The author carries out an analysis of the most debatable issue of the theory of constitutional law -namely, the subject of constitutional law as the branch of legal science. Professors of the Department of Constitutional Law of the MSAL Y.N. Umansky, A.A. Bezuglov, A.K. Makhnenko, O.E. Kutafin, E.I. Kozlov, N.A. Mikhalev, V.I. Fadeev devoted their studies to the subject of constitutional law. They mainly shared the same views on the content, nature and characteristics of the subject of constitutional law and their views now constitute the basis for the development of the constitutional and legal science enhanced by modern scholars of the Department -scientific adherents of the scientific school of issues concerning the subject of constitutional law. The article characterizes the peculiarities of the subject of constitutional law that distinguish it from the other branches of law. The author justifies the dual nature of the subject of constitutional law. Analyzing different opinions of scholars that primarily represent either narrow or broad approaches to the definition of the subject of constitutional law, the author notes that the adherents of O.E. Kutafin and E.I Kozlova scientific school distinguish the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, the foundations of the legal status of the individual, the central government system and the local self-government system in the content of the subject of constitutional law. The author criticizes the views of the scholars who consider that enshrining the foundations of the social system in the Constitution is a totalitarian tradition. She also criticizes the opinion that constitutional law is not only a «common» branch of law, but that it is also a «general part of the whole Russian law» that has «a cumulative subject representing all branches of Russian law». In addition, the article criticizes the approach under which constitutional law is considered to be an "integrating", complex branch of law that develops as a result of integration of related institutions and branches of law as "the part common for all branches of law" or "suprabranch". The article also addresses the issue of drawing the line between constitutional law and other branches of law, separate institutions of which are closely connected with the institutions of constitutional law. Reference is made to the changes that took place in the subject of constitutional law at different stages of the state development; the article justifies the statement that the current content of the subject of constitutional law has considerably changed and expanded; the author explains the reasons of this phenomenon.

The article analyzes the problem that has always remained relevant in the legal science -namely, the problem of sovereignty. The author compares this concept with the concept of state independence, and in the process of dialectical comparison the author makes an attempt to elicit their common features and fundamental differences. The sovereign as the subject of sovereignty may take both personal and anonymous form, and both individual and collective implementation. The article highlights the fictitious nature of sovereign subjectivity inherent in the era of modern when the sovereignty substantially changes its content and essence. This process of transformation was marked by such thinkers as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vladimir Soloviev, Friedrich Nietzsche, and others. A fictitious or imaginary sovereign, even if he has supremacy and power, is deprived of true legitimacy that cannot be restored by either public opinion or direct violence. Both mimicry and manipulation are of no use under such circumstances. «Two bodies» of the king fall in two and never conjoin again. A fictitious sovereign rules a fictitious, «phantom» state. The substrate of such a state is not the people, but the "masses" as a specific formation conjoined by the staples of external power, violence and ideology. Independence associated with the freedom of existence is absorbed by the force of power, with which it turns out to be incompatible. An external law plays a much more important role than internal truth on which traditionally justice was based. The very justice is replaced by its own metaphor, which is the law. Depersonalized force of law that was expressed in the rule of thumb not only limits sovereignty, but supersedes it. Sovereignty as the status radiates independence as its movement and dynamics. Illusories that are typical for the era of modern result in making "unjust laws" that neglect both the truth and justice and focus only on feasibility and effect. Metaphysical and transcendental provisions disappear from the sphere of law that used to connect law with the other upper extralegal authorities. Normativizm becomes the dominant ideology of the era of modern and modernity, giving the law and the sovereignty a brand new look and creating unintended consequences for the life of the rule of law state

The paper provides an in-depth analysis of a parliamentary procedure of making decisions concerning the budget funds distribution. The author was the first who gave legal interpretation of the classical economic Arrow's impossibility theory. Applying these ideas to analyze budget distribution procedure, the author proves that the Parliament cannot make effective decisions concerning the distribution of budget funds. Thus, the exclusive power of the Parliament to approve the budget is brought into question.

The constitutional right of citizens to healthy environment is the fundamental right taken into account when performing the urban planning. However, in the legal science there has developed a narrow understanding of this right as the right to environmental safety and preservation of natural resources. The environment that surrounds a modern person includes not only natural objects, but also the residential areas favorable environment of which is formed on the basis of the developed infrastructure, high level of socio-economic development, compliance with sanitary and building codes, favorable environmental conditions. The development of the built-up area serves the purpose of creating favorable environment in the residential areas. The analysis of legislation and law enforcement practice has revealed the problems in the sphere of observing the constitutional right of citizens to healthy environment during the process of developing built-up areas due to the declarative nature of some regulatory norms of urban planning. Numerous disputes between citizens and bodies of state authority during the process of urban planning prove the lack of any effective mechanism of enforcing their rights. The author attempts to reveal the shortcomings of legal regulation of urban planning in the sphere of built-up areas development and to propose the ways to overcome them.

The article is devoted to the problems connected with the perspective implementation of the institution of family reunification of foreign nationals into Russian national legal system. Distinctive features of the phenomenon of family reunification are analyzed through the prism of international and foreign experience in the field of migration, as well as through the current state of the Russian migration legislation. The article highlights the problem of unequal status of a sponsor and his family members. It is proposed to determine the list of family members on the basis of the requirements of family law provisions concerning individuals bound to pay spouse and child support. In order to eliminate the existing terminological uncertainty and legal fouls the author proposes a new definition of the institution of family reunification. In conclusion, the author justifies the necessity to improve regulatory acts concerning the legal status of foreign nationals in the RF in terms of clarification of limits and procedure of reunification: requirements to be met by the sponsor and his family reunification application; the list of documents legitimating the residence of migrants and their family members in the territory of the receiving state; restrictions on repeated and consecutive or "chain" family reunification of foreign nationals.

The article defines the main schemes of state regulation in the sphere of museum activities and considers the legal foundations of foundation and performance of museums. Moreover the article considers the issue of the necessity of licensing museum activities. The author determines the basic legal framework regulating the activities of museums and public authorities exercising control and regulation of museum activities, both at the federal level and at the level of the entities of the RF. The author provides the thorough examination of the powers of the Ministry of Culture and the Moscow City Department of Culture within the framework of control and regulation of the activities of the museums.

The article considers the content of the public debt of the Russian Federation in the context of legal analysis of the budget legislation. It is noted that in comparison with other foreign countries, legal regulation of state debt in Russia has no direct consolidation in the Constitution. The institution of the state debt of the Russian Federation in the federal structure of the budget is fixed and regulated by legal acts in two ways: as a source of financing of the budget deficit and as a form of budget expenditures. The analysis of the budgetary legislation and scientific literature indicates the specific features of the Russian Federation government debt: authoritative character, mandatory nature, repayment rate and security of repayment of borrowed funds. Theoretical understanding of the public debt allows the authors to conclude that the functions of this institution are similar to the state credit functions, the main ones being fiscal, distributing, regulating, controlling and stimulating. It is these features that characterize the feasibility of the functioning of government debt in the financial system of any state.

This paper considers a question of occurrence of a voluntary payment by means of mediation under the promissory note, which depends on the time of occurrence of the holder's right for recourse. Particular attention is given to the judicial practice of application of the debt securities legislation relating to the holder's right of recourse. For the first time it is defined that, on the theoretical level, there is some correlation between the occurrence of the holder's right to a recourse and a voluntary payment as a means of mediation by persons not party to the bill circulation, or those already liable on the bill. In addition, the article touches upon the question of the right of the holder to a recourse and of the conditions for the appearance of such a right in accordance with the provisions of the bill law.

The article analyzes theoretical problems and practical problems of application of the rules concerning provision of payment services in Russia and Germany.

The article considers the main tendencies for the establishment and development of IT law as the complex branch of Russian law, legal science and academic discipline. The author distinguishes ten social relations that are included into the subject area of this branch. Attention is paid to the procedures of formation of a new subculture of the society, i.e. the information culture, and the formation of a new type of legal consciousness. The author considers priorities in teaching this academic discipline in higher educational institutions of our country.

The effective development of modern Russia is influenced by such global processes as integration and unification of information relations. The information Society development must be accompanied by the improvement of the system of state guarantees of observing constitutional human and civil rights in the IT sphere. One of the measures necessary to ensure the implementation of these rights is to maintain the necessary level of information security. Uncertainty and ambiguity of the content of the legal rules governing relations in the information sphere is a significant legal barrier to information security of the person Thus, there is no definition of the term "safety" in legislation. The attempt of the legislator to define the concept of "information" is again considered to be unsuccessful. The information safety doctrine provides for dividing national interests in the IT sphere into such elements as interests of the person, interests of the society and interests of the state. The analysis of the definitions of the concept "information safety of a person" proposed by scholars has revealed the absence of any unified approach. It is established that the definition closest in meaning to "information security of the person" that is embodied in legislation is the definition of "information security of children". On the basis of the research the author has coined his own definition of "information security of the person" that can be employed by the existing legislation and used as the basis for further theoretical study of such elements as information and technology safety, information and ideology safety, information and psychology safety, information and law safety.

The article is devoted to studying the issue of transferring the right of claim against other guarantors, who entered into contracts of guarantee with the creditor, to the guarantor who carried out all his obligations. As in jurisprudence there are two opposing approaches to solving this problem, the research seeks to draw a conclusion regarding which of these approaches honors the interests of the parties to the greatest extent. To this end, the author analyzes the ground of obligations arising from the contract of guarantee, and considers the contract on providing (issuing) guarantee. On the basis of scrutinizing this contract, the author concludes this contract as a legal fact contains personal confidence element that is connected with the significance of the personality of the principal debtor for the future guarantor that preconditions the presumption of debtor's solvency. Accordingly, the author presumes that providing the guarantor who carried out his obligations with the rights of claim against other guarantors, who made separate contracts with the creditor, is not justifiable.

With the development of the civil circulation, law faces with the appearance of new remedies in the legal activity of a citizen that require the law upholder to provide their proper identification in the system of civil law remedies. Resorting to an insufficient remedy still remains a common ground to deny judicial protection. The article is devoted to the study of the legal nature of negative acknowledgment as the means of protecting proprietary interests. The author describes the main approaches to the development of the system of property claims and criticizes the existing traditional schemes. On the basis of the instrumental theory of law, the author suggests that a new approach to the delimitation of the categories of means and methods of protection of civil rights should be applied. In the absence of an appropriate legislative solution, the author concludes that the approach of the law enforcer that qualifies the remedy in question as a nugatory way of protection is unreasonable. The author proposes an alternative solution to this practical problem and its scientific explanation.

The article investigates the legal nature of the deadline for voluntary execution and the manner of its provision in the performance of non-monetary claims. The article also reveals the essence of legal relations arising in the enforcement proceedings in the provision of time limit for voluntary execution

Corporate relations in the Russian Federation have only recently been given legal confirmation in the Civil Code of the RF. Since there is no long-term and uniform legislative and law enforcement practice concerning the issues related to the activities of legal entities in the Russian Federation, corporate relations are often the sphere of various offenses and legal conflicts¹³. Relevance of the topic at the moment has increased due to the adoption of new provisions in the field of corporate law, which gave firm legislative foundation for a new research from the perspective of the provisions of Russian law

The article is devoted to changes in state regulation of activities of apartment buildings management. The author proposes the ways of increasing the efficiency of the mechanism of legal regulation of business activities in the market for housing and communal services. On the basis of the analysis the author determines possible ways to streamline the activities of the participants in the market for housing and communal services by means of self-regulation. The article provides the analysis of amendments to the legislation concerning licensing activities in the sphere of managing apartment buildings. The author thoroughly examined the procedure of forming a licensing committee, licensing requirements for managers, the procedure of issuing and cancelling licenses of management organizations. The article considers the procedure of keeping data registrars that contain information on licensing the activities of the management of apartment buildings. Special attention is paid to the issue of the right of a management company to manage an apartment building. The author considers the peculiarities of interrelation between companies providing resources and management companies in the market of housing and commune services and tries to differentiate responsibility between the participants for the quality of the services provided to the consumers.

Legislation on civil service and actions against corruption provides comprehensive regulation of conflict of interest and its prevention. Possible conflicts between personal interests of the sole governing body of a legal person and by the legal person itself can be prevented by corporate bylaws. Civil legislation defines the rules for the protection of legal persons from unfair actions of their leaders, providing compensation for damage caused by unlawful administrative decisions. But the divergence of interests, which could lead to a breach of the rights of corporations and individuals in exercising executive powers in the relations governed by labor law, hardly attracts any attention. This article explains the topicality of preventing conflicts of interests between the head of an organization and the headed legal entity, as well as between legal representatives of minors and disabled workers and employers - individuals with their wards. The author formulates some proposals aimed at improving the labor law in order to prevent conflicts of interest between representatives and their clients in labor relations and directly related thereto.

The article is devoted to the changes in regulatory legal acts governing the development and application of professional standards. The object of the analysis was both adopted laws and draft laws yet to be considered. Amendments and additions to the legislation did not entail mandatory application of professional standards neither for all, nor for certain categories of workers or employers. When developing and applying professional standards, it is necessary to ensure the participation of various parties of the social dialogue - workers, employers, government, educational and scientific communities, the administration of educational institutions, representatives of students. This information is of interest to those interested in the problems of Russian labor law, e.g. legislators, trade unions, employers' associations.

This article analyzes federal laws on the basis of which intoxication is seen in the following criminal ways: aggravating circumstance (Part 1.1, Article 63 of the Criminal Code...); structural feature of a crime (Article 264.1 of the Criminal Code.); qualifying (qualifying special) sign of a crime (parts 2, 4, 6 Art. 264 of the Criminal Code). The adoption of these laws shows the ambiguity of the criminal evaluation of the state of intoxication by a legislator and questions the need for art. 23 of the Criminal Code, which, despite the innovations, reflected a neutral legislator's attitude towards the intoxication at the time of committing the crime.

This article is devoted to investigation of criminal issues of counteraction to human sexual exploitation. The author studies the doctrinal approaches to this definition, analyses consolidation of the concept of "sexual exploitation" in international legal acts and acts of national legislation. The attention is drawn to peculiarities of actions against sexual exploitation in international law (in general, they are typical of actions against sexual exploitation of children), as well as in the law of individual countries, including the United States and Russia. Based on this analysis, the author proposes his own definition of sexual exploitation which he suggests defining as the "abuse or attempted abuse of a vulnerable position, power or trust for sexual purposes, as well as taking advantage through coercion of another person to provide sexual services or to commit other acts of sexual nature, including involvement in prostitution."

The author considers such an important element of the impact on the convicts as the use of technical means. The paper analyzes the author's point of view on this issue. The application of induction, deduction, analysis and synthesis has allowed the author to formulate valid conclusions. The comparative legal method was used in identifying features and gaps in the legal regulation, as well as in the development of proposals for changes and additions to the Criminal Enforcement Code and departmental normative legal base. Receipt of the empirical data was carried out with the help of specific sociological survey method (questionnaires and interviews) of UIS Penal Enforcement System staff. The conducted analysis allows the author to assert that the use of technical means of protection and supervision is one of the most promising ways to improve the rules of penal law.

For a long period of time in the science and theory of penal right attention is drawn to the concept and content of "progressive system of enforcement and punishment." However, most of the authors, who have studied progressive system, say that it can be applied and implemented only in respect of imprisonment. The large array of theoretical data on the progressive system lacks ideas, and very little attention is given to alternatives to imprisonment. But, nevertheless, the science of penal law points the need for development and legislative consolidation of a progressive system of serving and execution of punishments not related to deprivation of liberty. All of the above, of course, determines the relevance of the chosen article topic. This article analyzes the views of different scientists on the construction of a progressive system for the enforcement and serving correctional labor. On the basis of the opinions of scientists in the field of penitentiary system the author suggests his own version of the articles of the Criminal Executive Code of the Russian Federation involving issues of a progressive system of execution and punishment of correctional labor.

The development of the concept of extraterritorial jurisdiction of states under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) leads to both blurring of jurisdictional boundaries within the "canonical" territory of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and to the fact that rationeloci condition is no longer limited outside Europe. On the one hand, this concept allows the ECHR to avoid the appearance of "a legal vacuum in human rights protection", on the other - the ECHR ambitions result in increasing negative reaction by states, for example the reaction of the Russian authorities on the Transnistrian Moldovan affairs. The article examines the ECHR practice of using the "effective control" concept. According to the author, developing this concept, the ECHR does not impose "its own interpretation" of the well-known in international law standards of attribution of conduct to a state of persons acting under its direction or control ("Nicaragua test", "Tadic test"), which it is often reproached for. On the other hand, it permits, intentionally or unintentionally, a mixture of completely different concepts: control as a condition for attribution of conduct to a state of non-state actors (category of general international law) and control (over the victims or territory) as a condition of the state's jurisdiction within the meaning of Art. 1 of the ECHR.

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of international cooperation in the sphere of legal regulation of e-commerce. The author considers the documents of international organizations of harmonizing and unifying nature which affect various aspects of cross-border trading activities. Cross-border e-commerce of goods and services, in any form needs clear rules and detailed regulation. Such regulation at the international legal level is offered by a variety of international organizations working in the field of International Trade Law (UNCITRAL, ICC, UNCTAD, WTO, OECD). A particular attention is drawn to the documents of UNCITRAL, as an international organization actively involved in the field of electronic commerce issues since the 80s of XX century. The author notes a specific role of the UN- CITRAL Model Law "On electronic commerce", as well as the UN Convention "On the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts" 2005 as the only e-commerce international treaty which is aimed at practical solutions to legal issues related to the increased use of electronic communications in the conclusion of crossborder contracts. The author concludes that the use of undervalued conditions of ICC eTerms 2004 on compliance with the form of the contract through the implementation of electronic messages between the parties when entering into crossborder contracts seems as a safe and legitimate way of registration of contractual relations as a simple written (paper) form of contract in the legal context (enshrined in most national laws) on the freedom of contract and freedom of contract forms

This review highlights the scientific and practical conference and meeting of business law section of the EMA held on November 25, 2015. This overview is of interest from both scientific and methodological perspectives.

Environmental law is intended to promote the conservation and protection of the environment, but it is not always able to perform its function effectively²⁵. According to the latest report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), "currently observed changes in the Earth system is unprecedented in the history of mankind. Efforts to slow down the rate of change or a reduction in their scope, including increased resource efficiency and mitigation measures, have achieved moderate success, but have not eliminated the consequences of the adverse changes in the environment. Neither the scale nor the speed of these changes have not diminished over the last five years.'¹²⁶ According to the UNEP report, the "many existing national, sub-national and international legal instruments contribute to improving the environment. At the same time, there is a further deterioration of the environment in the field and in respect of the majority of global problems."²⁷ In September 2015 the issues on improvement of the efficiency of environmental law have been considered in the framework of the third conference of the European Forum of Environmental Law. This article provides a brief overview of the events and the summary of selected performances.