and literary-creative biography. The author, relying on the concept of constitutional dialogue with the past put forward by Derzhavin, reveals a comprehensive creative potential of Derzhavin’s philosophy of state-legal life for the formation of value-semantic, pedagogical and institutional foundations of a nationally oriented constitutional model of the development of sovereign Russian statehood in modern conditions.

The paper is devoted to the study of the issues concerning legal regulation of the digital ruble circulation — a Russian national digital currency. It is noted that public relations arising in the process of the digital ruble circulation are included in the subject matter of several branches of law, mainly financial and civil law. At the same time, a binding nature of the digital ruble is important for civil law that affects the rights and obligations of participants of civil turnover, and for financial law because of a state law nature of the digital ruble. It is the state power command (expressed in forms of financial law rules) that gives the digital ruble the status of a legal means of payments.
The paper emphasizes that, although the «form of money» is primarily an economic concept, it is important for law, since it reflects the essential differences between types of money, manifested, inter alia, in the peculiarities of legal regulation of the circulation of different monetary funds. Based on the comparison of the Russian national digital currency with other types of non-cash funds, it is concluded that the digital ruble is a third form of money. In addition, the digital ruble is compared with digital currencies and electronic money.
It is established that the digital ruble platform can be considered as a product subsystem of the national payment system, an information system, as well as the space within which the emergence, change and termination of legal relations related to the circulation of the digital ruble occur.
Attention is focused on the transformation of the legal position of the Bank of Russia in connection with the assignment of the functions of the operator of the digital ruble platform. In addition, the paper reveals the features of the legal status of other participants of legal relations arising in the process of circulation of the digital ruble — participants and users of the digital ruble platform.

The paper analyzes the causes and conditions of subsidiary liability of founders for debts of state and municipal institutions paid out of budget funds. The author concludes that it is necessary to take into account the purpose of accepting such obligations by the budget and the instruments that led to their occurrence, as well as the type of state or municipal institution. It is noted that debt collection of budgetary and autonomous institutions out of budgets can occur only in the case of the public nature of contracts from which obligations arise, which, in turn, imposes restrictions on the creditor and affects the balance of rights and legitimate interests of the parties to the contract. Before applying for debt collection of a budgetary or autonomous institution directly out of the budget, it is necessary to prove that there is no possibility of debt collection from the principal debtor.
The author also provides a brief analysis of the approaches of the legislator and the courts to collecting debts of unitary enterprises from public legal entities out of budgetary funds. Based on this analysis, it is concluded that approaches to liability for debts of unitary enterprises and state and municipal institutions differ, but in general, there is some similarity, which is most likely caused by the decentralized nature common to their finances.

The paper analyzes the provisions of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, stipulating that expenditure obligations in the Russian Federation arise, among other things, as a result of the conclusion of contracts and agreements. The study revealed that the provisions of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation contain broad definitions that allow for the emergence of expenditure obligations from contracts that do not have regulatory properties, in particular from contracts concluded on behalf of a public legal entity by a state institution. The paper substantiates that such regulation does not take into account the legal standing of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation according to which the expenditure obligation must be established in a normative form. It is revealed that the budget legislation regarding the regulation of expenditure obligations is not synchronized with the legislation regulating the organization of public power. The paper provides arguments proving the need to specify that only public law contracts should act as the grounds for the occurrence of expenditure obligations. According to the results of the study, it is proposed to adjust the Budget Code of the Russian Federation in terms of specifying a specific list of types of contracts and agreements, because of which expenditure obligations arise.

The paper examines the procedural rules establishing conditions for assigning claims to summarily triable cases that are not limited by the amount of claims, as well as the practice of arbitrazh courts and courts of general jurisdiction on their application, which indicates the lack of uniformity in the interpretation of these conditions. The author concludes that such claims should, according to the documents submitted by the plaintiff, meet the criteria of indisputability. However, indisputability of the claims identified after referring the case for consideration in a summary procedure does not in itself prevent their consideration in the procedure mentioned above. The author points out the need to distinguish between the conditions for the confirmation of debt by the defendant and the conditions for the recognition of monetary obligations by the defendant; the author justifies the guidelines in understanding and evaluating the latter. The paper also highlights inconsistency in the legal regulation of the balance between writ cases and cases of summary proceedings in civil proceedings. If in the arbitrazh procedure all cases of writ proceedings for which a writ has not been issued fall under the category of summary proceedings that do not require the absence of a dispute concerning the issue of law. In civil proceedings this does not occur and the relevant claims are considered in the general claim procedure, since they cannot be attributed to the category of summary proceedings due to the lack of the criterion of indisputability. In conclusion, the author suggests additional explanations be provided to the courts regarding the formal features of this category of summary proceedings and indicate the need in civil proceedings for summary proceedings to set a limit not of 100,000 rubles, but 500,000 rubles.

In recent years, the law enforcement practice in bankruptcy cases has tended to increase the importance of the active role of the court in resolving court disputes. The paper discusses the causes and consequences of strengthening an active role of the court in relation to the specifics of bankruptcy proceedings. The author identifies the system levels of regulation of this type of legal proceedings and its place in the system of civil proceedings. The paper highlights the system-forming role of judicial practice that cumulates the biggest part of both the substantive and procedural features of such cases. The author summarizes and systematizes the points of view available in the doctrine concerning categorization of bankruptcy proceedings and gives her own opinion on this issue. The author concludes that strengthening the active role of the court in the bankruptcy proceedings is necessary to maintain a balance of interests and prevent abuse by the participants of the procedure. Consolidation of the active powers of the court at the legislative level can have a positive effect on reducing the time for consideration of such cases and increasing the percentage of satisfaction of creditors’ claims. At the same time, such consolidation will strengthen the specifics of bankruptcy proceedings, bringing them even closer to administrative proceedings.

The Russian legislation contains provisions concerning the procedure for holding a general meeting of participants of a corporate organization that pay special attention to the procedure for notifying about the upcoming meeting. The paper examines the issue of notifying the participants of the civil law community about the meeting as a legally significant action affecting the legal qualification and consequences of the decisions taken by the corporation. The balance of interests of minority and majority participants is analyzed when they are notified, taking into account the agenda. The paper differentiates the cases of invalidation of decisions on disputed and void grounds when the procedure for notifying participants of the meeting is violated. The author proposes the ways of verifying the will of a corporate organization when making an appropriate decision, identifies cases of making corporate decisions necessary for the company, as well as the convalidation of decisions taken with a deviation from the established notification procedure. The paper defines legal approaches and constructions of proper notification taking into account the challenges of modernity, including the process of digital transformation of the economy and sanctions economic pressure on domestic business. Also, the paper examines approaches applied in jurisprudence that have developed over the past decade and identifies trends in the transformation of these approaches with due regard to the balance of interests of participants in corporate relations.

In the modern economic and legal model of social relations, family members take the most active and direct part in entrepreneurial legal relations, the essence of which is often reduced to the organization of business processes by spouses, children and other relatives within the framework of the concept of a family business form of entrepreneurship. We believe that this segment of economic-social and family entrepreneurship is quite significant from the point of view of the doctrine and practice-oriented direction of the implementation of the modern theory of entrepreneurship aimed at providing additional support for small and medium-sized businesses, quite often organized by means of family and legal ties, which does not exclude its application for large corporations and holdings. The paper proposes a modern concept of legitimation of family entrepreneurship through the prism of private law and public law regulation, substantiates the need for additional state support for this form of doing business, provides conclusions and some proposals for reforming legislation aimed at legalizing family entrepreneurship in Russia, publishes a memorandum on the current state and further implementation of measures to legalize family entrepreneurship in the post-reform period in Russia.

The modern Russian legal doctrine has not yet developed a unified approach to understanding judicial discretion. The content of this term seems to be very complex and ambiguous. The analysis of the legislation shows that the discretion of the law enforcement officer (investigator, prosecutor or person in charge of an inquiry) is possible when applying the norms of various branches of law. The importance of defining the most complete and precise concept of judicial discretion is dictated by the complexity of establishing its boundaries.
The objectives of the study are to derive the definition of judicial discretion based on a critical assessment of doctrinal definitions and to identify its essential features. The results reflected in this paper show that a considerable number of authors understand judicial discretion in different ways; at the same time, the points of view of scholars still have common ground. The result of the study provides the author’s definition of judicial discretion and the allocation of its essential features.

The paper analyzes the problems that arise when providing qualified legal assistance to participants in criminal proceedings in the context of the development of digital technologies. These include the lack of legal regulation for filing complaints, petitions and statements by a lawyer in electronic form at the stage of pre-trial proceedings; the need to strengthen procedural guarantees for obtaining legal assistance by participants in criminal proceedings in connection with the introduction into the criminal procedure law of a rule of law regulating the features of interrogation, confrontation and identification through the use of videoconferencing systems. The author reveals legal uncertainty as to the location of the lawyer of the participant in investigative activities when they are carried out via video conferencing; the difficulties arising when studying the investigation report and making a copy thereof, as well as the feasibility of introducing electronic document management into the criminal procedure at the stage of pre-trial proceedings. The problems of a material and technical nature associated with the introduction of digital technologies in the criminal process are considered. The author substantiates the conclusions about the need to change and supplement the criminal procedure law in order to eliminate the identified problems, gives ways to improve legislation in the field of providing qualified legal assistance to participants in criminal proceedings in the context of the development of digital technologies.

The paper deals with some issues related to the possibility of applying measures of procedural coercion after the suspension of criminal proceedings. The author focuses on the need to improve the legislation governing the application of coercive measures in case of suspension of the preliminary investigation. Based on the analysis of investigative practice, taking into account the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the paper assesses the existing approaches to resolving the issue of the possibility of using coercive measures after the proceedings in the criminal case have been suspended. Following the interviews with judges of the Omsk region district courts, the paper highlights approaches to solving the problem of the effect of procedural coercion measures after the suspension of criminal proceedings.
The author proposes to amend Art. 209 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, which regulates the actions of the investigator after the suspension of the preliminary investigation, indicating the possibility (or lack of it) of applying procedural coercive measures in the event of suspension of criminal proceedings.

The paper is devoted to improving the provision and quality control of forensic activities in the Russian Federation. The purpose of the study is to develop theoretically and practically significant proposals for the creation of a Unified Register of Forensic Expert Personnel and a Unified Register of Forensic Expert Organizations.
The methodological basis of the study comprises general scientific methods of cognition, namely analysis, synthesis and modeling; private scientific methods, namely analogy, statistical and comparative legal.
The author proposes to create a Unified Register of Forensic Organizations and a Unified Register of Forensic Experts on the basis of the digital platform of the Federal Accreditation Service in the Federal State Information System in the Field of Accreditation (FSIS Rosaccreditation) within the framework of the new mechanism previously proposed by the author for accrediting forensic organizations in the National System Russian accreditation. The scientific and practical significance lies in the proposal, not previously covered in the literature, to create a single verified resource of expert personnel for law enforcement agencies on the basis of a digital platform of a supradepartmental independent body.

In the context of the changing geopolitical situation and the introduction by various countries of anti-Russian sanctions and unilateral restrictive measures, Russian citizens faced numerous problems arising when trying to apply to a foreign arbitration institution they had previously chosen, when choosing arbitrators, experts and representatives. These problems arise at all stages of the proceedings: from its initiation and ending with the recognition and enforcement of the decision. The paper discusses the main problems and provides recommendations for their solution, supported by examples of judicial and arbitration practice, as well as references to the rules of regulations of various arbitration institutions (LCIA, ICC, SCC, HKIAC, SIAC, DIAC, ISTAC). Based on the analysis, it is concluded that the most effective ways to minimize the impact of sanctions on the proceedings are: 1) the choice of arbitration located in a neutral jurisdiction; 2) choice of ad hoc arbitration; 3) conclusion of alternative arbitration clauses; 4) an application to the Russian arbitration court with a statement recognizing its exclusive jurisdiction to resolve the dispute under Art. 248.1 APC RF.

The paper covers certain provisions of a comprehensive study of the implementation of human rights in international investment legal relations. The author attempted to reveal the relevance of the ongoing research and assess the significance of the interaction between international investment law and international human rights law in modern realities. The paper reveals the main options for the interaction of international investment law and international human rights law, both in material and procedural aspects. The author focuses on the practice of resolving international investment disputes in relation to the actions of the host state with reference to the protection of human rights as one of the options for manifesting the relationship between the two branches of public international law. The author reveals the existing patterns in the practice of resolving investment disputes. As a key conclusion, the author puts forward the idea that it is possible to generalize the results of a harmonious interpretation (construction) and the formation of an appropriate unified legal framework for the norms of international public law with a view to its subsequent harmonious application.

The paper analyzes and assesses the prospects for the development of the Russian legislation in the field of environmental safety of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation in the exploration and production of oil and gas. In the context of the existing risks and threats to energy security, the author proves that the use of traditional types of energy resources will still have an important role in the structure of the fuel and energy balance of almost every modern state. This results in the growing importance of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, which should be considered as an important geostrategic object, the use of natural resources of which will make it possible to gain energy independence and sustainable development for present and future generations in the long term. The paper highlights the modern environmental and legal problems of the Arctic zone, primarily the processes and consequences of global warming, as well as the problems of ensuring environmental safety in the transportation of oil and petroleum products, including on the continental shelf of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. Possible ways to solve legal problems under sanctions are suggested. The author proves that it is necessary to update the existing documents of state strategic planning in the field of environmental protection, subsoil use, as well as in the field of ensuring sustainable socio-economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation.

The paper discusses the features of the administrative and legal regulation of forest climate projects being formed in Russia.
Russia has one fifth of the world’s forests, which play an important role in the country’s carbon balance, compensate for almost 30% of national anthropogenic emissions and determine the potential for the implementation of forest climate projects in the country.
Forest climate projects are one of the types of climate projects, the legal framework of which is established by Federal Law No. 296‑FZ of 02.07.2021 «On Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions» and regulations adopted in accordance with it. However, general approaches do not take into account some features of forest climate projects, such as the long-term nature of projects, the need to maintain the result for decades at high risks of losses due to forest fires, illegal logging, insect pests, etc. That is, it is important to further develop the regulatory framework, taking into account the special requirements for forest climate projects, as well as the norms of state forest management and relevant international practices, including those formed under the auspices of the Paris Agreement.
The paper analyzes the rights and obligations of participants involved in the implementation of forest-climatic projects, and the possibility of implementing projects on the lands of the forest fund and agricultural lands. Approaches to eliminate the existing legal gaps are proposed.

The paper reports on the scientific and practical conference «Issues of Protecting the Rights of Citizens Using Digital Technologies in Criminal Proceedings», held on December 20, 2022 in a mixed format. The conference was organized by the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation and the Scientific and Educational Center for Human Rights of Kutafin Moscow State Law University (MSAL). The conference was devoted to topical issues related to the protection of the rights of citizens by means of digital technologies, access to justice, the possibilities of digitalization to overcome restrictions in the work of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, generalization of the experience of foreign states and the Russian Federation in ensuring the rights of participants in criminal proceedings. The conference brought together a wide range of scientists and representatives of the legislative, executive, judicial authorities involved in the protection of the rights of citizens in the criminal procedure.