Based on reconsidering of well-established science provisions on legal culture and its structure, the author of the article using a systemic approach proves the thesis that legal culture of the society appears as an integrated multi-level system. In the legal culture the author distinguishes such levels as genetic, archaic, traditional, national, regional and global. The appearance of each new level takes place due to qualitative changes, transformation of the legal culture of the society during a certain historical period of its development. To conclude, the author opines that all levels of legal culture, being subsystems of an organic integrity, interact with each other and change during this interaction. The integrity of the legal culture of a particular society is provided by cultural (ideological) universals that include not only phenomena consciously recognized by the society, but the phenomena that are accepted by the society unconsciously. Universals accumulate legal experience gained during the whole period of historical development in the coordinate system of the vital activities of a particular society.

The paper deals with a pyramid scheme as a special phenomenon with its distinctive features, describes this phenomenon from the perspective of different authors. The author appeals to the history and considers a pyramid scheme as a special construction that took place in the past and still exists in the present of Russia. Emphasis is placed on the most famous pyramid schemes, namely - the history of setting up pyramid schemes by Ivan Rykov and Sergey Mavrodi. The author examines a variety of pyramid schemes. Some attention is paid to the process of contemporary Russian legislation development that criminalizes setting-up, management and dissemination of high-profile information promoting pyramid schemes. The author gives opinions of reputable domestic and foreign researchers, law enforcement officials, historians. The paper raises the issue of recognition of a pyramid scheme and of financial literacy of the population at large. The author draws attention to how the information about the history of pyramid schemes may be useful in the present.

The article deals with the legal regulation of the right to peaceful assembly in Russia and Finland. Recent decisions of the European Court of Human Rights within the framework of the "Bolotnaya case" again raised the question of the necessity of comparative law analysis of Russian legislation in the field of the right to peaceful assembly. Since a lot of publications were devoted to the study of compliance of this legislation with international standards, we carry out comparative law analysis of the provisions of the Federal Law dated June 14, 2004 N 54-FZ "On assemblies, meetings, demonstrations, processions and picketing" and "Act on Assembly" dated April 22, 1999 of Finland, a neighboring state, a member of the European Union. The analysis has been carried out according to the following criteria: holders of the right to assembly; the subject of legislation on public events regulation; principles of organizing and conducting public activities; an advance notice of a public event; as well as coordination of the venue for public events. Direct analysis of the provisions of the two acts is preceded by a general description of the right to freedom of assembly from the point of view of standards of international and constitutional law. The main findings are set out in the conclusion.

The article deals with amendments to the law on the Prosecutor's Office after amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation that changed the procedure for the appointment of certain categories of prosecutors, their age and length of service requirements, as well as the return of the five-year period of their prosecutorial discretion. Taking the results of the research into consideration, the author suggested that the Federal law "On the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation” should include: 1) prohibition to appoint one person to the same office of highest ranking prosecutors for more than two five-year terms; 2) qualification requirements to deputy prosecutors of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, deputies of cities, districts and deputies equated to prosecutors, senior assistant prosecutors and assistants prosecutors of constituent entities of the Russian Federation. In view of the violation of the principle of independence of prosecutors, the author proposes to abolish the procedure of coordinating candidates for the office of a prosecutor of the Russian Federation with regional public authorities.

On the basis of the analysis of federal legislation and administrative legislation of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the author justifies the necessity to establish administrative responsibility for permitting animal attacks on humans in the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. It is unacceptable when one constituent entity of the RF in a case of an act the consequences of which obviously have publicly harmful nature considers this act as an administrative offense and another entity does not treat it as an administrative offence. The author suggests a complex of measures aimed at overcoming gaps in the administrative offenses legislation. Adoption of tough measures, including those of administrative and legal nature, are able of ensuring the security of citizens, protecting their health and property, improving the culture of keeping animals.

The paper examines the problems of financial and legal regulation of payments for the use of natural resources. The author draws attention to the complexity and heterogeneity of the system of natural resources payments including a number of different types of payments ranging from taxes (a tax on mineral extraction, a water tax, a land tax) to rent payments (the rent for use of the land, the rent for the use of forests). According to the author of the article, such diversity is difficult to explain, since it is not clear why a law-maker chooses a particular form, because a particular single object of taxation, namely - natural resources, is being dealt with. In addition, establishing and levying natural resources payments derives from the principle of payment for the use of natural resources. Also, the analysis of current legislation in the field of payments for the use of natural resources carried out in the paper shows that when calculating natural resources payments irrespective of their title and legal construct identical approaches are applied. It turns out that the state through appropriate bodies in the relations that arise over natural resources can act as a public entity laying down rules for granting the use of natural resources, levying taxes and as an equal entity in civil legal relations, which raises many questions. It is difficult to explain the reasons why the state granting the use of natural resources resorts to either public law or private law constructions. We cannot accept regulation when essentially homogeneous payments are assigned to the budget as either taxes or non-tax payments. The analysis revealed two approaches to the definition of the legal nature of natural resources payments: a civil law approach and a public law approach. Criticizing the possibility of applying civil law regulation to the relations that are public according to their legal nature, the author proves the financial and legal status of the payments. The research carried out in this paper leads to well-grounded conclusions concerning the need for applying a uniform public law regulation with regard to natural resources payments that, according to the author of the article, are of a mandatory nature, collecting of such payments for the budget is associated with the payers' performance of activities in the field of natural resources management that is associated with using the budget in the sphere of natural resources, as well as denial of civil law regulation of forestry and land payments because it contradicts to their public law nature and leads to budget losses due to the impossibility of applying the mechanism of coercion.

The Institute of Permanent Representation has been used in tax law for quite a long time. Meanwhile, Russian tax science representatives rarely turn to the analysis of the concept, but misunderstanding of the essence of the phenomenon leads to incorrect application (or non-application) of the provisions of the RF Tax Code concerning permanent representation. Permanent Representation is a complex concept of tax law. The main purpose of this concept is to establish such a regime of taxation of a foreign organization that takes into account the interests of a taxpayer, interests of a state that is a source of income, and interests of a state of residency of the organization. The institute of permanent representation in many ways is similar to the institute of tax residency, as it characterizes a taxpayer and reflects his connection with a state that has the right to charge a tax. The paper carries out the analysis of a legal nature of Permanent Representation and compares it with similar concepts of tax law.

The paper is devoted to the examination of significance and a role of financial control as an instrument of state policy for national corporations. The author makes the issues related to the implementation of financial control over the activities of national corporations by the example of the National Corporation «Rosatom» a point of researching. On the basis of the study, the author concludes that financial monitoring of the activities of the national corporation «Rosatom» has a comprehensive character. The author concludes that the current system of internal financial control of the named Corporation is sufficiently effective, which ensures compliance with financial discipline on the part of the Corporation and other organizations.

This paper deals with the problem of mortgaging residential property with non-approved re-planning and (or) reconstruction. The author introduces the concept of identification risks incurred by the mortgagee of the living premises with non-approved re-planning and (or) reconstruction. The author defines prerequisites of appearance of such risks, their content, legal effects and specific attribution. The paper examines the fate of the right to mortgage and foreclosure on the mortgaged premises with non-approved re-planning and (or) reconstruction .

Disputes concerning children have consistently accounted for a significant amount among cases considered in civil proceedings. At the same time, both representatives of the scientific community and law-enforcers have repeatedly pointed out that the current mechanism of judicial protection cannot resolve such cases effectively. The legislation provides for a general procedure for the resolution of disputes arising out of civil legal relationships. But it is impossible to reflect in the text of the law the full diversity of emerging situations and the intricacies of family conflicts. Therefore, substantive law that should guide the courts in disputes concerning children, contains a significant number of evaluation categories. In order to apply an abstract provision of a law in each case it is necessary to grasp its true content. When resolving family conflicts, in many cases a law-enforcer faces with the necessity to protect the interests of children. However, at present, there is no any current understanding of the category "the best interests of the child" in the legal science and practice. Often the resolution of the dispute concerning children is difficult for those designated to resolve the conflict. Thus, today's realities raise the need to examine the category "the best interests of the child". To this end, it is required to reconsider provisions that have already been developed in this field from the point of view of contemporary understanding of law and filling identified gaps. This article provides a brief overview of approaches to the definition of an interest that exist in the sciences related to law, such as philosophy, sociology, psychology. Then, the author attempts to justify a specific nature of the interests of the child and identifies the features of their respect and protection. The paper provides an analysis of issues existing in identifying the best interests of the child in the process of resolving the dispute. The author also considers a problem of giving children an opportunity to define and protect their interests independently on their own. The author highlights some difficulties encountered in the process of implementation of this right. In conclusion the author denotes the problem of finding an optimal balance of interests of a child and other participants of a family conflict. The author expresses the view that finding and ensuring the balance of interests (substantive and procedural) during the court proceedings will guarantee appropriateness and fairness of a judicial decision.

Crisis strengthening in the national economy will inevitably entail increased unemployment, reduced number of working places, as well as reduction of costs spent for personnel by an employer. All this creates a negative employment environment, as well as facilitates the growth of discriminatory grounds in decisions made by an employer concerning the question of concluding an employment contract, especially with regard to the first-time job seekers and to those who do not possess long working experience. In such circumstances, the state should strengthen its control over an employer in order to prevent unjustified refusal to conclude an employment contract. A big step in order to limit the possibility of abuse on the part of an employer was made when a rule establishing a seven-day deadline to provide a written refusal to conclude an employment contract was enshrined in the RF Labor Code. This will give a person seeking a job an opportunity to collect evidence necessary to defend her violated interests in court .

The paper is devoted to the problem of research of social relations involving material liability of an employer for unlawful transfer of an employee to a different job. The subject of the research involves the issues related to theoretical provisions of liability grounded by an unlawful transfer of an employee that has great importance for understanding of the concept, which caused the necessity to explore a legal category of unlawful transfer to another job. To this end, the paper examines such elements of the concept as "employee transfer" and "other work", and the category of "forced truancy", that is closely connected with them, which encourages understanding of the concept of unlawful transfer to another job and its essence. Special attention is given to the conditions of transferring an employee to another job and the failure to comply with them testifies its unlawfulness that entails material liability of an employer. The main conclusions of the research are as follows: in order to transfer an employee to another job lawfully it is necessary to comply with all conditions of such a transfer simultaneously; a mutual agreement between parties to an employment contract that deals with the transfer to another job should be treated as an employment contract; unlawful transfer means failure on the part of an employer to comply with mandatory requirements for the transfer to another job that are cumulatively determined in the RF Labor Code; forced truancy cannot be applied to regulate relations that involve material responsibility of an employer for unlawful transfer of an employee to another job. Special contribution of the author to the study of the topic results in the development of measures aimed at improving labor legislation governing this kind of employer liability that will contribute to the strengthening of protection of labor rights and legitimate interests of employees during their transfers to another job.

Today a declarative proclamation that a man is the highest value is not supported by relevant legal regulations. According to the author, the current legislation does not fulfill the task of ensuring human security. Unfortunately, this is confirmed by criminological research including statistical data involving violent crime in Russia. Security of a person, his or her life and health should be treated as the most important public values not declaratively but in normative regulations, and their protection by criminal law means is one of the main functions of a state. The author proposes a new approach adequately reflecting existing threats to the construction of criminal law rules that represent a system of life and health protection as a single generic object of infringement representing the highest value

This article is devoted to the study of social conditionality of criminal prohibition of sexual exploitation in Russia. The author explores the "social interest”, which expresses the criminal prohibition (namely the protection of human sexual rights), as well as an objective need for this prohibition. Based on this analysis, the author concludes that social conditionality of the criminal prohibition of sexual exploitation does exist in Russia. Still, there is no explicit prohibition of sexual exploitation in the criminal law of the Russian Federation (although this term can be found in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), as well as the "Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse" ratified by Russia. The author also suggests that the prohibition of sexual exploitation in Russian law must be specified clearer. One of the options for implementing this proposal might be the inclusion of a relevant article into the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The problem of corruption in education is closely linked to issues such as the quality and availability of Russian education, efficiency of distribution of material, labor and other resources. To date, science has developed neither a universal definition of corruption, nor terms characterizing its individual aspects. There is no consensus on the issue of terminology in the field of anti-corruption apparatus, the education sector; categorical concepts unit is not standardized. The article attempts to introduce a new scientific concept - "corruption in educational organizations". The author examines the specified concept as a characteristic of such constructive signs of corruption, as public danger, the sphere of existence, the subjects of corruption, official use, occupation, status, objectives and motivations of subjects of corruption. In support of her position, the author analyzes not only the works of Russian and foreign scientists, but also provides the results of the sociological research data of their predecessors; nevertheless, she relies on the results of her own research conducted in 2014-2015.

This article considers the problems of realization of professional rights of lawyers, presents an analysis of the guarantees of the independence of lawyers under international and national law. The author highlights the need to ensure the proper role of lawyers in society, which must be respected and guaranteed in the development of the national legislation and its application, because of the special status of a lawyer, provision of the citizens and legal entities with such public functions as qualified legal assistance. The author identified major violations of the rights of defense lawyers which do not allow them to fully and effectively implement legal activity, an outlines the main forms of action of legitimate defense. The author substantiates the need to strengthen the legal safeguards of advocacy, the establishment at the legislative level of effective mechanisms for the protection of a lawyer when exercising lawful professional activities, and provides a number of proposals on perfection of the legislation.

The article examines the criminal characteristic of offences committed through negligence. The subject of discussion in science is the structure of criminal characteristics of such criminal acts and ways of committing negligent crimes. Based on the analysis of forensic literature, the author offers to include some elements into the structure of criminal characteristics of such crimes. The author believes that the forensic characteristics of negligent crimes cover the way such crimes were committed.

The article considers the question of regulation in the Criminal Procedure Act of such methods of documentation of the progress and the results of the investigative activities as filming and video recording. The author notes the near absence of practice of filming, and therefore questions the need for its mentioning in the text of the law. It is proposed to abandon this term, and, in addition, provide the term "videotape" with a broader meaning than it is given in the technical disciplines for this tool would not eventually become an anachronism. The proposed definition of a video recording is a set of technical means providing visual information and its accompanying sound. According to the author, it is advisable to supplement paragraph of Article 5 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation (basic concepts used in this code).

The measures for expropriation are closely linked to the right of ownership of foreign investors, as well as providing guarantees of ownership rights to foreign investors, in some cases, there may be cases of seizure of their property and, therefore, foreign investors are in need of appropriate legal guarantees. The expropriation of the property of foreign persons is, on the one hand, the nature of public law and is, therefore, subject to regulation of public international law; on the other hand, the expropriation is also the institute of private international law, since the expropriation affects the rights of foreign natural and legal persons in the sphere of their private property. It should be noted that along with the concept of expropriation in legal doctrine, national legislation and international agreements, there is also a concept of nationalization. The Civil Code of the Russian Federation contains general provisions on nationalization, and, thus, refers to a special law on nationalization, governing the procedure for the nationalization of property, which has not yet been adopted. In this regard, it can be argued that, at present, in the legislation of the Russian Federation there is no procedure regulating in detail the nationalization of property, including foreign investors. In accordance with the doctrinal definitions of "expropriation" and "nationalization", as well as on the basis of a literal interpretation of the definitions contained in multilateral agreements and bilateral agreements on promotion and mutual protection of investments, it can be concluded that "expropriation" and "nationalization" at the present stage of development of international investment relations is referred to as "expropriation" because, as a rule, international agreements do not distinguish between the concept of "expropriation" and "nationalization" and unite them under the common term is "expropriation".

This article discusses the principles of legal regulation of state procurement in the European Union. The article reveals not only the generally accepted principles of EU law on state procurement, namely, proportionality, transparency, mutual recognition, but also principles such as fairness, objectivity, principle of State power as a customer of state procurement and the principle of minimal value (de minimis). Particular attention is given to the analysis of the practice of the Court of the European Union.

The study is conducted with the financial support of the RSSF within research project "Supranational Legal Mechanisms of Tax Regulation in the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Union (Comparative Law Research)", Project No.16-03-50135. Review. This article discusses the directions of tax harmonization in the field of direct taxes in the European Union. The author addresses the positive and negative integration in the field of direct taxation on the territory of European Union. In addition, the important role of the European Court of Justice in the development of European integration is highlighted. Income tax (corporate tax) is installed in all EU Member States and is one of the most important sources of budget revenues. The differences in the legal regulation of this tax by Member States are related to the peculiarities of definition of specific items. The article also examines the trends in the harmonization of corporate taxation in the EU.

This article contains an analysis of the legislation of the countries of North America (on the example of the United States and Canada), regulating relations on exploration and development of unconventional hydrocarbons, including shale oil, low-permeability oil and gas reservoirs, tar sands. Based on the analysis of normative legal acts and the latest data for norm-setting activities in the United States and Canada, both at the federal level and at the level of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the author analyzes trends in legislation in the field of subsoil use management on the development of unconventional hydrocarbons. It is concluded that the regulation of relations for developing non-conventional hydrocarbons in North America (United States and Canada) is aimed at maintaining the existing level of production. As a result of the work the author provides some recommendations on implementation of the legal regulation of unconventional hydrocarbons by Russia.

The article provides an overview of the presentations at the Banking Law section at the XVII Annual Scientific Conference of the Faculty of Law (Lomonosov Moscow State University) and the XI Annual Scientific Practical Conference "Kutafinskie Readings” of the Kutafin Moscow State Law University (MSAL) The survey presents the views of scientists of leading law schools (including foreign), representatives of the Bank of Russia, the Association of regional banks "Russia", RAJelF experts, as well as the largest Russian and foreign financial organizations about the issues of legal regulation and the perspectives of the Russian economy banking partner tools.

Following the result of independent research work, the article introduces scientific and historical material, which makes it possible to consider some aspects of the pedagogical heritage of famous lawyer Boris Samoilovych Utevskiy (1877-1970), for a wider scientific use. The author examines his pioneering position on the training of Soviet officials of correctional labour establishments in the 1930s and shows the value and viability of his scientific positions on modification of the system in order to improve its effectiveness. The article demonstrates an idea that B.S. Utevskiy was at the origins of the institutionalization of the training system of corrective labour institutions in Soviet Russia. The continuity of a number of domestic innovations by some scientists and government officials, who at various times expressed the need to build in Russia educational establishments for the training of prison staff, is revealed. The author provides his evaluation of the activities of Utevskiy on the formation of the network of educational establishments of "penitentiary" type in the 30s of the twentieth century.

The article is devoted to the analysis of perception of deprivation of freedom in the writings of Soviet scientists, having been at the origins of the formation of such industries of the Soviet law as a criminal and correctional labour. Exploring the works of professors of the Department of Criminal Law of the All-Soviet Union Correspondence Law Institute M.M. Isaev and B.S. Utevskiy, the author has come to believe that the roots of the modern expanded understanding of the term "deprivation of freedom”, set in the legal positions of Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, are to be found in the writings of these scientists. From the point of view of the author, it was M.M. Isaev who in 1920s was one of the first Soviet scientists mentioning a broad understanding of deprivation of liberty. Talking about common criteria for punishment, to a greater or lesser extent restricting the freedom of an offender, M. M. Isaev determined some common ground which is at the heart of this type of punishment - restriction of freedom of movement. External manifestations of deprivation of freedom do not affect its identity. At the same time one offender exclusively cannot fill insulation of the essence of imprisonment as a punishment under the new conditions of development of the law. Here, M. Isaev compelled to conclude the unsuitability of the revolutionary doctrine which in relation to the conscious class enemies assumed that deprivation of freedom should target not the correction but the protection of society through prolonged isolation, with more or less severe regime. In this case, M.M. Isaev designates the emerging conflict between the revolutionary ideology and enunciated the new principles of the Soviet criminal law, presuming that the punishment should not cause unnecessary and useless suffering. The idea of expansionary interpretations of deprivation of freedom as a measure related to any insulation found its development in the works of Utevskiy. The author believes that B.S. Utevsky predestined for a significant period of the development of science of Soviet penal and corrective labour law conceptual understanding of the content of the deprivation of freedom, which consists of two components: punishment and correctional education. Only at the turn of the 1960s this concept was criticized in the science of Soviet penal and corrective labour law.