Abstract: The article is devoted to the studies of the modern Russian legal understanding.  The author bases his position upon the broadening of the subject field of the legal studies in the conditions of post-Classical paradigm, within which the main attention is paid to the interpretation of the legal matters. Based upon the studies of various legal doctrines, normative expression of legal understanding in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and analysis of the modern Russian legal reality the author offers a typology of legal understanding based upon the criteria of interpretation of law and legal reality, providing for five basic models.  The combination of these models in legal reality allows one to speak of an integral character of the Russian legal understanding. The methodological basis for the studies is formed by the dialectic approach towards cognition of social matters, allowing for analysis of their historical development and their functioning within the context of combination of objective and subjective factors, as well as the post-Modern paradigm, allowing to study legal reality at various levels, including the level of legal interpretation.  The dialectic approach and post-Modern paradigm defined the choice of specific methods for the studies, including comparative, hermeneutic and discourse methods.  The article for the first time applies discourse method for the analysis of the category of legal understanding. Based upon the analysis of various methodological models the author makes a conclusion on an integral character of the Russian legal understanding, which was implemented via the pluralism of the post-Soviet legal discourse and served as a prerequisite for the multitude of meanings of legal regulators, defining the post-Soviet legal reality.

Keywords: law, legal understanding, phylosophical and legal category, legal reality, natural law theory, normativism, social legal understanding, integrative legal understanding, post-Modern legal understanding, post-Classical paradigm

Abstract: One of the causes of inefficient fighting against corruption in Russia is ambigous understanding of this legal matter by the lawmakers, law-enforcers and the population.  The interpretation of corruption as provided by the Federal Law "On Fighting Corruption" is narrowed in accordance with the spheres, manifestations and types of normative regulation. The danger of corruption in the private sphere is not yet recognized by the public conscience.  Nepotism, paternalism, favoritism, cronyism and other forms of use of public status in order to gain non-material profit are not regarded as corruption.  The acts of corruption nature, violating ethical and corporate, rather than legal norms, are artificially brought out of the scope of negative evaluation and reaction of the society.  In this article based upon the international documents and modern interpetations of the "public" element the author provides critical analysis of the definition of corruption as provided for in Art. 1 of the Federal Law "On Fighting Corruption". The author substantiates the need to amend the current wording of the said article and offers a new text with a "unfolded" definition of corruption, including the basic terms, such as "persons in possession of a public status", "profit", "interests of society and state", "corruption offence", "corruption crime".

Keywords: corruption, corruption offence, corruption crime, public status, public functions, public services, profit, interests of the society, interests of the state, definition of corruption

Abstract: In this article the author studies historical and legal aspects of the bank deposit contracts and its transformation from the simple storage contract which was known to the lawyers of the ancient Rome to an independent institution of the civil law, as it is now applied.  The author reveals the legal nature of the bank deposit contract at various historical stages of its formation, studying the historical legal models of contract, types and forms of deposit existing in Russia from the times of Tsar Peter the Great to the current time. In his studies the author used general and specific scientific cognition methods. The main method of studies was historical method. In the final part of his article the author offers measures aimed at the improvement of functioning of the credit organizations and guaranteeing protection and preservation of rights and lawful interests of depositors.  In addition, the measures proposed by the author should strengthen credit and financial sector.  The author discusses the need to restructure the credit sphere and to broaden the sector of retail for banking services.

Keywords: bank deposit, storage, keeping, depositum, Amsterdam Bank, pay book, finances, Peter the Great, credit organization, Soviet period

Abstract: The article includes analysis of the legislative bases, directions and contents of development of administrative institution of governors in the Caucasian territories of the Russian Empire in the middle of XIX to early XX centuries.  The Imperial legislation of 1856-1859 pursued a goal of creating a local system, which would be similar to the existing ministry system in the central apparatus, while taking into account the local ethnic and religious specificities of the region.  The Chambers were transformed into the Departments, and they were given powers of the Ministries, while the legislative branch was concentrated in temporary division under the auspices of the chief department of the Governor of Caucasus.  The author singles out territorial, regional, social, political, normative and legal factors in the processes. Attention is paid to the legislative regulation of specific features of the official position of the Imperial Governor in this territory of the Empire. The author makes a conclusion on the fact that the state administration practice of Russia in the Imperial period took into account to the territorial and legislative status of a region prior to its inclusion into the Empire.  At the same time, the supreme power of the governor in the Caucasian territories was supported, and he was the head of the administrative hierarchy of the Caucasus, while the contradictory character of this form of territorial administration is noted.

Keywords: Empire, governorship, Russia, state structure, region, bureaucracy, public institutions, administrative policy, reforms, polyethnical society

Abstract: The racial identity of an individual is one of the group characteristic features of a person, and there is need for its diagnostics in various expert situations.  It may include expert evaluation of a live person, filling in an authentication card for a corpse, description of a corpse of an unidentified person, provision of a verbal description of a missing person or a criminal suspect, description of appearance based on photo portraits for further identification or comparative studies, diagnostics based on scull, teeth and bones of post-cranial skeleton in the expertise of skeletized remains, reconstruction of the appearance based on skull, etc. In other words, the necessity for the racial identification of an individual is obvious. The author offers a list of features for establishing whether an individual belongs to a certain race.  The author offers to amend the existing list for expert evaluation of living persons and studies of photographs of persons of known racial identity with the different list of elements and provide statistical substantiation for the deciding rule in expert opinions.  The author also establishes the number of elements is necessary or sufficient for the positive or relative inclusion of an individual into one of two (Caucasian or Mongoloid) races, making a conclusion on the mixed origin or refusal to make a decision. The procedure for evaluation of each element is provided in detail, and the expert approbation for the method is provided.  The author considers that in the future the analogous approach shall be used for the formation of the list of race-diagnostic somatic elements.

Keywords: Caucasian - Mongoloid identity, racial identity, physeognomic elements, corpse description, scull-based reconstruction, anatomical characteristics, phenotypical manifestation, forensic practice, judical medical practice, racial-diagnostic physeognomic characteristics

Abstract: Various methods may be applied in order to diagnose the age of an individual.  The radiographic methods are among the most popular methods.  They allow to establish age, sex, race of an individual, and in some cases they serve as the basis for the individual identification.  The classical object of radiographic studies in anthropology is skeletal bones of a hand and a forearm outlimb, which is due to the technically uncomplicated method of getting an radiographic picture and a large amount of studies on variations of anatomy of these skeletal parts.  The researchers evaluated the old-age related characteristics (such as osteoporosis and  joint space narrowing) as well as compensatory and adjusting element (sclerosis, osteophyma). The defect (not allowing to apply this method in judicial medicine) is that depending on the ageing tempo expert radiographic picture may include 6 to 24 age markers.  It makes authentic and practically valuable expertise of an individual situation based upon the scheme possible, requiring formation of an expert method, which would be applicable for the differentiated evaluation of the individual age. Currently there is need to widen the specter for the modern research methods, use of a larger number of organs and systems for more clear and comprehensive analysis of human biological age, for the further formation of a principal algorithm of studies.

Keywords: human hand bones, age specificities of bones, radiographic methods, forearm outlimb, means of getting an X-ray, variative anatomy, diagnostic mistakes, proximal phalanx, osteoporosis, knots and exostosis