The article is devoted to the exemption of legal entities from liability for administrative offenses recorded by special technical devices operating in an automatic mode and having functions of photo and film shooting, video recording, or by means of photo and film shooting, video recording. It is noted that the existing regulation in the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation in the interpretation of the highest court and other courts makes such liability ephemeral, allowing to arbitrarily shift it, for example, onto natural persons, e.i. drivers of vehicles belonging to legal entities. This situation allows legal entities with a large number of commercial vehicles throughout the country to easily avoid paying large amounts of administrative fines, which has nefative effect on pumping up the treasury and encourages further illegal behavior of their drivers on the roads. The author proposes to discuss the state of legislation and law enforcement on this issue.

The subject of the study is the extension of the principle of federalism on the validity of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation. The paper raises the issue of its extension to normative legal acts adopted by the public authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and municipal normative legal acts. The author has analyzed the decisions of courts of different levels on bringing to administrative responsibility on the basis of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation for violations of the law rules of constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The article contains conclusions about the need to correct the provisions of Article 1.3 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. The proposed design of the norm will clearly delineate the powers of the Russian Federation and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in determining administrative responsibility and excluding the possibility of brining to administrative responsibility for the violation of normative legal acts of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and municipal bodies on the basis of the rules of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation.

The modern world almost continuously emphasizes the importance of new challenges and solutions in all areas and fields of life for humanity. The emergence of new technologies and the improvement of conventional mechanisms to meet the demands of digital reality pose new challenges for any social science and practice; the role of law as a tool of regulatory influence on public relations becomes of particular importance. Recently, the issue of regulation of ubiquitous artificial intelligence, cyberphysical systems, advanced “smart” robots and other achievements of engineering science has become of primary importance for the Russian and world legal science. The authors of the article have analyzed the issues of possible approaches to the robotics legal regulation. Due to the latest trends in the development of legal norms on robotics in foreign countries, in particular in the European Union, the issues of legislative recognition and determination of the robot’s status, i.e. the prospect of robots becoming legally capable, or strengthening and clarifying the legal regime of the robot exclusively as an object of legal regulation become topical. The paper is devoted to studying topical issues of possible directions of legal regulation of robotics and analyzing the main approaches to determining the legal status of robots and liability for harm caused by them in the autonomous performance of actions.

The paper is devoted to the issues of digitalization in state and municipal procurement. Every year the field of state and municipal procurement is becoming more and more processible, new technologies and solutions are being introduced, procurement processes are becoming more and more automated. Rapid changes in the field under consideration force participants of procurement to intensively master such technologies as chat bots, artificial intelligence, blockchain, etc. As a result of the research, the author has come to the conclusion that the existing regulation of state and municipal procurement is already sufficient for smart contracts to be successfully integrated into the Russian legal system.

The concept of harm has been examined in the context of the current legislation, doctrine, judicial practice. The paper has determined characteristic cases of causing harm to the participants of relations regulated under civil law. It is concluded that the absence of a legal definition of the concept of harm has resulted in the confusion of the legal categories “causing harm” and “causing damages” as a condition for tort liability in public law and judicial practice. The author has given her own classification of types of harm and determined classification of property damage. The paper has clarified the content of the concept of non-property (reputational) harm caused to a legal entity. The paper has carried out a comparative study of the concepts harm, damages, and losses. It is causing harm rather than causing damages that gives rise to tort liability. The paper has examined the problems of application of rules on recovery of caused damages. The paper analyzes the subinstitution, namely, obligations arising as a result of harm caused by acts of public authority in the field of public administration and law enforcement. The author has determined the features of tort liability conditions for damage caused by state authorities, local selfgovernment bodies and their officials and peculiarities of their subject composition. Attention is drawn to the civil law nature of binding legal relations arising as a result of harm in the field of criminal proceedings. The author has determined the features of tort liability for damage caused by officials during criminal procedural activity, subject composition of a tort obligation. It is proposed to introduce a defining norm of the concept harm as a generic concept and norms on specific division of harm. It is proposed to make a number of changes and additions to the subinstitution of obligation due to damage by acts of public authority.

The article substantiates the relevance of scientific analysis of the composition of town-planning relations for further development of legal regulation of town-planning and increase in efficiency of law enforcement activities in the field of urban planning. Based on the study of scientific sources, the author concludes that there is insufficient legal research in the field of legal regulation of urban planning. The paper shows the legal and scientific significance of studying the composition and specifics of town-planning relations for the further development of town-planning legislation and the formation of town-planning law. On the basis of the system analysis of the current town-planning and related legislation, the author provides for the legal characteristics of subjects and objects of town-planning legal relations taking into account the specifics of urban planning activity depending on their particular type, their features, problems of definition and identification, differentiation from related legal relations. The author proposes a possible classification of subjects and objects of town-planning relations depending on the type of town-planning activity and their nature.

The paper has analized the draft Federal Law “On State and Municipal Property” placed on the federal portal of draft normative legal acts for public hearing. The authors have presented their understanding of the need to develop and adopt the draft law in question, a retrospective into the history of the problem has been undertaken. Attention is drawn to the doctrinal position and constitutional basis of adoption of this act, as well as its inclusion into the number of strategic document, namely, “The main directions of activity of the Government of the Russian Federation for the period until 2024.” The general characteristics of the draft law are given, some comments on its provisions are made. It is concluded that the adoption of the Federal Law “On State and Municipal Property” will contribute to improving the efficiency of management and disposal of state and municipal property and consolidation of the property basis of the Russian State.

Good faith (bona fides) is presented in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation as a general principle and presumption. In resolving corporate disputes, the courts are governed by general principles of good faith. However, corporate relations have a specificity due to, inter alia, the variety of corporate forms. It can be assumed that the application of good faith provisions should also vary taking into account the characteristics of corporate patterns, the types and forms of corporate relations, subjective internal corporate circumstances. Common law countries have developed a system of good faith elements and special tests to apply the required requirement of good faith according to the context. A special place is given to fiduciary relations as a product of bona fides. The author has carried out a comparative analysis of the provisions of the Plenums of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the law enforcement practice of Germany, the USA, Great Britain and Canada on the issues of good faith in the consideration of corporate disputes. Special attention is paid to the interrelation between corporate ethics and law. Examining a number of key cases from the law-enforcement practice of the courts of the Anglo-American system of law, the author substantiates the possibility of applying special tests, namely, objective and subjective good faith tests, to regulate matters related to the application of the rules of good faith from the Civil Code and special laws in dealing with corporate disputes. Special attention is paid to the role of courts and permissible discretion in the formation of standards of enforcement of blanket norms and general principles of law in corporate relations.

As part of the civil legislation reform, a public not-for-profit company is recognized as an independent form of non-profit organizations. Its intermediate position between a legal entity as a subject of private law and a public authority shows the existence of features in the methods of its property formation. In the article the author has analyzed the sources of formation of the property of the public not-for-profit company, investigated doctrinal approaches to understanding the essence of the sources of formation of the property of the organization under consideration. The peculiarities of property formation of public law companies operating in Russia have also been determined. According to the results of the analysis, the author has drawn the conclusion about a predominantly public nature of the property component of public not-for-profit companies, the main source of formation of which is the state property or funds received under statutory provisions. The author makes the interest of the founder in the property component of a public not-for-profit company conditional upon implementation of the state and public interests and public law functions imposed on it. On the basis of the study, the author has determined a conflict in the legislation regulating the investment of temporarily free funds of a public not-for-profit company as a revenue-producing activity and has made proposals to resolve it.

The paper discusses the policy to limit the powers and resources allocated to labor inspectorates in 10 post-Soviet states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine). This policy is carried out under the slogans of protecting businesses from excessive regulatory burden and attracting investment. The aim of the study is to determine the extent of restrictions and trends in the development of legislation and law enforcement practices of these states in this regard. The objectives of the study are to identify specific limitations enshrined both in regulatory legal acts and in the practical activities of state bodies and non-state structures in these states. The methodology includes both the study of legal acts, and communication with experts in the countries of the region, as well as field surveys involving participants in labor relations and social partners. The study reveals a significant number of restrictions, some of which are in direct conflict with the requirements of the ILO priority conventions on labor inspection. Some, although not in direct contradiction with them, in combination with other restrictions and the specific approach to their application in practice, destroy the efficiency of the working conditions of workers inspection. Among the most important restrictions of labor inspections are: limiting the subject of inspections only to issues of compliance with safety and health standards; establishing in the legislation of a mandatory requirement to warn the employer on the part of the inspection about the inspection being carried out and / or the obligation of the inspection to coordinate the inspection with other state bodies (prosecutors, courts, etc.); establishing the occurrence of workers’ complaints as a prerequisite for the labor inspectorate, etc.

The forensic characteristics of crimes form a relatively stable, interconnected system. The presence of one of its elements makes it possible to state the presence of another one. This necessitates the study on correlation relationships between the elements. The analysis of the data on forensic characteristics of encroachment on personal freedom revealed that between victims and criminals there are specific relationships that form significant circumstances for the investigation of these crimes. It is substantiated that data on the identity of the victim of encroachment on personal freedom are the motivational basis for the commission of the investigated crimes, determining the mechanism of criminal behavior of the perpetrators. The author gives classification of victims of the analyzed crimes: those involving the exploitation of victims and not involving exploitation of the victims. Sociodemographic, moral, psychological and biological traits of victims’ personality distinctive of each of the identified groups are substantiated. The classification of the personality traits of criminals encroaching on personal freedom, i.e. “captors,” “slave owners,” and “imprisoners,” is given; the qualitative uniqueness of the personality traits of each group is investigated. To justify the correlation dependencies of criminals and victims, the materials of court practice are analyzed, conclusions are drawn and the results of the study are summarized.

The purpose of the paper is to identify the correlation between illegal migration, migration crimes and the use of the Internet resources. The content analysis of advertising sites, social networks in combination with other research methods has revealed that in the virtual space there is both active promotion of services facilitating illegal migration and a wide demand for them. Based on the results of the study, the authors develop the following proposals for improving measures to combat illegal migration in the global network. 1. A strategic direction for countering illegal migration should be the adjustment of the state’s migration policy through the establishment of a correlation between this phenomenon and the use of modern information and telecommunication technologies aiming at organizing and developing a criminal business providing illegal entry, stay (residence) services, fictitious registration, and registration on migration registration, etc. 2. The counteraction to illegal migration in cyberspace should be implemented through an integrated approach. From the perspective of criminal law, it is necessary to add the element “using the media or information and telecommunication networks (including the Internet)” into Part 2 of Art. 322.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for liability for the crime elements of the organization of illegal migration. From the perspective of criminology it is important to identify and record the real conditionality of the development of illegal migration, migration crimes and the use of the Internet to commit them; to improve statistical reporting on crime by including information on the organization of illegal migration committed via the media or information and telecommunication networks (including the Internet) in the report of the State Automated Police Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation on crimes committed in the field of telecommunication and computer information.

BRICS is a relatively new phenomenon in modern international political and economic life, gaining momentum and attracting more and more lawyers’ attention. The central issues in this case are, firstly, the legal nature of the group of five states itself — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and secondly, the place, nature, content of the principles on which international cooperation of this entity is based. Accordingly, the paper considers these issues through the prism of theoretical analysis from the standpoint of international legal science, in which the identification of the legal nature of the interaction of the BRICS countries is not only a prerequisite, but also, in essence, the foundation for solving the problem of legal qualification of the principles of cooperation between them. Thus, it answers the question on the relationship of the latter with other principles in the system of international law. For this purpose, the study adopts two alternative options: the status of an international institution if it is established that BRICS has features of an international organization or integration association; and its recognition as a paraorganization if none of such features exist.

The purpose of the paper is to assess the effectiveness of international legal means of preventing modern threats aimed at offshore oil and gas installations, and to find the optimal solution to eliminate the identified shortcomings. The stated goal determines two key tasks — an analysis of the applicable norms of international law and an analysis of the practice of their implementation. The first part of the paper discusses the development of the concept of security zones as the main international legal means ensuring the protection of installations within the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf. The second part examines the practice of states in enforcing laws and regulations aimed at organizing the safety of facilities in the context of the conclusions reached by international judicial authorities in the case of the Arctic Sunrise vessel. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that there is some insufficiency and inefficiency of security zones to prevent modern threats. As a solution to this problem, the author proposes to establish “warning zones”, i.e. an additional international legal means to ensure the safety of offshore oil and gas installations.

The paper is devoted to the cooperation of international judicial bodies operating based on the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea This cooperation is determined by the Convention, which sets out four procedures for the resolution of international maritime disputes.
The relevance of the paper is determined by the important role of international judicial bodies in resolving international maritime disputes by amicable means. The subject of the study is the relationship between international judicial authorities on the interpretation and application of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The purpose of the paper is to determine the rules of law on cooperation of international judicial bodies considering international maritime disputes based on the Convention on the Law of the Sea. The hypothesis of the study is that the cooperation of international judicial bodies operating within the framework of a single legal regime causes competition among the jurisdictions of international judicial bodies and is productive.

Based on a comparative legal analysis, the paper discusses modern approaches to the system of sources of civil law in Russia, France and Germany. The authors draw attention to the similarities and differences (in form, name, structure, content, significance) of the sources of civil law of these countries, due to objective and subjective factors, as well as features of their legal systems. It is noted that the range of sources of civil law in France and Germany is much wider than in Russia. Among the sources of civil law of these legal systems, civil codes and laws containing civil law form a common ground for the system.
Current trends include significant expansion and complication of the Russian civil law system of sources and its convergence with the laws of France and Germany. The authors conclude that there is a need to systematize and consolidate the detailed system of sources of civil law in Art. 3 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the adjustment of certain legal institutions of French and German civil law in order to improve Russian legislation and develop modern sources of Russian civil law and their system in the context of combining the experience of French and German law with domestic legal traditions.

The paper provides a comparative analysis of the current level of development of programs for the release and mitigation of responsibility for participation in cartel agreements in the Russian Federation and the European Union (at the level of the entire Union). In relation to Russia, the author analyzes the relevant articles of the Administrative Offenses Code of the Russian Federation and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, methodological recommendations of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation, as well as judicial practice and decisions of some Offices of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia. In relation to the EU, the author deals with the Regulatory Letter of the European Commission on exemption from fines and reduction of its size in cases of cartels, as well as the Guidelines on methods for calculating fines imposed in accordance with Art. 23 (2) (a) of Regulation No. 1/2003. The analysis reveals a number of fundamental differences between the two programs (for example, the EU does not provide for criminal liability for business entities in the EU, and the list of grounds for mitigating administrative responsibility in the Russian Federation is wider than in the EU). However, according to the author, the general development trend is forming in a single direction.

Spasovich V.D. is the author of the first criminal law textbook in the Russian Empire. The progressive criminal law ideas formulated by the author provoked indignation in reactionary circles. By the decision of the special commission of the III division, the textbook was excluded from the educational process, and its author was forbidden to carry out teaching activities. For a long time Spasovich was not mentioned among the representatives of the brilliant galaxy of pre-revolutionary forensic scientists. Only in recent years, his works have been reprinted and are gradually entering the scientific circulation. The purpose of this paper is to study the Spasovich’s criminal law ideas and to determine the contribution of the jurist to the science of Russian criminal law. The authors conclude that the Spasovich’s ideas laid the foundations for the formation of a classical school of criminal law in the Russian Empire. The jurist carried out a deep theoretical development of the problems associated with the corpus delicti, the goals and measure of punishment, free will, and statutes of limitations. In his writings, Spasovich substantiated the fundamental principles of criminal law science: legality, equality, justice, commensurability of crime and punishment, respect for the dignity of the individual, the value of human rights and freedoms.

The relevance of the study lies in the lack of a prosecutors training program in psychological and pedagogical support. The goal is to develop a toolkit for researching the understanding of prosecutorial activities among persons with a higher legal education and a comprehensive program for training newly admitted prosecutorial officers of the prosecutor’s office of the Russian Federation for various types of supervisory activities. The methods and techniques used in the development of the diagnostic materials “Understanding the prosecutor’s activities” and the Comprehensive program for the training of newly adopted prosecutorial staff of the prosecutor’s office of the Russian Federation for various types of supervisory activities: method of expert assessments, comparative analysis, method of two portraits. 50 graduates of the departmental university of the prosecutor’s office of the Russian Federation and non-departmental law schools, as well as 10 prosecutors — highly qualified and experienced professionals, who acted as experts, took part in the study of ideas about prosecutorial activity.
The paper presents the results of the study of ideas about prosecutorial activity among various categories of prosecutors. The authors used their own diagnostic materials “Understanding the prosecutor’s activities”, consisting of five methods developed and tested based on the St. Petersburg prosecutor’s office. The methods make it possible to determine the understanding of and focus on prosecutorial activities for persons with higher legal education, as well as to create an individual professional educational route for improving existing knowledge, skills and abilities within the framework of the Comprehensive Program for the Training of Newly Accepted Prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation for various types of supervisory activities. The presented diagnostic materials and program have found their application and are being successfully implemented in practice in the prosecutor’s offices of several constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
The methods included in the diagnostic complex can be useful for district, specialized prosecutors, mentors of young specialists of the bodies and institutions of the prosecutor’s office of the Russian Federation, when deciding on the formation of an individual plan of training and education of newly adopted prosecutors. Personnel divisions of bodies and institutions of the prosecutor’s office of the Russian Federation can apply the presented comprehensive training program in order to improve knowledge and professional development of both newly admitted prosecutors and those who have changed the direction of their supervisory activities. A practice-oriented approach involves mastering the comprehensive program both independently and in organized forms of training (lectures, seminars, etc.) based on city, district and specialized prosecutors, prosecutors of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.