卷 12, 编号 2 (2025)

The paper describes the concept of sociological and legal transformation of the Bulgarian and Romanian judicial system after 1989. The theoretical framework of the study is a combination of concepts, including multiple modernities, historical sociology, and the sociology of law. Both countries are analytically combined into one typologic case. In particular, these countries are characterized by the Orthodox-Byzantine tradition, the legacy of Ottoman rule, and the method of creating national law by implementing the provisions of foreign law. Despite the distinctive features, the development of these countries during the socialism age had some common patterns. However, the rejection of the communist project did not lead to a complete separation from its legacy. Since the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union in 2007, the situation has altered. The paper describes the evolution of approaches to studying the Europeanization of the South-Eastern Europe. It shows that only the positive consequences of this process have been highlighted for a long time, whereas limitations of the EU’s influence on legal reforms in new member states were reported only in rare cases. The study shows that, since the mid-2010s, the researchers have focused on unhealthy influence of EU mechanisms and procedures on the transformation of legal institutions in Bulgaria and Romania, where the rule of law was insufficient at the time of their accession. The analysis identified that rapid reforms led to formal compliance rather than genuine adherence to the rule of law. Although the European Commission’s monitoring of Bulgaria and Romania under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism was officially terminated in 2023, legal frameworks of both countries still have many defects. External legal reforms tend to consolidate the existing social order and governance principles based on the marginalization and instrumentalization of law. It is emphasized that the development of the rule of law system in these societies requires a fundamental change in the system of social relations. The paper concludes that the situation in Bulgaria and Romania shows some general trends in post-communist states associated with congenital errors in the reforms and the choice of their implementation methods.

In recent years, the concept of a multipolar world, which provides for creation of a system of international relations, where several states or coalitions exert comparable influence on global processes, has become a relevant political and legal doctrine. In contemporary scientific thought, the multipolarity is considered as both a geopolitical phenomenon and a factor requiring reimagining of legal values. In the context of shaping a new world order, it is important to study how a system of values underlying the law (justice, the human right to freedom and safety, sovereignty, etc.) relates to the cases of international and national law, what role they play in the life of society from the standpoint of legal axiology. The Russian legal system is actively becoming an integral part of the global multipolar legal space. This makes the relationship between the provisions of the Russian laws and generally accepted principles of international law and the values put forward in the world order relevant. This paper examines the main trends in the transition to multipolarity, key value guidelines of law, and their combination in modern global transformations. We substantiate the need to reimagine legal values in the context of the transition from a unipolar to a multipolar system. Using the Hegelian triad of the universal, particular, and individual to describe the contemporary legal reality, the author proves that legal systems in a multipolar world are harmonized through dialectical interaction of these categories, where compliance of individual international legal acts with general principles is a key condition for stability. This approach allows to understand in theory the integration of the Russian legal system into a multipolar legal space.

This paper studies the concept and attributes of technology as a category in its various forms. The concept of technology is used in the social and human sciences, legal theory and practice, showing that it is no longer associated only with technical sciences and production environment; researchers have proven its significance for social and human sciences by tracing psychological, social, legal, and other technologies because, regardless of the application and the type of an individual technology, its essence is always manifested in some kind of transformation of reality and creating something qualitatively new and innovative. The higher pace of upgrading and updating law to effectively regulate an ever changing and transforming social environment has determined the interest of legal scholars in the possible introduction of the technology concept into legal operations as they always require efficiency, reasonableness, and reduction of relative costs. Scholars who have studied the benefits of introducing the concept of technology into legal sciences have clearly noted its potential to become a necessary factor of improved performance and efficiency of legal regulation; thereby revealing the social and value-based nature of this concept.

The paper investigates the legal issues of the relationship and mutual influence of value added tax imposed on the buyer and the contract price. The author substantiates the position that the legal science, the understanding of the nature of value added tax as a legal withdrawal of a part of the added value to the budget, Clause 1, Article 168 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, and Article 424 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation indicate that it is impossible to directly (without the agreement of the wills of the parties to the contract and contrary to the will of the buyer) increase in the contract price by the amount of value added tax and its collection from the buyer in case of amendments to the laws on taxes and fees made during the term of this contract, which entail the imposition of value added tax on a previously (as of the date of the contract) non-taxable transaction. It is not intended to directly (without the agreement of the wills of both parties to the contract) amend the contract price and place the burden of paying value added tax on the buyer, where a transaction that was initially not subject to value added tax has become subject to taxation for external or internal reasons. At the same time, the contract price remains the same even in the opposite case, if the transaction initially subject to value added tax is exempted from it.

The paper analyzes the theory and methods of the legal regulation of platform relations in the Russian law, which is determined by the characteristics, role, functions, and tasks of the branch of law, allowing the combined use of incentives and restrictions, direct and indirect enforcement methods. The contemporary economy has actually become a platform economy; digital platforms have become a public institution, they simplify and improve public and private legal relations. To analyze platform relations and develop their legal regulation techniques, we propose to use a cybernetic approach that studies legal management in complex dynamic systems to optimize and improve the management processes in solving specific legal problems. The paper is aimed to study existing doctrinal approaches to the definition, structure, and classification of legal frameworks with subsequent modeling of a legal framework for platform relations based on the cybernetic approach. The paper is structured based on its aim and includes sections on classification approaches to legal regulation; characteristics, essence, and purpose of legal frameworks; classification and structure of legal frameworks; concept and classification of platform relations; concept and characteristics of the legal regulation of platform relations; functions of the legal framework for platform relations. Based on the definitions of the legal regulation, digital platform, platform relations, and legal framework of platform relations developed by the authors, they propose a classification of platform relations based on their openness, type of mediation, features, functions, and characteristics of the proposed legal regulation of platform relations. In conclusion, the authors identified two modeling approaches to legal regulation of platform relations, including the approach providing for the general and special legal regulation and recommended for further research.

Researchers and corporate managers are interested in the development of corporate culture to arrange Human Relations (HR) management processes in a rapidly changing economy as potential employees choose an employer paying attention both to the level of pay and career development opportunities, corporate culture, and even the values of enterprises, institutions, and companies. The paper summarizes and analyzes various approaches to defining and developing corporate culture by focusing on the fact that the legal approach is rarely considered by scientists when studying the core values of a company’s culture. Therefore, the authors propose to consider the diversity and complexity of the company and, first of all, its culture based on compliance with applicable labor law by the subjects of labor relations (employees and employers). Otherwise, outside the legal framework, the system (as an organization) will create a burden on law enforcement agencies and affect the legal awareness of individuals integrated in such system and society as a whole due to the obvious risks created by persons who break the statutory rules. It is also proposed to use a legal approach as more rational and combining both the labor law and legal provisions on HR management (HR marketing) and the basics of legal and social psychology.

The paper describes the possible application of a system approach to the study of criminal law on liability for commercial fraud. The author analyzes the concept of the system of criminal law provisions on commercial fraud, identifies the features of this system, and provides a classification of its elements. The author proposes to consider a combined criterion integrating the subject of a crime (a business entity) and the connection of a criminal act with business or other economic activity as a framework criterion. The system approach allows to both identify the features and properties of criminal law on liability for commercial fraud and detect inaccuracies and gaps in the legal regulation of criminal liability. The author notes that the criteria used to classify fraud as related to business or other economic activities as introduced in Article 5 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, remain judgmental, i.e. they presuppose their arbitrary (including excessively narrow) interpretation, and proposes to develop a single provision on liability for commercial fraud with a blanket disposition containing references to specific criminal law provisions that are elements of the system of criminal law on liability for commercial fraud.