The paper is devoted to examining legal, factual and procedural grounds of disciplinary responsibility of civil servants in the Russian Empire on the basis of the Statutes of Civil Service, Regulations on Punishments in Criminal and Correctional Proceedings, the Statute of Criminal Proceedings. The author defines the concept of official misconduct (malfeasance in office), the legislatively established list of disciplinary offences and relevant measures of influence, their substantive characteristics, the peculiarities of simple (extrajudicial) and judicial procedure of proceedings in disciplinary cases initiated against civil servants of administrative departments. The analysis made it possible to draw a conclusion about the existence in the second half of the 18th century in the system of the Russian public service of a disciplinary process that has all the features of the legal process and a procedural form of criminal proceedings. The use of disciplinary sanctions was subject to certain rules that protected subordinates from arbitrary use of disciplinary power by their principals. The most stringent forms of disciplinary sanctions involving dismissal from service could only be applied by the court. A number of provisions existing at the time can be used to improve the legal basis of the proceedings in disciplinary cases of civil servants of the Russian Federation.

Local self-government in modern Russia was revived in the early 1990s. The legislation then in force was aimed at separating local self-government from the system of state authorities and ensuring its autonomy. The independence of local self-government was also established by the 1993 Constitution of Russia. As a follow-up to the provisions of the Constitution, the Federal Law dated 06 Oct 2003 No. 131-FZ “On General Principles of the Organization of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation” was adopted. The Federal Law initiated the reform of local self-government aimed at improving the efficiency of local self-government bodies as an independent level of the public power most closely associated with the population. However, the municipal power is now radically different from that created in those years. This is primarily preconditioned by the lack of the necessary amount of its own revenue necessary to enable the municipal power to exercise its authority independently. The majority of municipalities need state assistance and interbudgetary transfers. The necessity to exercise control over the state budget spendings has led to the fact that the main trend in the development of local self-government in Russia was its integration into the vertical of public power. The legal crystallization of this process was carried out by amending the current legislation, especially the Federal Law No. 131-FZ dated 06 Oct 2003. The Constitutional Reform of 2020 has legitimized these changes.

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the practice and prospects of application of blockchain technology to provide the exercise of payment services. In particular, it is noted that this technology can be used in the architecture of payment systems, as well as as the technological basis of payment instruments. In addition, blockchain can be used in areas directly related to payment services (for example, for customer identification, currency exchange operations, etc.). The author defines a number of concepts, in particular “peering payment system”, “mining”, “cryptocurrency wallet”. The paper highlights the necessity to differentiate between the actual peering payment systems (networks) and payment services operating with the use of blockchain technology. The latter can be decentralized in terms of how information is transmitted, but not managed. The presence of an entity controlling, administering or otherwise managing individual processes within such a system does not allow it to be regarded as truly decentralized — peering networks are based on the equality of all participants. According to the results of the study, it is concluded that the blockchain technology indeed has a high potential of practical application in the payment field. Meanwhile, currently a cryptocurrency wallet has significant limitations of practical application for the organization of mass payments. Therefore, this technology should not be expected to replace traditional payment institutions in the nearest future. It can be predicted that blockchain will be just implemented into the existing payment infrastructure, rather than replace it completely.

The paper is devoted to the examination of some legal aspects of the legislative regulation of public relations in the field of large-scale international research infrastructures. The author identifies the features of public relations in the field of Megasience, examines various approaches to the definition of this category. In particular, it is determined that it is the rules of financial law that regulate the complex of public relations within which public financial activities are carried out in the field under consideration, namely: relations concerning financing at the expense of centralized funds (budgets) as well as using extrabudgetary sources for creating large-scale research infrastructures — unique scientific Mega-science installations; relations associated with the application of various tax incentives and preferences, investment tax credits by scientific and other organizations involved in the implementation of Megascience projects; financial control and supervision relations in the process of creation and operation of global research infrastructure facilities. The author makes proposals concerning the need to develop and adopt a special federal law of the Russian Federation regulating public relations in the field under consideration, as well as public relations in the field of international collaboration related to the implementation of international research activities based on Megascience facilities by the States Parties to such activities. The author gives possible definitions of key concepts applied in the field of Megasience.

Unauthorized construction refers to the initial ways of acquiring ownership of the property. Despite the fact that the conditions for the emergence of ownership for immovable property are clearly articulated in the law, there are constant problems in law enforcement. The paper examines some court decisions as examples of imperfection of legal regulation of unauthorized construction. The purpose of the paper is to investigate scientific and practical problems of implementation of unauthorized construction in the Russian Federation as a basis for the acquisition of property rights, to analyze possible ways to eliminate them. The paper applied a comprehensive analysis of legislation and law enforcement practice that determine the legal regime of objects of unauthorized construction in compliance with civil law provisions. Based on the results of the analysis of the problems of legal regulation of unauthorized construction and contradictions in the enforcement of the norms governing these relations, the author suggests the ways that can be applied to solve the problems under consideration and to manage relations arising on this basis of the emergence of property rights.

Currently, the legal regulation of public relations varies significantly depending on their participants. In particular, legal regulation is influenced by the consumer. However, there is no unambiguous definition of the concept of a “consumer” in legal acts, which gives rise to theoretical discussions and problems in enforcement. The purpose of the paper is to draw theoretical conclusions concerning the impact of a differentiated approach to legal regulation of the content of the legal status of consumers. Objectives of the study include: determination of validity of differentiating legal regulation of public relations, including legally binding relations; development of an approach to the identification of the general legal concept of the consumer; formation of a uniform model of the consumer’s legal status. In writing the paper, the author applied general scientific methods (system and functional methods, a group of logical methods such as deduction, induction, analysis, synthesis) and special legal methods (the formal legal method, the legal modeling method). The study concludes that the legal status of persons may vary according to such criteria as professionalism, association with business activity, connection with consumption. These criteria form a three-dimensional system, within which the legal status of a particular person is determined. In this sense, the qualification of a person as a consumer is possible due to the differentiation of legal regulation of relations according to one of the criteria (connection with consumption). It is substantiated that consumers are not only individuals who do not carry out business activities, but also individual entrepreneurs, legal entities, public legal entities, regardless of their professionalism and connection with business activities. The article proposes an approach according to which the process of consumption should equally influence the legal status of consuming persons due to a single criterion of differentiation with the preservation of the possibility of further differentiation by other criteria of legal significance. On the basis of the selection of the consumption criterion, the paper proposes a uniform model of the legal status of the consumer.

One of the tasks the modern law in the field of insolvency of legal entities pursues is to ensure the maximum balance of the rules governing the measures of liability applied to managers, participants and other entities controlling the debtor. In this regard, the author applies historical and comparative method of studying the measures of responsibility applied during the development of domestic legal regulation of insolvency and the critical assessment method that forms the basis for the analysis of the current Russian legislation. The paper carries out a retrospective analysis of the form and degree of fault as an element of the offense that traditionally acted as one of the criteria for choosing the type of insolvency, as well as for imposing the measures of responsibility. A comparative analysis of the norms of the Russian bankrupt legislation in historical retrospect allowed raising problematic issues of the current legislation and making proposals aimed at their resolution. Currently, the rules of the current domestic insolvency legislation provide an equal amount of responsibility for both bad faith (intentional) and unreasonable (careless) actions of entities controlling the debtor. The normative consolidation of measures of responsibility dependent on the form of fault, namely, the separate qualification of intentional and careless offenses, will secure coherent application of the principle of justice. Modern Russian law contains the concepts of “insolvency” and “bankruptcy”, which in some cases creates legal uncertainty. Therefore, it is proposed to delineate these concepts by law, eliminate the term “objective bankruptcy” from the application, and shift its semantic burden to the concept of “insolvency”. Thereby, a separate category of insolvency will be included in the current legislation.

The author explores the issue of participation of third parties not making independent claims regarding the subject matter of the dispute in the context of achieving procedural efficiency in civil proceedings. It is noted that the current rules of civil and arbitration procedural legislation concerning third parties that do not make independent claims regarding the subject matter of the dispute are imperfect and, on the one hand, they have some potential to ensure the true implementation of the principle of procedural economy, and, on the other hand, to enhance the effectiveness of civil proceedings and the scope of safeguards applied to secure judicial protection. Joint consideration and resolution of principal and recourse claims may be treated as a key and promising technique in this regard. The author, using various methodological techniques, conducts a critical analysis of the domestic doctrine and legislation of pre-revolutionary, Soviet and modern periods, and examines foreign experience on the subject at hand. The paper substantiates the conclusion about the possibility and expediency of joint consideration and resolution of the principal and recourse claims. It proposes to apply a mechanism for considering such claims jointly with due regard to the balance of interests of persons involved in the case. It is also noted that in a number of cases it is expedient to consider the principal and recourse claims in separate court proceedings. Summing up, the author expresses the opinion that the expansion of the judicial activity of the judicial activity should be permissible not only in the case of approval by the court of the settlement agreement, but also when the judicial activity results in making a court decision. In conclusion, it is noted that the mechanism of joint consideration and resolution of principal and recourse actions proposed by the author does not infringe the safeguards of civil procedural form and allows us to eliminate “defeat in rights” for the principal respondent (regredient).

Given the rapid development of corporate legislation, it is necessary to determine the boundaries of acceptable behavior when carrying out the procedure for distributing discovered property of a liquidated legal entity. The relevance of the topic is supported by both the increase in the number of applications for the appointment of the procedure received by commercial courts, especially during the economic downturn, and the increase in the number of abuses aimed at taking possession of the property of the corporation. There are gaps in the legal regulation of certain issues of the procedure: the circle of persons, the right to submit an application, the conditions of appointment, and control over the procedure. Stakeholders find opportunities to circumvent the law, leading to new types of abuse. In the absence of detailed legislative regulation, review of practice and clarifications of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, courts have to form judicial practice based on the circumstances of specific cases, which leads to contradictions in judicial practice. The stated problem is considered from the standpoint of its corporate component, while the author departs from the traditional circle of subjects of corporate law and examines abuses that can be committed by both participants and management, creditors and even an arbitrazh receiver. The paper lists the main types of abuse of rights, the definition of abuse of rights is proposed. The study is based on a comprehensive analysis of judicial practice related to the consideration of cases by commercial courts on applications for the appointment of a procedure.

The paper studies the legal nature of defects in medical care and defines criteria for their legal classification. A retrospective analysis of the development of the institution of legal responsibility for improper medical treatment is carried out. The concept of a defect in medical care and related categories, their natural ontological characteristics and classifying legal features are investigated, doctrinal approaches to the legal assessment of defects in medical care are considered. It is noted that, despite the noticeable evolution that the question of the responsibility of doctors has undergone in the history of law, there is still no single approach to understanding the legal nature of defects in medical care in jurisprudence. In modern Russian legislation, as in the criminal laws of most foreign countries, there are no special standards for such defects classification. At the same time, in the interests of optimal legal regulation of relations in the field of medicine, today it is the legal definition and systematization of basic concepts and criteria for the legal classification of various medical incidents that matters and not the introduction into the law of special articles establishing criminal liability for improper provision of medical care. Thus, by combining all adverse events in medical practice under the general term "medical incidents", one can use the concept of "medical care defect" to distinguish incidents caused by inappropriate provision of medical services. The author proposes his own classification of defects in medical care dividing them into medical torts (offenses) and medical incidents (accidents and medical errors) based on the nature of the attitude of the subject of medical activity to their professional duties. A conceptual approach to the legal classification of medical care defects has been formulated.

Traditionally, the grounds for recusation are objective circumstances established in the course of criminal proceedings, which exclude the participation of certain subjects in the trial, regardless of the discretion and expression of the will of the parties. The paper substantiates that "other circumstances giving grounds to believe that they are personally, directly or indirectly, interested in the outcome of this criminal case" provided for by Part 2 of Art. 61 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation as a basis for challenging a judge and other persons do not imply the mandatory establishment of interest, it is enough that there are circumstances giving grounds to believe its existence. It is in this interpretation of the law that the general idea underlying the institution of recusation is realized, i.e. ensuring confidence in the composition of the court. Ignoring mistrust in the composition of the court as a basis for recusation leads to violations of the law when resolving recusations in the event of an interpersonal conflict in court, when establishing a corporate relationship between a party and the composition of the court, when recalling a defense attorney, etc.

The paper examines the notaries as an institution that ensures the legal security of a transaction in the course of its daily work. The author identifies the issues that prevent notaries from preventing fraudulent actions of parties to civil transactions when performing a notarial act. The State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation is considering a draft Federal Law No. 925889-7 "On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation", specifically about a registrar of persons found incapable by court, the register of notifications of cancellation of powers of attorney made in electronic form. Thus, the author analyzes the issue of creating a register of persons recognized as having no legal capacity or partially incapable. The paper considers the positive experience of the Federal Notary Chamber in maintaining public registers. The author concludes that strengthening of the preventive function of the notaries in the legal system of society depends on the powers granted to this institution.

The paper analyzes the general approaches and terminology of the draft Concept of regulation of the professional legal assistance market, prepared by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The text of the document published in October 2017 is analyzed in the context of the problem of the quality of professional legal assistance (services). The author analyzes the main approaches to solving the problem of the quality of legal assistance, which were consolidated in the document. The author analyses the use of the terms “effectiveness”, “activity”, “inactivity”, “professionalism”, “reasonableness”, “adherence to principles”, “timeliness”, “competence”, “qualification”, “efficiency”, “availability”, “fairness”, “quality” in the draft Concept of regulation of the market of professional legal assistance. In order to organize terminology work properly, it is necessary to identify and analyze legislative and corporate (advocacy) requirements for the procedure and results of legal assistance, which make it possible to establish features (criteria) of the quality of legal assistance and fix them in the form of appropriate terms and definitions in a special terminology system. The “quality problem” in the professional legal assistance market must be addressed through the prism of quality management approaches by creating organizational and legal systems (mechanisms, procedures) that ensure the implementation of the main functions of legal assistance quality management, which, in turn, can be ensured by the formation of a national system of professional legal assistance. The purpose of creating such a system should be to ensure the proper quality of qualified legal assistance provided in the market of professional legal assistance (services).

In the past few years, the situation related to the exploration and use of space has changed dramatically. It has been proven that the extraction of space resources can be profitable; there is progress in the development of space technology; space has become an object of interest from private investors; there is a gap between the state of the space industry in the United States and in other countries. These changes resulted in a US-initiated reform aimed at legalizing the appropriation of extracted space resources, as well as, in the long term, at legalizing the appropriation of sites of celestial bodies and resources in situ by both individuals and states. Its instruments are proposals for the reinterpretation of key agreements, new US and Luxembourg law and the Artemis Accords signed on October 13, 2020 by eight states. The first part of the reform is almost complete: even now, we can talk about the emergence of an international custom that legalizes the appropriation of extracted resources. Some states and part of the doctrine, however, advocate the preservation of the regime of the common property and its strengthening through the creation of an international body authorized to issue permits for the extraction of resources and / or the lease of sites of celestial bodies. The reform of space law is important not only in itself, but also as a litmus of the development of general international law: it indicates that international law continues to develop; this process is carried out through the efforts of a narrow alliance of states outside the traditional convention mechanism. The diplomatic potential of Russia is very high: it could not only support a certain option for the development of space law, but also formulate its main parameters.

The paper questions the extraterritorial nature of foreign private law applied by the national law enforcement body in the regulation of cross-border private law relations. In view of the use of common terms “exterritorial” and “extraterritorial” in the framework of international public and private law regulation, it seems necessary to study the extraterritorial effect of foreign private law provisions through the prism of the substantive characteristics of extraterritoriality, formulated in the context of public international law. To this end, the author refers to the definition of extraterritorial jurisdiction as an international legal category and raises the question of how appropriate it is to admit, within the framework of a single definition, “extraterritorial” both the presence and absence of the manifestation of the sovereign will of the state on the territory of which any of the types of jurisdiction of a foreign state is exercised. Taking into account that the manifestation of the extraterritorial jurisdiction of one state in relation to another is realized in the absence of the latter’s sanction for its implementation, the author debates the admissibility of designation as extraterritorial foreign private law, the admissibility and limits of application of which are sanctioned by the national state.

Over the past decades, there has been a significant increase in the number of armed groups involved in armed conflicts around the world, as well as in their impact on the rights and freedoms of the population under their control. Facing various situations of systematic violations of human rights by non-state actors, experts in the field of international human rights law began to consider the theoretical justification for the mandatory nature of the provisions on the observance and protection of human rights for armed groups. In this regard, a number of scholars have turned to the theory of customary international law, the acceptability of which is being investigated by the author of this paper. The author examines the provisions underlying this theory and the persuasiveness of the argumentation used by its supporters. Based on an analysis of the nature of customary international law, its structural elements, their interpretation by the UN International Court of Justice in its decisions and the relationship of customary international law with peremptory norms of jus cogens, the author concludes that the theory under consideration is currently unable to explain the existence of obligations of armed groups in the field of human rights.

Given the provisions of the theory of law, the author provides her own classification and systematization of typical violations in the field of use and protection of specially protected natural areas. A classification of violations by the form of behavior, form of guilt, behavior of subjects in the legal sphere, type of responsibility, subjects, consequences, subject of legal regulation is proposed. For the rational use of the potential of the prosecutor’s office, it possible to systematize typical violations according to the principle of exclusivity of the judicial procedure for protecting public interest as the only possible response. Typical violations require special attention of the prosecutor’s office, predetermine the ways to protect the violated or contested public interest, including in court, and the measures of the prosecutor’s response should correlate with them. The proposed classification and systematization of typical violations according to the criterion of the subject of legal regulation and according to the principle of the exclusivity of the judicial order of protection will serve as the basis for improving the organization of activities (supervisory and non-supervising) of the prosecutor to protect public interests in the use and protection of specially protected natural areas, and the development of methods for this activity.