Abstract: The history of the idea formation of bringing the services of private business to the sphere of penal activities in Great Britain (1980s); creation of the theoretical and legal framework for the private prison sector, the beginning of the experiment on the commercial management of first prisons, the development of new forms of commercial forms and mechanisms in the penal system of England and Wales. The scope of the subject also includes the statistical data relating to the penal system in England and Wales, official certificates and documents about the positive and negative results of using private businesses in the penal system, debates and opinions from well-known political figures, scientists and employees of Justice, thereby creating a fairly complete picture of the current state of this field of legal relations in England and Wales. The methodology of the study, along with the scientific methods (induction, deduction, etc.), includes the whole complex of methods and techniques that have traditionally been used in criminology and criminal law enforcement. In particular, this means a historical and comparative legal analysis, a formal-logical one, a statistical one and a dynamic one; concerning the sociological methods, the method of studying documents was used. The scientific novelty of this article is aimed, first of all, at the reflection of the problem of using the services of the private sector in the new modern conditions, including the analysis of the relevant 20-year experience of England and Wales. The novelty is contained in the identity, reflected by the author, of the originality of formation and development of this institution in relation to the prevailing conditions in Great Britain. The identified contradictions and results of this experiment are also new; they have been received from English scientific and official sources, and have been directly studied by the author in the process of writing the article. The author’s conclusions are directly related to the possibility and practicability of using private business in the penal system of the Russian Federation and to encourage theorists, legal scholars and practitioners to develop new projects for the development of the penal system of our country.

Keywords: Private prisons of Great Britain, Conservative Party, experiment, private prison management, competition, privatization and de-privatization, discussions, statistics, forecasts and borrowing experience.

Abstract: This article represents a theoretical overview of the concept of asymmetrical federalism in multinational states. Asymmetry is shown as a tool of federation conservation, although it is an unstable institution in that it affects all the participants of political actions to some extent. In this regard the subject of research is the process of confrontation between the center and the national minorities, obviously threatening the existing political system; the decision of the center on providing the asymmetric entities with autonomy can lead to mutually beneficial cooperation. The author uses the argument as a game-theoretic framework, linking the strategic goals of the federal and regional elites with the issues of nationwide stability. Particularly in view of the importance of the creation and consolidation of asymmetric institutions, the institutional approach is also used in this article. The scientific novelty of this study is that asymmetric federalism can be represented as a “nested (nesting) game”, where the events, occurring within the ethno-national segment, determine the situation across the whole federation. It is assumed that the rules of asymmetrical federalism are primarily not stable, in view of the fact that they affect all the participants of the political process in the State. This approach illustrates the analysis of the development of Russian federalism. The author of the article illustrates the theoretical ideas on the example of analysis of the Russian federal institutions established in the 1990s during the negotiations between the center and regional separatist minority elites.

Keywords: asymmetric federalism, institutions, federation stability, multinational state, Russian federalism, “nested (nesting) game”, ethno-nationalism, regions, separatism and national minorities.

Abstract: The work is dedicated to the identification of obstacles that are hampering the modernization of Russia. The crises of various state institutions, as well as those of civil society and the object systems of life-support and life-sustenance, are analyzed. The requirements of modern socio-cultural policy, as the most appropriate theoretical basis for the institutionalization of modernization processes in Russia and in the former Soviet Union, have been considered. However, as reality shows, the need for institutional rational-construction forms of management, the identification of negative factors of society’s development, the search for the methods of overcoming different forms of conservative traditionalism and the creation of a socio-cultural model of the State, have not been realized either by politicians or by the individuals in post-Soviet societies. Social changes and transformation, scientific and technological progress, urbanization, competitiveness of the states, the style of their participation in the world’s economic and political processes, as well as in the international organizations – the quality of this set of signs has become the criterion of the tradition of modern societies and states. However, in terms of the socio-cultural approach that we adhere to, modernization cannot be considered in the context of solely economic benefits, advantages and the dominance of one state over others. The current processes in Russia and in the former Soviet Union should be evaluated on the basis of objective evidence, characterizing the situation of ordinary members of society (the anthropological basis of the socio-cultural methodology gives a distinct socio-cultural orientation to it). Thus, modernization can be defined as socio-cultural transformation in society in the conditions of its transition to a higher form of development on the basis of identifying the motivational forces aimed at creating a modern State.

Keywords: modernization, civil society institutions, modernization theories, socio-cultural policy, institutionalization, civil society, social interests, development indices and social State.

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to develop a theoretical ground for a clear, coherent understanding of the nature of public policy sources, as an extraordinary political and legal phenomenon. The subjects of the research are major scientific approaches to understanding the nature of public policy sources and the common factors of the functioning of their system, defining the place and role of legal acts in modern work. For this purpose, a thorough analysis of modern legislation, materials of political practice and the scientific publications dedicated to the issues of policy and law has been performed. A complex of general scientific and special methods of scientific knowledge, optimal from the view of research objectives, was used while writing the article, including formal-logical, logical-legal, logical-semantic, comparative-legal methods and others. On the basis of the critical realization of socio-legal reality and existing scientific concepts, the author’s vision of public policy sources has been formed as the systems of legal and political acts, reflecting the contents of the state policy. A range of public policy sources has been delineated, their main types and varieties have been established and the place of legal acts in their system has been defined.

Keywords: state, politics, law, legal act, source, power, authority, administration, public management, concept and establishment.

Abstract: The article is dedicated to the ratios of decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation with the decisions of the EuroAsian Economic Community Court and to the analysis of the existing mechanism of the distribution of powers of state and supranational judicial control bodies on the issues of customs and ancillary rights. The analyzed theoretical model of the distribution of powers is compared with the actual working mechanism of distribution on the example of the already existing collisions. The competence of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and that of the EuroAsian Economic Community Court are being considered; the collision aspects in the competence and activities of both judicial bodies are being identified. The analysis of the existing legal norms and the comparison with the existing practice of the judicial control of the customs regulations constitutes the methodology of the study. The legal acts of the EuroAsian Economic Community Court are an integral part of the system of the sources of public law of the Customs Union. They are binding, final and in a number of cases (for example, the decisions of the EuroAsian Economic Community Court in a particular case) are directly applicable acts. This analysis leads to the conclusion that with respect to legal acts within the EuroAsian Economic Community, the Constitutional Court can make an inspection only of the international treaties that did not come into effect. The international treaties that came into effect and the decisions of the Commission of the Customs Union and the ones of the EuroAsian Economic Community can be disputed only by the EuroAsian Economic Community Court. At the same time the legal acts of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation relating to the interpretation of the rules of the Customs Code of the Russian Federation have not lost their legal force and shall be applied with respect to the existing regulation of the customs relations that can lead to collisions of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the EuroAsian Economic Community Court.

Keywords: Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Eurasian Economic Community, EurAsEC Court, international treaties, supranational authorities, judicial control, the Customs Union, decisions of the Constitutional Court, the Customs Code and Public Law.

Abstract: Various states use the services of private military and security companies during armed conflicts and occupations in order to perform tasks that were previously considered as a privilege of the military. However, as well as the military personnel, the employees of private military companies are able to commit unlawful acts in violation of international law. In this article, the author studied the legal regime of responsibility and commitment, the subject of which is the receiving State and the home State (place of incorporation). The author concludes that despite the fact that they do not enter directly into agreements with private military companies, and cannot be directly responsible for committing military crimes or other serious violations of international law, they shall have a duty to comply with due diligence obligations in respect with the norms of international humanitarian law, neutrality laws and international human rights law.

Keywords: State of incorporation, home State, neutrality, military crimes, human rights law, international humanitarian law, the responsibility of the state, private military companies, international legal responsibility and host State.

Abstract: Coercion in the international law has its own characteristics, primarily predetermined by the nature of interstate relations and by methods of their regulation. If there is not any centralized apparatus of coercion, it is executed in a decentralized way (individually) – by the states, through the mechanism of countermeasures, and in a centralized way (collectively) – by using the institutional mechanism of international organizations through international legal sanctions. The use of international sanctions belongs to the most complex and significant issues of modern international law. This is due to a number of serious problems occurring in the process of implementing the international sanctions regimes, the existence of which is the main reason for critical comments on their effectiveness. The present article examines the modification of sanction regimes imposed by resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations Organization within the implementation of the concept of targeted sanctions. The necessity of the further reforming of international sanctions is substantiated as coercive measures applied by means of a centralized institutional mechanism of international organizations. The main tendencies of the international legal regulation of using international sanctions aimed at improving their regulatory framework and practices are determined.

Keywords: international sanctions, the Security Council resolutions, international sanctions regime, targeted sanctions, effectiveness of the international sanctions, freezing of funds, target orientation of international sanctions, forms of executing sanctions, legitimacy of the international sanctions and embargo.

Abstract: The active part of the Supreme Court and a special position of the judiciary system in the structure of the distribution of powers played a special role in the formation of the Israeli right. Historically, a special place of the court in Jewish law and culture is due to the fact that in a certain sense, the judge in the community level was the only law enforcement official; moreover, he often performed functions in the role of a legislator. The article examines the formation stages of the Supreme Court of Israel and the acquisition of its independence. Also, we can see here the concerns that declare that with the new President of the Supreme Court, this body will become less independent.

Keywords: jurisprudence, judge, the Israeli right, activism, Barak, discretion, basic laws, executive branch and Knesset.

Abstract: Attention is focused on social partnership as a significant factor in the modernization of modern Russia. The author reinforces his position that wages in the context of social partnership and modernization are due to the determining ratio, which has a significant impact on the social and partnership relations between labour and capital, as well as on the processes of modernization conceived by the State. The reasons for the deterrence of the process of social partnership and modernization formation that lie in the unreasonably high rate of profit, obtained by domestic capital, are disclosed. Other factors that hold back the development of the institution of social partnership as a factor in the modernization are also discussed. The author expresses his conviction that conf lict methods of interaction between capital and labour will retain their significance until the price of labour becomes adequately commensurate with the productive power of labour in the country.

Keywords: political science, modernization, partnership, interaction, productivity, conf lict, labour, capital, society and profit.

Abstract: The necessity of the realization and protection of fundamental rights and freedom of citizens became actual in the twentieth anniversary of the Russian Constitution. The article examines the legal problems of ensuring access to environmental information, including the realization of the constitutional right of citizens to reliable information about the state of the environment. Access to such information is a condition for the realization of other constitutional rights of citizens – the right to a healthy environment, to damage compensation caused to their health or property by any environmental offense, as well as the right to health protection. The guarantee of access to the environmental information should constitute Russia’s accession to the Aarhus Convention. Due to this fact there are some suggestions to improve environmental law, taking into account foreign experience. A comparative analysis of the Russian ecological, sanitary-epidemiological, information and other legislation, as well as foreign legislation in the field of environmental information, providing access to environmental information in accordance with the provisions of the Aarhus Convention, has been made. The improvement of Russian legislation, aimed at the legal regulation of relations in the field of environmental information in a systematic manner, has been proposed. The necessity of development and adoption of the federal law on environmental information is proved, its structure is given, the composition of environmental information is determined, the proposals have been made to align the sub-legislative regulatory legal acts with this law, as well as to increase the effectiveness of administrative responsibility for offenses in the field of environmental information and to fill the existing gaps.

Keywords: environmental information, environmental legislation, the Aarhus Convention, constitutional rights, the environment, access, guarantees, protection, law and foreign legislation.

Abstract: The article examines the history of adopting the provisions of the “On Elections of People’s Courts of the RSFSR” in the years 1948 and 1951. The norms of the specified acts are analyzed, the main stages of the electoral process for the election of people’s judges are characterized, and the requirements for candidates are highlighted. It is noted that the qualification requirements set forth in the provisions were extended by the Minister of Justice of the USSR by issuing orders. The measures, taken by public authorities and party organizations in order to ensure the proper procedures for the election, are being considered. There is a conclusion that the adoption of acts on electing the people’s judges, playing a significant role in the formation of the status of judges, constituted an important step on the way to achieving effective judicial independence from the executive authorities. The low-skilled part of the judiciary became the reason for increasing the requirements for candidates, which resulted in making changes not only in the Republican legislation, but also in the Union legislation.

Keywords: Russian Federation, Constitution, people’s judge, councils, executive committee, elections, the Ministry of Justice, law, electoral process and qualification requirement.

Abstract: The research subject of this work is the analysis of the ways of acquiring the rights to domain names, as well as a comparative legal analysis of the international and Russian legislation of methods of acquiring the rights to domain names. Along with the theoretical basis, attention is also paid to the practice, which, as it turned out during the observation, is not always based on the rules of law. Local regulations and agreements, concluded by the parties in the pursuance of fulfilling mutual obligations on the transfer of the rights to domain names, have also been studied in detail. A universal method of cognition has been applied, in particular the principle of objectivity and the comprehensiveness of knowledge and scientific methods, such as observation and analysis, as well as private and scientific methods, including a logical-legal one and a comparative one. The scientific novelty of the work is explained due to the fact that the article identifies the problems that have occurred in recent times, and also offers options to resolve them. There is a need to change the legislation related to the absence of necessary standards in it, therefore it is recommended to pay attention to the procedure of domain name registration, to submit a list of documents required for concluding the rights transfer to the domain name, to make changes to the third part of the Civil Code, according to which the right to use a domain name would be included in the succession mass and passed by inheritance, and to enter the articles providing a limited list of ways to acquire the rights to the domain, which would exclude the possibility of such a transfer on the basis of a court decision.

Keywords: Internet, domain name, ICANN, RosNIIROS, Coordination Center, RU-CENTER, domain registrar, domain administrator, DNS– server and assignment agreement.

Abstract: The review focuses on three volumes of studies of citizenship in a global context. The first book – “International legal problems of citizenship of the CIS and the Baltic States in the light of the European experience” – gives an idea of the development of citizenship in two geographical dimensions: the post-Soviet CIS member states and the European Union. A second monograph by E.S. Smirnova – “European citizenship – multiple in a single “ – is intended to show all aspects of the development of European citizenship. The third volume of the monographs by E.S. Smirnova is “Problems in the legal status of foreigners in the context of globalization.” The scope of this book is truly global (from issues of the legal status of foreigners from the tenth century BC). The author defines globalization as a legal concept. The following consistent conclusion shall be made: globalization is a long, long history of numbering; the assimilation of the world population’s positive ideas of justice, goodness, common good in the field of economics, politics and other spheres of social relations in the future received regulatory consolidation both in the national legislation of states and in international law.

Keywords: Russian Constitution, citizenship, partnership agreement, the Council of Europe, European Union, integration and law, foreigners.

Abstract: The report of eight philosophical and legal readings to the memory of the academician that took place on the 2nd of October, 2013, in the Institute of State and Law of RAS (Russian Academy of Sciences). The readings became the first event in Russian jurisprudence dedicated to the direction “Law and Literature”, widely discussed in 1970 in the world of science. The main idea of the organizers came down to creating the conditions for joint consideration by jurists of exemplary embodiments of the topic “Law and Literature”, with reference to the research of the best practices of foreign science, as well as to the possible use of these best practices for the benefit of the public and professional legal education. The participants presented their views on the problem of complementarity and mutual assistance in law, and artistic-imaginative comprehension of the world of law communication and legal conflicts, as well as understanding the role and importance of literature in the upbringing of younger generations, attaching both general educational, national and cultural experience, as well as nationwide, world and civilization experience to the analysis.

Keywords: jurisprudence, legal theory, legal history, law philosophy, law anthropology, law and literature, society, jail, justice and inter-disciplinary studies.