Abstract: The author of the article carries out the analysis of formation and development of the legislation in the sphere of exploration, production and transportation of oil and gas in the USA from the XXth century to the present time. Being one of the largest energy consumers in the world, USA has very scarce reserves of energy resources of their own. As a consequence, the energy sector of the USA fully depends on the import of energy resources. While it has been developing, the energy sector of the USA has undergone several crises which created the need for developing a certain energy policy at the federal level. The author of the article pays special attention at the questions of distribution of authority on regulation of this sector between the federal power and local powers of states. We can’t deny that the environmental imperatives also play an important role in the development of the energy legislation all over the world. These tendencies can be viewed in the energy sector of the USA too where a number of measures aimed at development of a more sustainable gas sector have been undertaken recently.

Keywords: USA, energy law, legislation, gas, oil, exploration, transportation, energy market, environmental policy, energy efficiency.

Abstract: The author of the article analyzes changes and amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation regarding implementation and observance of the principles of equality of citizens as well as enforcement of the procedural equality of rights of victims and people who committed offence against the law. The author of the article emphasizes the need for particular records of the aforesaid principles in the sphere of involuntary medical treatment and enforcement of rights of citizens who suffered from criminal actions.

Keywords: law studies, equality, rights, principle, equal rights, victim (complainant), criminal, side, process, defense.

Abstract: The author of the article studies the main ideas and provisions of the project of fair society in philosophy of a modern Russian philosopher Alexander Kovalev. The socially fair and just society is viewed as the project of a possible society of the future. Alexander Kovalev’s concept of justice is studied by the author of the present article as an original teaching. The author also views the aforesaid project as the reflection of the realities of the modern world and tries to discover ideas that could be used when implementation the principles of justice in the modern society. The author also studies the project of fair society offered by Alexander Kovalev from the point of view of the unity of all spheres of social life, causal and functional relations and interrelated and interdependent needs, interests and values. Alexander Kovalev’s theory of justice is quite interesting and original. It reflects views and desires of particular social layers. The most interesting part of Alexander Kovalev’s theory is his provision that private property as well as social and class-specific inequality are a certain result of adaptation of the society to the difficult environment. Provisions of Kovalev’s theory need to be studied more from the point of view of current and future social realities.

Keywords: justice, freedom, equality, property, morals, personality, human nature, needs, interests, values.

Abstract: The subject under review in this research article is the legal relations between the subjects of state fire fighting service regarding their settled property. The author of the present research article studies the legal base for formation of the assets of fire fighting subdivisions including provisions of Article 11 of the Federal Law On Fire Safety that have already ceased in effect. Moreover, the author of the article studies legal issues regarding property and assets of subdivisions of voluntary fire guard, particular aspects concerning isolation of these assets and legal consequences of assets being transferred to the account of an individual entity after liquidation of subdivisions of voluntary fire guard. In her research the author uses combination of general and special scientific methods and principles that are usually used to study social relations. In particular, the author uses the methods of induction, deduction, synthesis, analysis and etc. The author also uses special methods offered by the law science such as the historical law method, method of comparative law, dialectical method, logical method, method of systems analysis and so on. The novelty of the present research article is that the author studies the legal status of a subdivision o fire fighting service as a legal entity.

Keywords: protection, property, subdivision, fight fighting, security, economic management, daily management, state institution, liquidation.

Abstract: After the second world war the problem of defending human rights became very important. In this regard, a number of international organizations started to work on that problem including the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe was one of the first international organizations established at that period. The CE even declared that protection of human rights was the main goal and task they had. In 1950 the CE passed the European Convention on Human Rights. The Convention set forth the basic essential rights and freedoms of each citizen and obliged the state institution to guarantee the observance of these rights. Today the Convention is one of the main documents in the sphere of human rights protection in Europe. Based on the European Convention on Human Rights, the Council of Europe established particular authorities to ensure and control observance of human rights in countries. Decisions, reports, conclusions, recommendations and opinions of these authorities are very important for EU structures and working groups developing the human protection policy. Therefore, rich experience and well established legislative base in the sphere of human rights protection show success and efficiency of the CE regarding this matter on the European continent. Despite the fact that EU develops the human right policy on their own, they are still behind the CE in this sphere. The human right protection is closely connected with the promotion of democracy. However, despite their important role in human right protection, the CE is not so active in promoting democracy. The CE is not responsible for promotion of democracy in Europe. They only create the environment and background for democratic practices and debates.

Keywords: political studies, Council of Europe (CE), European Unity (EU), rights, human, democracy, Europe, convention, freedom, Court.

Abstract: The author of the article analyzes similarities and differences in spiritual and legal spheres of life of Russia and Western countries, first of all, Germany. For example, the cultural singularity of Europe is well proved by the fact that it developed as an integral Catholic world after the failure of the Western Roman Empire. In Western European countries Church established the unified system of regulations and the common space of values. That process was autonomous and did not depend on nonreligious social institutions or government. This is what created pluralism in Europe and dependence of relations between different institutions and social organizations on legal regulations. In Russia the absence of the bourgeois class, insufficient development of the legal sphere and political immaturity of the population resulted in the ‘special’ path of our country and created a special position of Russia between the Western civil society and Oriental despotism. The author of the present research article in detail views different points of view on the problems of cultural and historical features of Russia compared to the West and concludes that in the course of the historical development Russia created its own specific version of liberalism when legal guarantees of personal freedom were replaced with humanist ideals including the ideal of ‘truth’. Therefore, a specific feature of the Russian mentality is that Russian liberal ideology and legal regulations are in many ways based on morals and moral appraisal.

Keywords: Russia, West, Germany, right, freedom, morals, pluralism, state institution, church, liberalism.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the problem of influence of a territorial community on the social development of youth. Territorial communities are viewed as the social institutional environment which specifics are defined by the structure, content of the environment and internal and external interactions. Special attention is paid to the problem of the social and territorial inequality as the factor of social disadvantages of youth, negative socialization and distribution of deviant forms of behavior in their environment. As the main reason of social inequality of youth, the author views the reduction of the social institutional capacities of territorial communities which is typical for low-resource territories. Analyzing the problem, the author of the article takes into account the main provisions of the theory of influence of the local community and the theory of social disorganization. These theories allow to conceptualize the role of the territorial community as the critical element in creation of social disadvantages of youth. The author concludes that the development of the youth is dependent on peculiarities of the surrounding social and institutional environment and therefore the main element of work with the youth should be arrangement of both everyday and planned activities on development of the social cohesion of territorial communities. One of the most important conditions for defining the priorities of social policy and planning social service programs should be the solution of the problems of youth from the point of view of their social and territorial inequality.

Keywords: deviant behavior, social inequality, territorial disparity, social institutional environment, social development, youth, territorial communities, social disadvantages, low-resource territories, work with youth.

Abstract: The article contains provisions that are related to using personal sources in studying the history of state legal development of Russia. While the written sources are widely used in historical and literary researches, legal sciences use them quite rarely. Historians of the XVIIIth – early XXIth centuries developed rich historiographic data based on personal sources. Starting from the second half of the XIXth century, historians of law actively used personal sources in their researches of legal phenomena. At the same time, in recent researches on history of law and branches of law personal sources are used quite rarely and often as an illustration. Methodology of the present research article is based on established approaches to studying personal sources for the purpose of their adaptation to legal researches. The scientific importance and novelty of the article is that the author of the article summarizes different methodological and technical approaches to studying personal sources of information that are usually used in the humanities (history, literary studies and etc.) and analyzes their capacities for carrying out historical and regional law researches.

Keywords: law studies, history of law, sources of law studies, written sources, personal sources, historical law sources, diaries, correspondence, memoirs, stories told by foreigners.

Abstract: Political ethics is one of the most important concepts lying in the basis of understanding of the state structure and relations between the state mechanism and social structure. Observance of the principles of moral policy gives us an insight into what lies in the basis of actions performed by these or those political actors. Political ethics is a topical issue because it deals with the relations between people who have opposite interests but who can still get along based on the principles of ‘the good or justice’. When analyzing different models of the state policy formation, the author underlines the degree of openness of the process and the nature of mutual relations between the state institution and civic institutions. Conclusion: at the present time there is no single or universal decision making institution in the Russian Federation. Modernization requires new decisions. It is important to take into account that today’s government often faces a situation when it cannot formulate the request for change. The same situation happened when the economic crisis began and only half a year later adequate measures were undertaken.

Keywords: political science, elite, ethics, interests, social institution, behavior, morals, decision making, regulators, democracy.

Abstract: Even though they were first created as the national phenomenon, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GLONASS) have been providing navigation services to international consumers for quite a long time. GLONASS became part of all the key branches of international economy. Noteworthy that the critical dependence of social and economic infrastructure of developed countries on their stable and sustainable functioning and development makes the largest international actors either to develop alternative American GPS systems controlled by the United States Department of Defense and global systems (Galileo in the EU, Compass in the PRC, GLONASS in Russia) or seek for cooperation with the USA. The author of the present article describes the relation between national and international security and GLONASS as the dominant of the modern global political process. The author also analyzes the structure of the main World Food Programs in terms of the global development of these systems. Methodological basis of research is the paradigm of political neo realism from the point of view of national security and associated international activity aimed at providing national security through using/implementing GLONASS. Speaking of the main conclusions made by the author and the structure of actors of the global political process as the part of development of GLONASS, it is necessary to admit that the greatest activity is viewed at the sovereign level but not global or regional levels. Despite the fact that today GLONASS does not function in the international law environment, their activity is still within the sight of the actors of the global political process, first of all, United Nations and its official departments and organizations (ICAO, IMO, ITU and etc.). Nevertheless, taking into account current tendencies in the development of global international relations, active role of the UN institution may decrease.

Keywords: GLONAS, global political process, international security, United Nations, international relations, Global Navigation Satellite System, national interests, globalization, GPS, international space law.

Abstract: Conclusions made within the theories of realism show that against the background of reduced tension between strong actors of international policy, relations between countries with different potentials create different variants of distribution of power and influence in the world. Noteworthy that small states which subjective status has considerably grown over the past decade bring additional variety into international policy, on one hand, and do not allow excessive concentration of power, on the other hand. Basic models of state behavior remain traditional for the realism of the balancing and adjoining policy but they acquire specific features under modern conditions. The main specific feature is the implementation of a rather contradictory policy by small states. This policy is aimed at getting closer to the regional leader and keeping the distance and retaining the region’s freedom at the same time. It is very important to understand that the future confrontation of international environment depends on the results of such external political dualism.

Keywords: political theory, theory of realism, neo-classical realism, balancing behavior, adjoining, small states, integration, economic relations, bilateral conflicts, modern Ministers of Defense.

Abstract: People begun to wonder about justice since the very moment when philosophy was created. It is not by accident that one of the most famous Plato’s dialogues starts with the question about justice. However, in the middle of the 20th century touching upon the topic of justice during discussions was considered bad manners just like to bang the table with the fist. It became quite clear that what was just and fair for someone, could not be just and fair for the other. Then all of the sudden John Rawls’ ‘A Theory of Justice’ was published. In his book Rawls proved that there could have been a common concept of justice. That evoked interest towards the matter. Ronald Dworkin was one of those who participated in the discussion. The present article is devoted to the critical analysis of the theory of justice offered by Dworkin. In order to analyze the aforesaid concept, the author of the research article uses the method offered by Dworkin – the so called ‘constructive interpretation’. The purpose of the method is to show an object in the best light (supposedly, as the best theory of justice). Consequently, all disadvantages are viewed as the result of internal contradictions in the theory. Along with the concept offered by John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin’s theory of justice is one of the most powerful in the sphere of the political and legal thought in the West. Everyone who cares for justice in general has to choose whether to accept or deny this concept.

Keywords: justice, Dworkin, Rawls, Nozick, equality, freedom, law, auction, insurance, utilitarianism.