No 10 (2024)

The publication is dedicated to the anniversary of the outstanding legal scholar Veniamin Evgenievich Chirkin. Information is provided concerning V. E. Chirkin’s participation in the Great Patriotic War, as well as his contribution to the development of many scientific classifications, the formation of the concept of transitional states, the analysis of the legal systems of various states, and the study of the functioning of existing social institutions. It is noted that he paid special attention to the issues of comparative statecraft, as well as developed new concepts in law, in particular legal entities of public law.

The article is dedicated to the life, work and scientific heritage of the famous Soviet scientist, lawyer and diplomat, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Law, Professor Sergey Alexandrovich Golunsky (1895–1962).

The main stages of the scientist’s professional path are considered: from studying at a gymnasium and Moscow university to the heights of government and scientific careers. The most significant publications of the author are analyzed. Some positions expressed by S. A. Golunsky are assessed from the point of view of relevance for the development of modern criminal procedural doctrine, modern legislation and law enforcement practice.

When preparing the article, materials from S. A. Golunsky's personal file were used and other documents from the archives of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The article analyzes the actual problem of modern jurisprudence – the goal-setting of law. Goal-setting as a doctrinally grounded, systematic and practice-oriented process precedes the formulation of goals in law, participates in the procedures for their legitimization in the normative legal space and accompanies the implementation of set goals throughout legal activity, in a particular area of legal regulation of public relations. Goal-setting in law is involved in norm-setting, legal realization, including law enforcement, and acquires special importance in conditions of uncertainty, instability of law and order, a high degree of conflict and risks of international legal relations, as well as threats to national, public and personal security. The actualization of the problems of goal-setting, being relatively in demand in scientific research of theoretical and sectoral jurisprudence, is primarily due to the need to argue tactics and strategies for building modern legal policy (law policy), without specifying the target reasons for improving which, the authority and effectiveness of rulemaking and legal implementation seem insufficiently effective. The functional expediency of formulating, formalizing and following the set goals has not only praxiological, but also axiological significance from the standpoint, first of all, of observing and protecting individual (personal) and collective human and civil rights and freedoms. Goal-setting in substantive and procedural law is translated to one degree or another through the presentation of norms-goals. norms are principles, norms are tasks, but they do not have a fully rationally justified systematization, which should initiate the scientific interest. Satisfaction of the interests and needs of the individual, society and the state balanced by law as a target setting (super task) of law, in conditions of a clear and rational definition of the goals of legislation, becomes important taking into account the peculiarities of modern legal reality, as well as for the future.

The article examines S. Moscovici’s teaching about the masses in the context of psychoanalysis. Moscovici made an attempt to create a “science of the masses”, which quite adequately reflected the practice of the political regimes of the 20^th century. From his point of view, liberal democracy only formally appears to be a rational, reasoned doctrine, where the category of “people” occupies a central place. In fact, state and political institutions are based on the emotional life of the masses, their unconscious. The state and state bodies, political parties, religious associations, trade unions and other social groups basically carry out their activities according to the laws of the crowd. An individual, being a member of the mass, loses the ability to think rationally, obeying the emotions of the crowd.

The issue of sovereignty in Russia has long been of no practical or theoretical interest. Russian scientists began to study it only in the second half of the 19^th century, and the most productive years were the 10–20^th years of the last century. The research conducted at that time cannot in any way be considered a blind copy of the achievements of Western science. Pre-revolutionary scientists presented their original approaches, solutions, and conclusions here, which were based on the richest historical experience and the specifics of Russia’s state and legal development. It is significant that nearly all the most famous Russian legal scholars of that time spoke out. This article analyzes their positions on such important practical and theoretical issues as the concept of sovereignty, the history of its creation; national sovereignty; sovereignty of state bodies, and above all monarchical sovereignty; sovereignty of state power; non-sovereign state; divisible, limited sovereignty, etc. Special attention was paid to the relationship between sovereignty and the constitution, sovereignty and the Russian Basic State Laws of 1906. The positions of pre-revolutionary Russian scientists became the basis for highlighting the following main indicators (criteria). Firstly, the very fact of the existence of a constitution, an act having supremacy, the highest legal force, is the most important indicator of the reality and effectiveness of sovereignty. Secondly, the content of the provisions of the basic law concerning sovereignty is important, which establish its specific form and its main indicators. This applies to the economic, social, political systems, the state structure, the system of state bodies, the status of a person, a citizen, and above all his rights, freedoms, and primarily in the political sphere. Thirdly, the consolidation of real forms of protection and protection of sovereignty in the constitution. Fourthly, taking into account the special role of the constitution in relation to sovereignty, the definition of an effective system of its legal protection.

The article examines in a fundamental format the problems of the mechanism of justice on the principles of justice and its development. The shortcomings of the basic level of the domestic justice mechanism are shown. The problems of the scientific methodology of fundamental approaches to eliminating these shortcomings and improving the mechanism of justice, including in the long term, are highlighted. In particular, it is proposed to reform non-federal justice (to expand the vector of development of world justice from centralization to decentralization with its separation from the federal justice mechanism; to create judicial structures below the level of world justice in the sparsely populated territories of the north-east of the country; to restore on a fundamentally different basis the constitutional (statutory) courts of the subjects of the Russian Federation); to create some qualitatively new judicial bodies of their own jurisdiction; to create a state constitutional body (under the conditional name “Council of the Judiciary of the Russian Federation”), personifying the judicial branch of the state the authorities.

This article conducts an interdisciplinary study in the field of the intersection of interests of memory policy and Memorial Law, which includes a legal analysis of concepts similar in meaning, an assessment of the relevance and necessity of legalizing terms related to memory policy and Memorial Law, and a study of the regulatory limits of national memorial legislation. The purpose of the study is the conceptualization of Memorial Law and the limits of its legal regulation. The analysis of approaches to the concepts of “Memorial Law” and “Memorial Law” and their relationship is carried out; the positions of opponents and supporters of memorial legislation are considered; the definition of memorial law as an interdisciplinary institute of national legislation and international law is given.

The article examines some problems of the implementation of the principle of justice in civil law on the example of the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on the recovery of compensation for trademark infringement (punitive damages), taking into account various approaches of civil law doctrine, the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, areas of law enforcement practice. prevent its destructive impact on the subject of law and preserve the value of law. There are such problems in this area as: the lack of a uniform approach to the essence of punitive damages, entailing ambiguity of law enforcement acts; the imperative definition in the law of the formula for calculating the amount of compensation when claiming twice the value of the right to use a trademark; legislative consolidation of the minimum amount of compensation for its recovery in the amount of 10 thousand to 5 million rubles; the subjective side is not taken into account – there is no possibility in the legislation not to apply punitive damages to the violator if it is proved that the violator did not know about the illegal nature of his actions; there is no differentiation in the amount of compensation depending on whether the offender is a legal entity or an individual entrepreneur and others. It is concluded that there is a significant shift in the balance of interests in Russian civil legislation towards copyright holders, which does not correspond to the principle of fairness. The article substantiates the expediency of amending the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in terms of fixing in the norms on the protection of trademark rights the possibility of not applying punitive damages to the violator if it is proved that the violator did not know about the illegal nature of his actions.

Issues of legal regulation in order to ensure environmental safety, rational use of natural resources, and their protection are relevant for the Russian Federation and the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). FEC organizations carry out economic activities that have a direct impact on the environment. Legal regulation in the field of environmental management, the establishment of appropriate standards, environmental requirements for business activities, and the establishment of financial regulators contribute to the preservation of the environment. Issues of legal regulation in connection with the Paris Climate Agreement are of particular relevance in modern socio-economic conditions. The CIS states and the EAEU have historically established economic ties in the fuel and energy sector, and common energy markets are currently being formed. In this regard, there is a need to adopt new legislative decisions in the field of rational use of natural resources, ensuring safety and maintaining the environment in proper condition. In particular, joint solutions are needed on climate issues and economic decarbonization. In this study, the goal was to substantiate proposals for the development of certain areas of legal regulation in the area of public relations under consideration. In this regard, an analysis of national legislation was carried out, as well as interstate agreements, decisions, review documents, model laws of the CIS, international agreements and conventions were collected and analyzed. Based on the analysis, a proposal was formulated on the possibility (subject to the interest of all participants) of developing and adopting an inter-integration agreement (between the CIS and EAEU associations) in the field of activity of fuel and energy complex organizations in order to solve environmental problems, as well as climate ones. Such an agreement would allow the EAEU member states to use the existing legal potential of the CIS countries, in particular, model legislation, and would also help resolve issues of financing joint projects in the field of scientific and technical cooperation. The possibility of developing at the level of national legislation criteria for compliance with the requirements of environmental legislation and introducing compliance programs at the level of fuel and energy complex organizations (programs for compliance with the requirements of legislation on the rational use of natural resources and ensuring environmental safety) is also justified.

The article examines some current trends in the development of the general theory of criminalistics in line with the integration and differentiation of scientific knowledge, considering trends in global digitalization and integration of modern technologies in the field of crime investigation. An analysis of current definitions of the subject of criminology given by leading forensic scientists from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and other countries has been carried out, which shows that most of them, one way or another, are consistent with the definition of the subject of science by R. S. Belkin. A comparative analysis of digital criminalistic (V. B. Vekhov and S. V. Zuev), by which the authors understand a particular theory of criminalistics, includes a general part very similar to the general provisions of the theory of information and computer support for criminalistic activities developed by us and a special part that relates first to the development of information and computer support for criminalistic equipment and technology. The ways of developing the theory of criminalistic trace science are outlined, in which, considering new forensic technologies, the relationships between the scene of the incident, the victim, the method of crime and the criminal should be connected through various mechanisms of trace formation. The methods of computer crimes and the concept of constructing information and computer criminalistic models of computer crimes based on the theory of information and computer support for criminalistic activities are considered. The basis was chosen to be correlations between combinations of IT-technologies used to carry out computer crimes, the trace pattern in the form of digital footprints and the level of competence in IT-technologies of the criminal and the victim.

. The article is devoted to the study of historiographic and dogmatic aspects of the theory of administrative legal relations. Based on the provisions of the domestic theory of law examines the problems of the formation and development of the theory of administrative legal relations, shows its current state, reveals the patterns of influence of the historiographic model of political and legal knowledge about administrative legal relations on the conceptualization of forms and means of the modern system of administrative and legal regulation. For the first time, it comprehensively analyzes legal schools and the contribution of their founders and followers to the science of Administrative Law, shows the similarities and differences in approaches to the creation of the doctrine of administrative legal relations. It is justified to highlight three leading scientific schools: the academic scientific school of Administrative Law, whose representatives, based on their scientific heritage, made a huge contribution to the theory of administrative legal relations; Moscow and Leningrad scientific schools of Administrative Law. The conducted research allowed to identify and define historiographic and dogmatic patterns of influence of the developed models (schools) on formation of political and legal knowledge about the relationship between the state and society and to give the author’s concept of the object of administrative and legal relations, taking into account the realities of modern state policy. The new knowledge obtained in this work is an important source for further research in this area. They enrich the ideas about the forms and means of legal regulation of relations in the public law sphere, can be used for preparation of textbooks and teaching aids, as well as for lecturing in educational institutions of the legal profile and at law faculties of universities.

The article analyzes the novelties of legislation aimed at regulating transactions involving spouses, identifies the advantages and disadvantages of the regime of their common joint property, identifies the main difficulties that arise in practice in connection with the application of the relevant rules. The author comes to the conclusion that the norms of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, which determine the content of the legal regime of property of spouses, need modern “adaptation” taking into account the changing relations of civil circulation. It has been proved that the essential influence of the legal status of participants in transactions is manifested not only in their content, but also in their execution, which implies compliance with special requirements aimed at ensuring the protection of their property rights as a result of transactions they conclude regarding their common property.

The article provides a justification for the need to improve the mechanisms for regulating property relations of spouses in order to minimize the risks of recognizing transactions involving spouses as invalid in practice, including by minimizing their diversified regulation, which will contribute to the harmonization of legislation in this area.

Today, the policy of historical memory is no longer the exclusive prerogative of national states and is being actively developed both at the transnational level and by civil society institutions, regional and local communities. In the European Union, the common memory policy is an integral part of the integration process and provides its legitimization. At the same time, it is important that in an effort to strengthen the European identity historical facts are not distorted and the common past of the EU member states is given an honest assessment. The article examines the problems of reflecting Europe’s colonial past in the EU and the strategies used to deal with it. The EU’s experience of working through this complex period of European history and accepting its negative assessment is undoubtedly useful for other communities.

The article shows the stages of codification of All-Union legislation. In the 1920s the legislation of the RSFSR was codified. After the formation of the USSR the all-Union legislation developed. At the end of the 1920s, the first ideas about the advisability of the transition to all-Union codification appeared. After the adoption of the Constitution of the USSR in 1936, drafts of the Criminal Code of the USSR, the Civil Code of the USSR, the Code of Criminal Procedure of the USSR, the Civil Procedure Code of the USSR are being developed. The process of preparation of projects and the result obtained are analyzed. The political and legal reasons for the refusal of the all-Union codification are revealed.

The article analyzes the positions of scientists concerning the definition of the concept of “legal relation”, its features. Attention is paid to the subjects of legal relations, their legal capacity and legal capability, including delictability. The influence of new trends, such as the development of information technologies, the inclusion of the principles of solidarity and social responsibility in the constitutional texts of the Russian and Belarusian constitutions and their impact on the development of legal relations is analyzed. The author’s definition of social responsibility is given.

The publication describes the main areas of work, as well as the content of the main ideas based on the speeches of key participants of the Round Tables held on September 11–12, 2024 by the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences within the framework of the scientific project “Creation of a Russian historiographical model of political and legal knowledge and its application for the development of promising means of countering ideological distortions of the civilizational development of Russia”, carried out with the financial support from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (agreement dated 12 July, 2024, No. 075-15-2024-639) and devoted to the problems of philosophical understanding of historiographical and perspective tasks of fundamental and branch legal sciences.

In the review of the textbook “Theory of state and law” edited by V. N. Zhukov and E. A. Frolova, prepared by the Department of Theory of State and Law and Political Science of the Faculty of Law at Lomonosov Moscow State University, it is noted that the theory of state and law is one of the most stable legal disciplines, where conservative trends are very strong. The Soviet theory of state and law has become an interesting original continuation of the pre-revolutionary general theory of law. In the post-Soviet period, our theoretical and legal science has been noticeably changing in political and ideological terms. The complex nature of theoretical and legal science remains unchanged, it still includes historical, sociological, philosophical and dogmatic components. It is the dogmatic component that brings stability and relative stability to the modern General theory of law. An indicative feature of modern legal theory is the search for a new methodology. Russian textbooks on the general theory of state and law fully reflect the specifics of this science, namely its complex, general theoretical and political-ideological character.

The reviewed textbook is a classic in all respects. It is based on broad social science material from different historical eras and the legal science of the past and present. The experience of pre-revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet textbooks has been organically adapted. The proposed methodological and methodological approaches correspond to the best traditions of domestic and foreign theoretical and legal science. It is emphasized that the authors have tried to introduce innovations into the textbook, proven by time and proven in the scientific community.