The author elucidates the concept and content of the principle of immediacy and guarantees of its implementation in administrative proceedings. The analysis of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, the Arbitrazh Procedural Code of the Russian Federation, the standings of higher courts and law enforcement practice allows us to determine the elements of the principle of immediacy in administrative proceedings. Their systematic consideration indicates the need to consolidate this principle in the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation and eliminate the shortcomings contained in the current legislation. The principle of immediacy in administrative proceedings is defined as procedural requirements, expressed in the fact that the circumstances included in the standard of proof and relevant to the case can be established by evidence, the content of which was investigated during the case consideration according to personal perception of the participants (subjects) of administrative jurisdiction with the provision of equal rights to participants in the proceedings in their study, discussion and analysis by means of mandatory verbalization.

In financial legal relationships between States, relationships concerning provision of temporarily available funds for loans are well developed, which implies that one party has a debt, and the other party has a loan. The Russian Federation has external debt claims against other States because of the provision of financial and export credits regulated by budget legislation and relevant intergovernmental agreements. As a result of the study, the following conclusions were made: a) the domestic legislator imposes certain economic and political requirements on the potential borrower State, which allow us to conclude about its financial stability and solvency, as well as about the absence of involvement in any conflicts; b) information on public lending programs in relation to foreign countries is set forth in appendices to the federal budget law for a certain period on the terms of the secrecy order; c) international financial organizations, in particular the World Bank, publish information on lending to developing countries, including the Russian Federation; d) the most active borrowers from Russia are Belarus and a number of countries in Africa and Asia, including those States that preserved their borrower status from the Soviet period.

The paper analyzes the reasons for external state financial control over the activities of business partnerships and business entities with participation of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as the specifics of inspections of such business entities performed by regional control and accounting authorities. Based on the study of federal and regional regulatory legal acts, acts of the control and accounting bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the practice of courts and the activities of control and accounting bodies, the author defines the problems of such control and analyzes the arguments of the audited entities used to protect their rights during control and the assessment of these arguments by the courts. The author concludes that it is necessary to include a list of objects controlled by sub-federal control and accounting bodies in Federal Law No. 6‑FZ dated 07.02.2011 «On General Principles of Organization and Activities of Control and Accounting Bodies of Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation, Federal Territories and Municipalities» in order to unify the approach to external budget control. The paper substantiates that finances, property and activities of these legal entities are subject to control exercised by regional bodies of external budget control due to the importance of these resources in the process of generating budget revenues of the relevant public legal entities, and the inspectors act primarily as representatives not of the shareholder or participant, but of public legal entities protecting public interest. It also gives them the opportunity to suggest ways to improve the regulatory framework of the region and the management processes of individual legal entities.

The relevance of the study of the preferential right to upbringing using a comparative historical and legal method (by referring to the Soviet legal experience) can be explained by the fact that it was during the Soviet period that the emphasis was placed on the priority right to upbringing (between the State (society) and parents; between parents), which still takes place in post-Soviet family legislation. The paper analyzes the reasons for the change in the priority subjects of child upbringing in historical retrospect. The problem is that in the post-Soviet period, some law enforcement agencies, undern Article 6 of the Declaration on the Rights of the Child of 1959, when considering cases determining the place of residence of a child, began to recognize the priority right to upbringing for the mother, while other law enforcement agencies are guided by the principle of equality of rights of both parents, fixed in the Family Code of the Russian Federation. The author highlights different aspects of this problem and suggests ways to solve them.

The paper analyzes the possibility of applying the categories «public legal entity» or «legal entity of public law» in civil law. The application of this category to legal entities — public authorities — can be explained by the problem of dualism of their legal status. This dualism is manifested in the fact that, participating in civil legal relations as independent entities, legal entities-public authorities do not cease to be part of the public authority mechanism, which affects the independence of their volition and expression of will, calls into question the existence of their independent interest, different from the interest of the entire public legal entity. Under certain circumstances, legal entities-public authorities may participate in civil law relations on behalf of and in the interests of the entire public legal entity. This complicates the differentiation of such forms in practice and requires its resolution in the science of civil law. As the type-forming features of public legal entities, the author highlights their inherent connection with the public legal entity that created them and the specifics of the legal regime of their property regulation. Applying an extensive set of methods, including comparative legal and formal legal methods and from the standpoint of a systematic scientific approach, the author comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to exclude the possibility of granting public authorities the legal status of legal entities and defining the public legal entities themselves — the Russian Federation, its constituent entities and municipalities — as public legal entities instead of the legal status sui generis. The paper provides a valuable description of the risks of such an innovation caused by an incorrect understanding of the essence of a public legal entity.

The author examines the doctrine of subrogation in historical and comparative legal aspects. The paper analyzes the interaction of the rules on subrogation and regression and examines the cases of applying the rules on subrogation to regression claims. The interaction between regression and subrogation is not limited to the default use of one or another model, depending on the normative regulation of the legal institution. This concerns the application of the nemo subrogat contra se principle to impose the prohibition to act to the detriment of the creditor under the main obligation in case of its partial fulfillment, the possibility of transferring recourse obligations to other persons through the subrogation mechanism. In some cases, the fulfillment of a recourse obligation may result in the subrogation of the regressant’s rights to the regredient. The author analyzes the choice of the legislator in terms of the model of the reverse claim in surety and insurance. It is indicated that in a situation where the rule of law does not allow the executor to exercise the rights of the creditor through subrogation, he is given the opportunity to reimburse his expenses through recourse. Regression in this regard does not mean an improvement in the position of such a person, but allows an individual to protect his interest where, for formal reasons, he does not have other legal means, which fully corresponds to the regime of a subsidiary remedy. The paper elucidates the arguments for and against the ability of the executor to independently choose the model of the reverse claim. It is concluded that de lege ferenda there are grounds for the executor in a number of cases (primarily with a joint obligation) to independently choose a model of a reverse claim, if this is not carried out to the detriment of the interests of the debtor and third parties.

The institution of a special court ruling is one of the procedural tools that ensures that courts of general jurisdiction, when considering cases in civil proceedings, strengthen the rule of law and prevent offenses. Special court rulings have a long history of development: they have gone from a mandatory form of procedural reaction of the court to detected violations of the rule of law or the rules of the socialist community to a response measure of the court to cases of violations of the rule of law attributed to its discretionary powers. At the same time, with the adoption of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, the importance and effectiveness of the institution of a special court ruling have significantly decreased. Judicial statistics indicate that there is a long-term and gradually developing trend towards a decrease in the number of private rulings issued by courts of general jurisdiction in civil cases. This situation is caused by fragmented and incomplete legal regulation, its ambiguous interpretation, diversely developing judicial practice and the lack of clarification of the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the practice of applying the institute of a special court ruling. In addition, the procedure for monitoring the enforcement of special court rulings by authorized persons in terms of informing them to the court about the measures taken to eliminate and prevent further violations of the rule of law goes beyond the function of the court to administer justice and imposes on the court the duties inherent in control (supervisory) bodies. The above circumstances raise questions about the necessity and expediency of having the institution of special court rulings in civil proceedings in its current form, as well as about the prospects for its further improvement.

The paper deals with the problem of such a characteristic of arbitral awards as prejudice in relation to the consideration of cases by courts of general jurisdiction and arbitrazh courts. Despite the fact that more and more researchers and practitioners are inclined to recognize the decisions of arbitrazh courts as prejudicial, the work substantiates that such decisions cannot have a prejudicial significance for the consideration of cases in state courts. This takes place due to the fact that arbitrazh courts do not belong to the agencies for the administration of justice, and therefore arbitral awards represent the result of a private-law method of dispute resolution and, accordingly, do not have a public-law character. However, the prejudice of the circumstances established by the arbitral awards is not excluded if the State courts comply with a certain procedure. The paper attempts to describe the procedure for recognizing the circumstances contained in the arbitral award as prejudicial.

The paper, based on judicial practice and statistics of the autonomous non-profit organization «Coordination Center for the National Internet Domain», examines the difficulty of determining the proper party defendant in a domain dispute case. The author associates the reasons for this problem mainly with the lack of legal regulation in the legislation of procedures for registering and administering domain names, as well as the process of resolving domain disputes itself. In order to determine the proper party defendant in a domain dispute case, the author of the paper analyzes the substantive relations that are the subject of domain disputes and proposes to classify the latter into three types depending on their subject. The paper substantiates the opinion about the possibility of involving a domain name registrar as a co-defendant in cases of domain disputes related to the registration of a domain name, or its «reverse cybersquatting». Arguments are given in favor of the optionality of such co-participation. The author discovers that the domain name administrator and the actual owner of the Internet site to which such a domain name is addressed can be different persons, which leads to a conclusion that it is mandatory for these persons to participate in a domain dispute related to the use of a domain name.

Systematization of contracts makes it possible to solve the problems of contractual regulation at the legislative level. The problem of contract systematization in civil law in general and in intellectual property law is that in science there is no unified approach regarding the choice of classification criterion that can be used as its basis. Systematization of contracts aimed at creating intellectual products is a «hot button» of the current legislation, the practice of its application and legal science. The paper reasonably points out that the legislative decisions presented in section VII of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, are ill-conceived and ignore the principle of systematic construction of legislation on contractual obligations aimed at creating intellectual products. An analysis of the rules on contracts aimed at creating works as objects of copyright, and research and development agreements was carried out. The paper proposes amendments to the legislation as to transfer of the rules on the creation of intellectual products to Section IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and changes in the structure and content of Chapter 38 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

The paper identifies and compares the key features of representations and warranties and quality warranties. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that quality warranty is a type of representations and warranties. This is evidenced by the key element of their similarity — the reflection of the qualitative characteristics of the subject of the transaction. After all, both representations and warranties and quality warranty are inextricably linked with the contract, in the absence of which their existence does not matter. The differences between the studied categories reflect the specific features of quality warranty as representations and warranties. However, this does not exclude the possibility that certain properties of representations and warranties can be extended to a quality guarantee, and this will not contradict the essence of the latter, which will better ensure the rights and interests of parties to transactions. For example: 1) extend the rule on the autonomous and independent nature of representations to the effect of quality warranty; 2) allow for the provision of quality warranties by a third party in non-consumer legal relations, as exists in the case of the use of representations and warranties. It is also proposed to introduce a legal presumption of the commencement of validity of representations and warranties, which is based on the principle of exercising the right in one’s own interest (Clause 2 of Article 1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

In May 2023, Article 284.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation came into force that declared criminal offense for «assistance in the execution of decisions of international organizations in which the Russian Federation does not participate, or foreign government bodies.” The syntactic construction chosen by the legislator does not make it possible, using a literal interpretation, to unambiguously determine the range of actions the commission of which entails criminal punishment. The history of the emergence and approval of the initiative to include Art. 284.3 demonstrates a serious problem in modern lawmaking: the unexpected appearance and hasty adoption of projects that are not discussed in the legal community and do not receive proper expert assessment.

Goals and objectives of the study: to substantiate the doctrinal interpretation of the objective side of the act described in Art. 284.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as formulate proposals aimed at limiting the manifestations of so-called hasty lawmaking in the criminal legal sphere. During the research, the author was guided by the principles of the dialectical method of cognition (objectivity and comprehensiveness of consideration of the object of study, historicism, the universal connection of phenomena, systematicity), used general scientific (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, description, generalization, classification, analogy) and special scientific (historical) legal, sociological, legal forecasting) methods, and at the same time historical, functional and systematic ways of interpreting the law.

The assumption is substantiated that the emergence of the official interpretation of Art. 284.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the near future is unlikely, and a doctrinal interpretation is proposed, which may be in demand in criminal proceedings and investigative activities, as well as in preparing explanations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, relevant acts of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and a bill aimed at clarifying the text of the recently adopted criminal law. A number of proposals have been argued to introduce amendments and additions to the Rules of Procedure of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, aimed at limiting the passage of poorly substantiated bills with significant legal and technical flaws in the criminal legal field.

The element of particular cruelty in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is reflected in Art. 63 as an aggravating circumstance, as well as a classifying element in Art. 105, 111, 112, 131 and 132, etc. However, law does not disclose the content of this element. Along with the concept of «particular cruelty,» the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation operates with other, similar terms: torture, torment, bullying, sadism, torture. The content and correlation of the concepts under consideration seem ambiguous, which is the subject of discussion in the doctrine of criminal law. Judicial practice also testifies to the unresolved nature of this issue, which results in the absence of a unified approach in similar cases. The paper, among other things, substantiates the need to replace the concept of «particular cruelty» with the concept of «sadism» in Art. 131 and 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The thesis is put forward that particular cruelty can occur when committing crimes, the object of which is not only social relations that characterize the individual, but also the safety of public health and public morality.

The paper provides an in-depth analysis of the concept of outstanding universal value of world heritage sites, which is the supporting category of the entire system of protection of unique natural sites. The paper considers the normative basis for the definition of this concept in the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the Guidelines for its implementation, the practice of the World Heritage Committee and the acts of its advisory bodies. The tripartite division of the composition of outstanding universal value is critically analyzed and the reasons for its appearance are highlighted. Methods of formalizing the analyzed concept are explored, shortcomings in the formulation of wordings of outstanding universal value are highlighted, and various ways to improve this institution are proposed. The comparative legal method of research is widely used: all the problems discussed in the paper are illustrated by the current law enforcement practice of the World Heritage Committee in reviewing the state of conservation of unique natural objects located in foreign countries. The results obtained are compared with the problems of protecting Russian World Natural Heritage sites.

The paper identifies regulatory gaps in the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union in relation to the status of an investor when changing their personal law after making investments. There are also gaps in the procedural mechanism for organizing and conducting conciliation procedures in accordance with the above agreement on the initiative of an individual — the applicant whose legal interests were violated. Based on the results of a study carried out from the perspective of comparative law and a formal-dogmatic approach, the author proposes solutions to improve the international legal regulation of investment activities within the EAEU on the identified issues in order to create a favorable investment climate for attracting foreign investment to the Russian Federation from partner countries in the EAEU. The theoretical significance of the work lies in the formulation of the author’s definition of the concept of international legal innovations and the designation of their characteristics based on a doctrinal understanding of examples of UNCITRAL rule-making practice.

The paper examines the problem of compensation for damages for the loss of chance in the future (winning a tender, competition, litigation) and the evolution of views on it in the German legal order. The difference between this concept and loss of profit is considered. It is concluded that the loss of chance can be considered as an element of a cause-and-effect relationship that limits the amount of damages subject to compensation by the probability of a favorable consequence occurring, and as a separate benefit subject to civil protection using a method similar to that used for compensation of «purely economic losses». The author puts a special focus on the rule on the ability of the court to determine the amount of damages at its own discretion in the event of uncertainty in their size, which is extremely favorable to compensation for lost chances. In addition, the effectiveness of compensation for harm proportional to the lost chance is considered from the point of view of economic analysis of law. A comparative legal study of this institution in other legal orders proves the absence of barriers to compensation for losses of this kind in all continental systems of justice, the Russian one included.