Abstract: The article analyzes the provisions of Russian electoral legislation regulating candidates and lists of candidates registration on the ground of voters’ signatures. The author notes that in the result of the recent unsystematic editing of electoral legislation, this legislation has lost its internal logic. The author studies the practice of registration of candidates and lists of candidates on regional and municipal elections of the past several years and notes that, according to the legal position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the candidates and lists of candidates registration system is aimed at allowing the candidates with a sufficient electorate support to participate in the election. The author compares the provisions of electoral legislation about the number of voters’ signatures, necessary for registration, and about the practice of exemption of some political parties from gathering signatures. The comparison demonstrates the lack of logic in the provisions regulating the rules of candidates and lists of candidates registration. The analysis of the practice of candidates registration in regional and municipal elections demonstrates that the system of registration on the ground of voters’ signatures doesn’t discharge its constitutional function: it leads to the denial of access of popular candidates to election, but allows the candidates, subsequently gaining poor results, to participate. The author offers the measures of restoration of the normal electoral competition in Russia. 

Keywords: gathering signatures of voters, registration of candidates, lists of candidates, electoral associations, political parties, political competition, electoral legislation, elections, invalid signatures, election commissions

Abstract: The research subject is the set of legal norms (criminal procedural norms and the Federal Law “On the public prosecution office of the Russian Federation”) regulating the activities of the prosecutor in criminal prosecution and supervision over the procedural activities of pre-trial investigation agencies (agencies of inquiry and preliminary investigation) on the stage of a criminal case opening, and the practice of their use. The author also analyzes theoretical insights of scholars, studying the prosecutor’s supervision theory, concepts and ideas about the issues in question. The author applies general scientific and special research methods. The author analyzes the ideas of theorists and practitioners about the problem in question, using the officially published data about the crime rates and supervisory activity of prosecutors. The prosecutor’s authorities are considered in their historical development as a whole system of interrelated rights and responsibilities, ensuring the protection of public interests in criminal proceedings and guaranteeing citizens’ rights. The article proves that the prosecutor’s authorities to supervise over the procedural activities of agencies of pre-trial investigation on the stage of a criminal case opening are not effective, because the prosecutor, using these authorities, doesn’t have a real capacity to eliminate the revealed violations of the law. The author’s suggestion to change the provisions of the criminal procedural code will allow the prosecutor to not only raise the question of violations elimination, but eliminate them personally, opening a criminal case and timely and effectively protecting the rights of complainants. 

Keywords: criminal prosecution, criminal case, agencies of preliminary investigation, violation of citizens' rights, criminal case opening, prosecutor's authorities, prosecutor's supervision, prosecutor, citizens' rights, criminal proceedings

Abstract: The research subject is the set of theoretical ideas about criminal law operation limits according to the territorial principle. The author analyzes the main postulates of this principle in respect to the realities of the past and the present. The article considers the crime scene concept and the need for this legal construction application within the territorial principle in respect to cybercrimes. The author raises the question of the possibility to review particular provisions of the principle in respect to cybercrimes. The author provides general recommendations which can improve a further use of the territorial principle in respect to new social phenomena: the Internet and virtual space. To achieve the research goals, the author formulates several tasks which are solved with the help of the analysis of the existing doctrinal provisions of Russian and foreign criminal law. The author concludes that for a further effective use of the territorial principle of criminal law in space it is necessary to abandon some doctrinal provisions: the impossibility of extradition of citizens of the state; the necessity to form a single legal framework independent of state territories; the recognition of the Internet as a crime scene of cybercrimes and the linkage of investigating actions to the place of residence of the complainant. 

Keywords: lex loci actus, Lex loci delicti commissi, crime, Internet, jurisdiction, penal code, criminal law, law, innocent agent, cybercrime

Abstract: The research subject is the set of provisions of Russian family legislation regulating the procedure of defining the abiding place of an underage child of the parents living apart, and the law enforcement practice of courts of general jurisdiction in the consideration and adjudication of such disputes. The research object includes family and adjective relations between the parents of an underage child arising during the consideration and adjudication of disputes about defining the abiding place of an underage child. The author applies general and special scientific methods. To analyze the new and the old family law rules, the author uses the comparative-legal and the formal-legal methods. The article studies the practice of application of legal norms in the adjudication of disputes about the abiding place of a child. The variety of factors causing the family crisis and, subsequently, the disputes between parents about the abiding place of a child, testify to a necessity to use the existing potential of measures, aimed at the protection of rights and lawful interests of the participants of family relations, and to form new mechanisms of family, maternity, paternity and childhood support. The author’s analysis helps reveal the existing shortcomings in this sphere of family relations and the possible ways of their overcoming. The author concludes that one of the problems of defining the abiding place of a child with one of the parents is the enforcement of court decision. Court decisions on such cases are often not observed by the parties, and it causes new family rights cases. 

Keywords: mother, father, family law dispute, equality of parental rights, separation of parents, child's interests, abiding place of a child, underage child, equality of parental responsibilities, parents

Abstract: The research subject is the set of international mechanisms of protection of children and women against violence. The author studies the history of recognition and statutorization of female genital mutilation as a damaging and intolerable practice, infringing women’s and children’s rights. The author studies the normative and institutional international mechanism of combating FGM. Special attention is paid to the factors, hampering the eradication of mutilating practices: migration processes and justification of religious and traditional reasonability. The article studies the foreign experience of combating FGM. In order to obtain reliable scientific results, the author consistently applies general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, the system-structural and formal-logical methods) and special methods of jurisprudence (comparative-legal and historical-legal methods). The author reasons the necessity to sign and ratify the 2011 Council of Europe Convention on prevention and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The author emphasizes the importance of creation of a national legal mechanism of protection of women’s and children’s rights against all forms of violence which should include normative and institutional elements, ideologically and culturally interconnected. The article substantiates the importance of support for religious views and legal education, condemning and denying prejudice, traditions and other practices, based on the idea of inferiority or supremacy of one of the genders, stereotypical roles of males and females and those damaging children’s health. 

Keywords: international organisation, international treaty, female genital mutilation, rights of children, women's rights, human rights, violence, religion, minimum standards, tradition

Abstract: The article studies letters of grants of the 17th – 18th centuries and demonstrates their role within the system of sources of Russian law. The author proves that letters of grants gave definite rights and privileges to towns and town population as autonomous subjects of legal relationship. The author finds out that the problem of inclusion of new areas into the jurisdictional space of the Russian state was the dominant in the policy of the supreme power in those regions. To study the nature of letters of grants as the sources of Russian town law, the author applies the method of historiographical and clausal analysis of sources along with the formal-legal method, generalization and abstraction. The author concludes that the legal nature of letters of grants was conditioned by certain peculiarities: their standardized and stereotyped character, adoption of foreign statutory concepts and compulsory approval by the supreme power. The study proves the thesis that, starting from the 18th century, the problem of defining operation limits of letters of grants within a town area has appeared, and it had to be incorporated in Russian legislation. 

Keywords: source of law, voivodes, town population, town management, hetman's directives, Magdeburg law, town law, letters of grants, clause, privileges