The paper examines the formation of the foundational principles of the Soviet State’s national and territorial structure during the proceedings of the Commission for the Drafting of the RSFSR Constitution in 1918. Drawing on archival materials and doctrinal sources, the author analyzes all positions voiced in debates over stateterritorial organization and proposes a classification of those positions. The paper elucidates drafts considered by the Commission and identifies their ideological underpinnings. The study describes the causes of the conceptual contradictions and explains why I. V. Stalin’s draft was adopted as the basis for the federal structure of the Soviet State. The author assesses alternative views that construed the RSFSR as a unitary state or as a confederation and draws conclusions on their inconsistency with the actual state of affairs. Finally, the reasons are identified for the Soviet federation’s pronounced distinctiveness and the internal contradictions of its legal structure.

The paper examines the essence and role of legal fiction as a mechanism for facilitating progress in law. It highlights the adverse consequences resulting from the improper incorporation of fictions into legislation and their misapplication in practice. The author argues that one source of such consequences lies in superficial and methodologically unsound theoretical approaches to the phenomenon of legal fiction, including the conflation of its legal and everyday meanings and the use in scholarly discourse of such terms as «legal illusion» and «irrebuttable presumption», which in substance amount to forms of fiction. The paper also addresses the frequent conflation of legal fictions with fictitious phenomena (facts, states, etc.). In addition, it examines artificial (fictitious) subjects of law, with particular attention to the classical legal fiction of the juridical person and to the state, which is essentially constructed as a legal person. Finally, the study notes that processes of digitalization and robotization are giving rise to new fictitious subjects and objects, including artificial intelligence.

The paper examines the historical experience of ordering and codifying administrative legislation in the Russian Empire, covering the period from the Petr the Great reforms to the mid-19th century. The author analyzes the principal stages of this process: from early attempts to systematize discrete spheres of governance, such as the Military Statute and the General Regulation, to landmark codificatory instruments, including the Charter of Police Order (Ustav blagochiniya) of Catherine II — regarded as the first comprehensive attempt to systematize police law — and the General Establishment of the Ministries of 1811, which systematized the activities of central executive organs. Attention is paid to the large-scale codification efforts led by M. M. Speransky, which resulted in the creation of the Complete Collection of Laws and the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, wherein administrative-legal norms were given their sectoral consolidation and were allocated to the appropriate volumes. The study separately considers the innovative experience of regional codification exemplified by the Siberian Charter of 1822, which demonstrated the adaptation of general principles of systematization to the specific requirements of governing an extensive territory. The paper also assesses the significance of these multi-stage efforts for the emergence of administrative law as an autonomous branch and for the improvement of the system of state administration in the Russian Empire.

The paper examines the specifics of legal regulation of cash settlements under foreign-trade contracts in the context of sanctions imposed by unfriendly states. It is established that, owing to artificially created sanctions, the legislation on foreign-exchange regulation and foreign-exchange control in the Russian Federation has implemented a system of international cash settlements running parallel to the primary legal regime. It is determined that the compelled authorization of this form of settlement has led to systemic changes in the fundamental principles of currency regulation and currency control. In effect, two systems of legal regulation of currency settlements are emerging, and the institution of customs declaration of cash proceeds under foreign trade contracts is becoming a mandatory element of the currency settlement framework. The author concludes that a new paradigm has emerged characterized by the coexistence of two systems of foreign-exchange regulation in general and, more specifically, by a duality in the system of sources of financial law.

The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal regulation of housing support for families in the Russian Federation as a key element in the implementation of national development goals of the Russian Federation. Drawing on systemic and structural, comparative legal, and other methodological approaches, the study identifies the multi-level nature of the regulatory framework, encompassing constitutional principles, sectoral legislation, special federal statutes, subordinate regulations, and state strategic policy documents. Particular attention is devoted to the legal status of the family, whose housing well-being is regarded as a prerequisite for sustainable national development and the achievement of national development objectives. The paper reveals discrepancies between declared state guarantees and their practical implementation, attributable to deficiencies in legal regulation, duplication of competences, and low levels of legal literacy among the population. The author provides scientifically grounded recommendations aimed at eliminating gaps in the legislation.

The study identifies systemic gaps in Russian legal regulation governing participation of minors in the creation of monetized digital content, particularly in the format of family blogs. Although blogging is recognized as an economic activity (OKVED 73.11.1, 70.21.1), no specific legal provisions ensure the protection of children’s rights in this sphere. The analysis highlights key risks, including violations of privacy through the dissemination of personal information; the absence of labor protections, such as limitations on filming time and guarantees of access to rest and education; and deprivation of the minor of his/her right to dispose of his/her earnings (Article 26 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

A comparative legal analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of foreign regulatory mechanisms, including California’s Coogan Laws, the State of Illinois’ SB 1782, amendments to the French Labor Code, and China’s classification of harmful content. These models provide financial safeguards and oversight of working conditions for minors involved in media content production.

To address the identified deficiencies, the author proposes a comprehensive set of measures: statutory recognition of a minor’s informed consent to participation in the creation and publication of content, taking into account the age and providing for revocation; mandatory allocation of 30–50 percent of income derived from the use of the child’s image and participation to a protected account until the age of majority; an explicit prohibition of content harmful to a child’s development or reputation; and regulation of participation time with guarantees of rest and education. The necessity of adopting a federal law or introducing amendments to existing legislation (the Labor Code, the Family Code, the Federal Law «On Information», the Federal Law «On Personal Data», and the Federal Law «On the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to their Health and Development») is substantiated in light of the State’s duty to protect children from abuse by parents or persons acting in the place of a parent (Articles 56 and 65 of the Family Code), notwithstanding arguments invoking non-interference in family life.

Russian civil law has not resolved the issue of how the lack of authority of a transferor affects the legal validity of a transaction and the role of such a transaction in forming the legal composition necessary for a goodfaith acquirer to obtain title to property. Civil law doctrine and judicial practice reflect two prevailing approaches. Under the first approach, a transaction involving another’s property is void pursuant to Article 168 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation as contradicting Article 209 of the Civil Code and as infringing the owner’s rights. Under the second approach, such a transaction is valid and gives rise to an obligation. There are no grounds for declaring a transaction involving another’s property invalid, since the transferor’s lack of authority is not classified by positive law as a defect entailing invalidity. Moreover, the expansion of the statutory grounds for invalidity beyond those expressly established by law is precluded by the direct provision of Article 166 of the Civil Code. A transaction concerning property constitutes one of the legal facts within the legal composition required for the acquisition of ownership and does not in itself produce a proprietary (real) effect. Since a contract for the transfer of property gives rise to an obligation, there are no grounds for concluding that such a transaction contradicts Article 209 of the Civil Code, infringes the owner’s rights, or should therefore be deemed invalid under paragraph 2 of Article 168. A valid transaction under which a good-faith acquirer receives the property constitutes, alongside the circumstances specified in Article 302 of the Civil Code, one of the necessary legal facts for the emergence of the acquirer’s ownership. The invalidity of such a transaction entails the absence of one of the requisite legal facts and, consequently, precludes the acquisition of ownership by a good-faith acquirer under Article 302 of the Civil Code.

The paper examines some characteristics of a public contract and an adhesion contract in agreements concluded by means of information technologies. This type of agreements involves the use of computer programs, software agents, including Internet platforms. Based on the comparative legal method, the author concludes that agreements formed with the help of technological means, including smart contract technologies, the formation of a contract in information (digital) systems, the subject of which is a digital financial asset, on the «Internet» information and telecommunications network, contain features of the structures of an adhesion contract and a public contract. The automation of the processes of concluding and performing obligations and the introduction of technological «phenomena» into civil circulation allow for a new look at standard model structures, expanding the legal boundaries of their operation.

The content of the subjective right to personal data privacy has yet to be sufficiently studied. Based on the analysis of legislation in the field of information privacy, the author includes in the structure of the subject’s right to personal data a traditional triad of powers, namely the power to take one’s own active actions, the power to demand certain behavior from all other persons, and the power to protect oneself. It is indicated that these powers form a single absolute civil subjective right to the privacy of personal data in connection with their focus on the implementation by the authorized subject of the interest. This interest is associated with ensuring the state of uncertainty of information about themselves and their activities, the ability to control their personal data, as well as with the sphere of non-property relations for the protection of personal data from their unlawful use.

The paper examines the historical aspect of ensuring uniformity of judicial practice in pre-revolutionary Russia. Based on literature and historical sources (cassation decisions of the Governing Senate from the 1860s), the author draws a number of conclusions. Throughout its activity, the Governing Senate ensured the uniform application of the law in one way or another. Before 1864, such powers, not legally assigned to it, were effectively ensured by the position of the Senate in the structure of state authorities of the empire. After 1864, a number of provisions of the Statute of Civil Procedure assigned these powers to the Senate and provided mechanisms for their implementation. Following the judicial reform of 1864 a discussion arose in scientific circles, similar to today’s, about the nature of the cassation decisions of the Governing Senate: whether they are acts of legal interpretation or acts of law making. Having analyzed the decisions of the Cassation Department, the author concludes that the judicial acts of the Senate were acts of legal interpretation.

Establishing the fundamental principles on which the legal regulation of certain social relations is based is important for the development of theoretical ideas about the goals and methods of regulating such relations, as well as for improving legislation in the relevant area. The question of the principles of competition law is becoming the subject of increasingly close scientific attention; however, when defining such principles, the specifics of competition relations and the scope of antitrust regulation are not always taken into account. In the paper, the author examines some scientific points of view on the principles of competition law and formulates provisions that can be classified as such principles. In particular, these are the principles of a reasonable approach to assessing anti-competitive behavior; free exercise of the right to competition; provision of state or municipal property, and rights thereto, to economic entities on the basis of competitive procedures; prohibition of combining government powers with the functions of an economic entity; inadmissibility of creating obstacles to the emergence of competition, its restriction or elimination.

This paper analyzes the court’s review of complaints under Article 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation against decisions to initiate criminal proceedings and to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings, also known as restorative judicial review. Taking into account the understanding of legality as a principle of the activity of state bodies, the results of judicial statistics and judicial practice scrutiny, a conclusion is drawn about the important role of the court and the wide range of its legal capabilities to ensure the legality of the stage of initiating a criminal case, as well as the duty of the court to respond promptly to violations of laws and to identify investigative errors. The author emphasizes the inappropriateness of oversimplification when the court reviews the legality of contested decisions taken as a result of a report of a crime consideration, and groups together some of the most common investigative errors identified by the court. It was noted that the issue of introducing investigative judges into criminal proceedings, who, among other things, could fully exercise restorative judicial review, has not yet been positively resolved and remains a pressing problem. This is a serious shortcoming of the modern conceptual model for constructing pre-trial proceedings, which has led to the court combining the activities of judicial review and the consideration of the criminal case on the merits. Given the limited number of judges and the fact that judges are working under extreme workloads, it is proposed to narrow the scope of judicial review and focus on strengthening departmental control and prosecutorial oversight, including the enforcement of court decisions on complaints. Other ways of optimizing judicial review have also been outlined, aimed at implementing the state’s human rights function at the initial stage of criminal proceedings. The outlines of a new organizational model for pre-trial proceedings have been outlined, in which investigative judges should also become participants.

The methods by which a perpetrator encourages in another person the desire and determination to commit suicide can be very diverse. Some of them are characteristic of causing suicide; others (the list is extensive) involve inducement to commit suicide. The legislator considers «causing» and «inducing» as independent acts aimed at encouraging another person to commit suicide. However, in literature and law enforcement practice, different approaches to the legal assessment of these acts have developed. The problems in distinguishing between them are partly due to the shortcomings of Articles 110 and 110.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Common to both causing to and inducing to is their purposeful nature. In essence, they act as forms of involvement and imply the perpetrator’s desire to encourage the victim to commit suicide. It is concluded that it is necessary to establish liability for causing suicide and incitement to commit suicide within the framework of one article, separately from assisting those who already have the intention to commit suicide. Combining these forms of involvement in suicidal behavior in a separate article will allow us to demonstrate their common semantic meaning. The issue of the legal assessment of public activity aimed at encouraging an indefinite number of people to commit suicide and the admissibility of classifying it as involvement in suicidal behavior is also relevant.

The paper is devoted to the admissibility of using conciliation procedures in criminal cases of domestic violence. Analyzing the development of the modern standard of response to acts of domestic violence, the author comes to the following conclusion. Being based on the idea of using full-scale mechanisms of criminal repression against offenders and the paradigm of punishment, it has a number of shortcomings, in particular, it does not take into account the needs of victims, the dynamics of family conflicts, the close nature of the relationships of their participants, which determines the possible desire of the parties, including the injured party, to maintain the relationship. In view of the above, it is proposed to actively use conciliation procedures in cases of domestic violence if, as a result of a risk assessment, it is determined that this does not pose a threat to the life and health of victims and meets their needs. It is advisable to use the mechanism of criminal mediation, which has proven itself in a number of foreign jurisdictions (for example, in France, Poland, Finland, Austria). The paper proposes an acceptable format of mediation as an alternative or supplement to classical criminal prosecution, based on indirect mediation and carried out by a mediator independent from the state, who has undergone special training, in which the approval and implementation of the agreement is controlled by the court and authorized bodies.

The paper examines the role of the prosecutor in the work of the grand jury in the criminal procedure in the United States, considers the historical aspects of the formation of this institution, its modern functions and problems of practical application. Particular attention is given to the transformation of the original idea of the grand jury as an independent body of public control («the power of the shield») into an instrument of prosecutorial power («the power of the sword»), which is largely due to the dominance of the prosecutor in its activities. An analysis of American judicial precedents (United States v. Calandra, United States v. Dionisio, In re Grand Jury Subpoena (Judith Miller), etc.), as well as statistical data from the US Department of Justice, showed that in the overwhelming majority of cases (about 97 %), the decisions of the grand jury coincide with the position of the prosecutor. For the first time, the prosecutor’s investigative powers and his interaction with the grand jury are examined in detail. The author concludes that such dependence of a body conceived as a barrier against arbitrariness on the prosecutorial power violates the balance of interests of the defense and the prosecution. Comparing the American model with the continental tradition, which does not permit the use of inadmissible evidence, allows us to critically evaluate the effectiveness and fairness of the institution under study. It is concluded that excessive concentration of powers in the hands of the prosecutor leads to a distortion of the principle of justice and a significant limitation of the ability of citizens to exercise the right to judicial protection.