For the first time, horticultural and horticultural-gardening associations received their legislative consolidation in the domestic legal system in the 20s of the last century, since the first horticultural cooperative societies emerged on unoccupied lands near industrial centers. In practice, activities of horticultural and horticultural-gardening associations were regulated by special laws on horticulture, gardening, cooperation in the USSR that were further specified in the model statutes of 1956, 1966, 1985, and their formation was carried out in compliance with the situation in the country.

In the author’s view, horticultural and horticultural-gardening associations under the legislation of the Soviet period were not independent legal entities, they were referred to the consumer cooperative associations and organizations. Each cooperative association of the Soviet period was formed under the influence of a uniform economic, political and ideological situation existing in the USSR.

At present, the resolution of many legal issues still depends on the approaches applied during the Soviet period, which necessitates the introduction of significant legislative changes from January 1, 2019. 

The article analyzes the practice of legislative regulation of the gametes’ donation and its ethical grounds. Gametes’ donation is often used in conjunction with assisted reproductive technologies to treat infertility and/or family planning. The study applies an interdisciplinary approach: it is based on the research carried out in the field of philosophy (bioethics), law, medicine with the application of sociological surveys.

The article shows that the introduction of this practice affects traditional family values, blurs fraternal-sisterly relations making genetic brothers and sisters strangers to each other, transforms the family creating its new forms through the practice of co-parenting that is gaining popularity in English-speaking countries. Also, the article identifies the problem of negative attitude of religious authorities to the practice of donating gametes. The legislative regulation cannot but take into account the public sentiment; and the percentage of believers in the State when implementing the laws regulating the donation of gametes is an important factor. Another important problem discussed in the article concerns the welfare and rights of a future child conceived with the help of the donation of gametes, his or her «right to know» and «right not to know» the birth secret. 

The purpose of the article is to identify the role and place of digital technologies in public services. Considering the content and importance of the constitutional and legal regulation of public services using digital technologies in the context of the implementation of the constitutionally enshrined social statehood of Russia, the author draws the following conclusion: the objective of the modern State is to fully ensure enforcement of the needs of citizens and the provision of public services using digital technologies.

The analysis of doctrinal approaches and normative consolidation of information and technological organization of interaction between citizens and public authorities showed that the innovative way of digital technologies has been chosen and normatively consolidated in modern Russia as the basis for economic development — the basis of Social Statehood. This requires scientific understanding and development of mechanisms for its implementation in social issues in the legal context.

Also, the author gives a brief overview of the main risks of introduction of digital technologies in Russian constitutional law at the present stage of development. The paper reveals topical issues in heoretical and practical contexts; the author suggests the ways how they can be resolved. 

The paper considers a rather unexpected problem that is practically not discussed in the literature, i.e. the problem of considering a Prosecutor as a specific subject of an administrative offense. The current legislation provides for considering the named person not only as a subject of administrative jurisdiction, a special participant in the administrative proceedings, but also as a subject that may be held administratively responsible. Unfortunately, a special mechanism for bringing the Prosecutor to administrative responsibility is not spelled out in detail. Thus, the author proposes the options for qualifying possible offenses with his or her participation, the features of imposing certain types of penalties and transformation of both types of responsibility of prosecutors and public prosecution offices as legal entities.

The paper analyzes the use of imposing restorative measures of coercion on taxpayers having tax debts in the form of recovery of arrears from the amounts due to the outstanding debtor by his or her debtors.

The author has examined the history of the institution of foreclosure on accounts receivable of the taxpayer in the domestic tax legislation of the 20th century and at the present stage, the experience of this institution’s functioning under the laws of Kazakhstan and Belarus, has analyzed the rules governing the foreclosure on accounts receivable under the Federal Law «On Enforcement Proceedings.»

On the basis of the study, the author concludes that the current procedure for collecting receivables is ineffective and proposes to empower tax authorities to apply this measure of coercion directly to debtors are criticized, since they are not participants of tax relations.

The author suggests that the Federal Law «On Enforcement Proceedings» be supplemented with additional rules providing for the right of the bailiff to appeal to the court to recover the amount of receivables from the debtor and for the subsequent application of the general rules of enforcement proceedings to the debtor. 

The article provides information about a foreign judicial doctrine (the Cohen Rule) that originated in the court case of 1930 with the participation of George Cohen, Broadway Theater manager and producer. The doctrine under consideration that is still valid in the US tax law does not exclude the application of the approximate amount of taxpayer’s expenses when calculating income taxes in the absence of documents verifying expenses. It is concluded that the domestic regulatory framework applies a similar approach that envisages a fixed deduction for individual entrepreneurs under Article 221 of the Tax Code. It is proposed to introduce a similar regulatory framework for corporate income tax.

A risk-oriented approach used by the Russian tax authorities for planning control activities contains a number of shortcomings that reduce its effectiveness in terms of encouraging compliance. The stages of the risk assessment process are reflected in various legal instruments that are not integrated into any system. The legal mechanism established by the tax authorities at the subordinate level to assess risks creates a prerequisite for violation of the principles of the taxes and fees legislation. This flaw is caused by the lack of differentiation of risk criteria, which leads to the intervention of regulatory authorities in the economic activities of controlled entities, regardless of their compliance with all mandatory rules. The absence of the requirement for compliance of the control activity with the identified risk allows the regulatory authorities to carry out inspections on all taxes without sufficient grounds, which is burdensome for the controlled entities. Thus, the legal structure of this approach encourages the tax authorities to employ the law enforcement practice violating the principles of neutrality of taxation and the balance of private and public interests. Based on the experience of the United Kingdom tax authority (HM Revenues & Customs) that, like the Russian tax authorities, has been using a risk-oriented approach since 2007, the author identifies the main directions of development of this approach in Russia. Among such areas, in particular, the author has highlighted: consolidation of the norms regulating the process of applying the risk-oriented approach at all stages into a single regulatory legal act of the subordinate level; elimination of latent criteria of tax risk and the framework reflection in the system of publicly available criteria of all possible risk factors identified by the tax authority; creation of guarantees ensuring protection of bona fide persons from excessive control measures.

Currently we witness an active debate on whether legal mechanisms should be established to mediate the use of new technologies. The authors believe that digitalization of social relations has a global character, changes the foundations of the society and requires the development of adequate legislation based on the in-depth study of the processes. It is proved that, first, it is necessary to develop a scientific concept of the mechanism of legal regulation of relations using the technology of distributed registers (the TDR) in economic activity, in the spheres of public administration and implementation of public functions. The article, based on the problems of law enforcement practice, formulates the main characteristics of the study that could, in the authors’ opinion, give a really necessary legal solution to the state and society. Such research will allow us to formulate scientifically grounded proposals concerning legislative regulation of public relations with the use of the TDR that will include the development of legal frameworks of objects of relations arising as the result of the use of the TDR and being of economic value (digital assets, in particular tokens, cryptocurrencies, digital rights); in determining the legal status of entities using the TDR; in the formation of a system of indicators for assessing the use of the TDR in various spheres of public relations; in giving legal qualification of transactions in distributed registers and the legal consequences of their commission; in the creation of an integral legal mechanism for protection of participants in legal relations using the technologies of the distributed register. The main result of the study under consideration will be the developed scientific concept of the mechanism of the legal regulation of relations with the use of the TDR in economy, in the spheres of public administration and the implementation of public functions. Otherwise, this area will suffer from incomplete legislative regulation with the need for constant «patching of holes» associated with the hasty and ill-considered law.

The article is devoted to the analysis of arbitration proceedings in the context of its participation in the implementation of judicial regulatory compliance verification. The fact that the arbitration court is bound by the requirement of legality and the need to implement casual regulatory control in accordance with the existing conflict of laws rules is substantiated based on the idea of the universal nature of the constitutional imperative of the rule of law and the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the understanding of the threefold nature of the arbitration court that combines social and jurisdictional, self-regulatory (law-forming) and mediation (conciliation) principles. At the same time, the legal nature of the arbitration proceedings should, in the author’s opinion, be disclosed not in a formal dogmatic manner or through commitment to the requirements of legal discipline as strict as in the state court, but on the basis of judicial activism and development of law in the context of social and business practice. The arbitration court may act contra legem to enhance the protection of the rights of the parties to the proceedings based on general, constitutional and sectoral principles of law. Faced with the applicable rule that violates the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the arbitration court must have the right to request the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (also in the form of a request obligation, if the decision of the arbitration court is final).

The paper analyzes the provisions of housing and procedural legislation concerning the possibility and procedure of representation in court of the interests of the community of owners of premises in an apartment building. The relevant law enforcement practice is critically evaluated. On this basis the author determines ways to improve the procedural regulation of representation of interests of the owners of premises in an apartment building by a person appointed by the General Meeting of Owners or members of the nonprofit organization that manages the building. To this end, it is proposed to take into account the opportunities available within the framework of class actions and appeal to the court to protect the rights and legitimate interests of others.

The paper is devoted to the study of the main directions of development of the system of internal compliance with the requirements of antitrust laws as a new institution of competition law in Russia. The author analyzes the definition, content and incentives for the implementation of the system of internal compliance with the requirements of anti-monopoly legislation by business entities. The author concludes that an effective system of internal enforcement of compliance with antitrust laws can provide a reasonable, but not absolute, assurance of compliance with antitrust requirements. Business entities should build a compliance system in such a way as to demonstrate to the anti-monopoly body the actual adoption of all possible measures to comply with the requirements of anti-monopoly legislation.

The paper raises the question of the inevitability not only of judicial (in specific criminal cases) errors, but also of law enforcement errors (the practice of incorrect application of the criminal law established spontaneously or at the direction of higher judicial authorities), as well as legislative errors of political, system or technical nature. Considering the specific law-making mistakes made in the norms of the General Part and in each of the structural elements of many of the norms of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the author notes the appreciable work of the legislator to eliminate errors with satisfaction. At the same time, the paper provides specific examples of errors that are repeatedly noted in the special literature, still yet to be corrected, and suggests ways to correct them, in particular, amending the Regulations of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation regarding the procedure for discussing bills.

The paper describes the main trends in the development of the criminal case in the Russian criminal procedure. The author analyzed changes in the criminal procedure legislation of Ukraine, the Republic of Kazakhstan regarding refusal to initiate a criminal case as a stage of criminal proceedings. The author makes a conclusion about the significance of the stage of initiation of a criminal case in the Russian criminal procedure. It also does not exclude the need to improve criminal procedural legislation in terms of regulating the stage in question by legislatively defining the rights of participants to verify a crime report, defining a list of investigative actions, the results of which could be used for evidence at the preliminary investigation stage, beyond duplication of actions already taken and so on.

The paper discusses the main problems of the enforcement mechanism in the appointment and production of forensic examination. It is shown that the provisions of the current criminal procedural legislation inadequately carry out the legal regulation of the subjects of forensic activities. Particular attention is given to ensuring the rights and legitimate interests of those participating in the expert study of individuals. Analyzing the rules governing the procedure for the appointment of forensic examinations, the author draws attention to the absence of temporary restrictions on familiarizing the participants in the criminal process with the resolution on the appointment of the examination. The author justifies the possibility of vesting the defense with the right to assign expertise, which could be implemented through non-state forensic institutions or private experts. Proposals for the improvement of legislation and law enforcement practice are formulated. The theoretical conclusions formulated in the paper serve as a basis for further research of forensic issues, and can also contribute to the improvement of rule-making in this area.

The relevance of the chosen research topic is due to the growing need of investigative and judicial practice in the research of speech works of religious discourse in connection with the rise of extremist sentiments in modern society. Despite the obvious need for expert practice in the development of scientific and methodological support for the examination of texts of religious content, to date they have been poorly studied in terms of their potential conflict. This led to the novelty of the studied topic and its practical significance.

The purpose of the work is to study the problems of using special linguistic knowledge in cases of verbal religious extremism, namely the problems of the theoretical aspect of forensic examination of religious materials (texts of religious discourse) with extremist-terrorist focus.

To accomplish the tasks, a corpus of sources on judicial linguistics (judicial verbal studies), judicial expertology, Russian and foreign legislation, international legal acts, and expert and judicial practice were used.

The author gives his own concept of the relationship between the concepts of «verbal (verbal) extremism», «hate speech» and «verbal religious extremism», highlighting the range of articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation containing offenses correlated with these phenomena.

The paper examines the problem of competence of linguistic experts involved in this category of cases, as well as the problem of the limits of their competence. 

The paper considers the opinions of domestic and foreign authors on the concept of cryptocurrency, the principles of its operation and the need to establish its legal status. The author’s definition of cryptocurrency is formulated and the thesis that cryptocurrency can be classified as «other property» is justified. The author analyzes the most common court decisions in criminal cases. Based on a study of foreign experience in the fight against illegal circulation of cryptocurrency, it was found that initially, before the emergence of mass demand for cryptocurrency all over the world, demand for them was observed in the criminal environment to pay for the supply of narcotic drugs and weapons, to finance terrorism and legalize (launder) income obtained in a criminal manner, in connection with which many people subsequently mistakenly assumed that transactions with cryptocurrencies are anonymous. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency is far from being anonymous: each transaction carried out in a distributed network is permanently recorded in a public blockchain, which helps to solve crimes in this area. The adoption in the Russian Federation of a fundamental law containing the necessary terms and concepts regarding cryptocurrency activities and regulating the status of cryptocurrency in Russia will further develop measures for the criminal law protection of objects of encroachment that are currently not regulated in any way.

Modern society is characterized as a network, which makes it necessary to rethink its superstructure — law — in the logic of the network paradigm of scientific knowledge. At the interface of law and information technology, new legal and sub-legal phenomena arise that need to be conceptualized. International private law, being in the forefront of the changes that are taking place, possesses a special methodology that can adapt to the network society. The paper analyzes the individual signs of the formation of a new paradigm. One of the most revolutionary products of the Network are global technological or digital platforms, within which predominantly cross-border private law relationships are formed, mediated by transactions, collectively understood as e-commerce or m-commerce. The legal analysis suggests that americanization of «platform law» is observed. Of interest for the study of the network paradigm is the emerging practice of online arbitration in disputes involving consumers. A significant role in the regulation of modern cross-border relations is assigned to the norms of non-state regulation, traditionally conceptualized through the prism of lex mercatoria, which is now systematized in the logic of the legal system, highlighting the subsystems brought to life by globalization processes. The corresponding changes testify to the modification of the architecture of the regulation of cross-border relations.

One of the most important technological advances of recent times is the blockchain technology, which is gradually gaining recognition, having a significant impact on a number of industries. At the same time, the most interesting blockchain-based technology is smart contracts, which makes it possible to get rid of intermediaries and significantly reduce the costs the parties to cross-border contracts carry. With the development of new technologies, new types of disputes appear, which can not always be resolved through existing mechanisms, such as the court or international commercial arbitration. As a result, there is a need to modify existing or introduce new mechanisms that are more suitable for resolving disputes in the global digital decentralized economy. One of these mechanisms is blockchain-arbitration. Currently, several projects of such arbitration have been developed, the most interesting of which are CodeLegit, SAMBA and Kleros, each with a certain specificity. At the same time, the Kleros project, which is an attempt to create a decentralized quasi-judicial system for resolving disputes arising from smart contracts, deserves special attention. Analyzing each of these projects, the author points out some problems that may arise when using them, and suggests ways to solve them.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the phenomena of the law of the European Union, ensuring the activities of the European Ombudsman as a body promoting the integration process in the European Union.

The subject of consideration in the article is the legal status of the European Ombudsman, its role and place in the institutional system of the European Union.

The paper provides a brief overview of the competence of the European Ombudsman and ways of his activities, explores the role of the European Ombudsman in implementing the good governance, analyzes the practice of the European Ombudsman and its impact on the activities of EU institutions and bodies.

It is determined that the decisions of the European Ombudsman, directed against violations of the order of governance, affect relations in various areas of the European Union, contributing to the practical implementation of the conceptual principles of good governance. Not legally binding, the decisions of the European Ombudsman are embodied in acts of EU institutions that establish the relevant rules as binding. 

The specifics of criminal responsibility and punishment of minors in both the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan Republic are regulated separately. At the same time, there are both coincident and different prescriptions in these codes. The paper identifies the advantages and disadvantages of the relevant criminal law provisions in the legislation of the Russian Federation and the Azerbaijan Republic. In the course of analyzing the criminal codes, the author shows which standards of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation may be useful to the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan Republic and vice versa. Some provisions on the criminal responsibility of minors are proposed to be removed from the criminal legislation of both countries, while others are to be introduced into it.

The paper contains an analysis of theoretical problems associated with the conceptual apparatus in the sanatorium and resort sphere. They are largely due to the complex nature of the legal regulation of relations on the use and protection of natural medicinal resources, medical and recreational areas and resorts by the norms of legislation on public health, civil, urban planning, environmental, land and other branches of legislation. Accordingly, the assessment of legal concepts should cover the sphere of regulation of natural resource relations related to the use of natural resources for therapeutic and recreational purposes; the provision of services, the implementation of sanatorium-resort activities as an integral part of health and socio-economic relations; territorial (spatial) development of resort areas, medical and recreational areas; ecological relations due to the classification of such areas as specially protected. In the study of basic concepts — «health-improving terrain», «resort» — their characteristics such as «curative», «preventive», «wellness» are examined, contradictions in legislation are revealed, the necessity of expanding the criteria that are the basis for imparting with therapeutic natural resources, the corresponding legal status is justified. The necessity of expanding the terms and concepts related to the resort sphere — «resort infrastructure», «resort infrastructure user», «accommodation object», etc. is shown. The authors justify other proposals in the context of recent legislative initiatives in this area.