Abstract: The author of this article considers that certain specific features of the Russian constitutionalism form significant obstacles in the way of sustainable democratic development in Russia. They are some antinomies, and it is not possible to form the value prerequisites for the implementation of the constitutionalism principles in Russia, unless these are resolved. It is proven in the article that without the understanding that freedom as private and public autonomy of an individual may only exist within the space outside the discretion of government power, the spirit of the Russian Constitution shall remain unclaimed and unimplemented. The article applies the method of ascent from the abstract to the specific with the author’s method of axiological explication of the phenomena of the legal conscience. The article for the first time poses an issue of internal contradictions of the modern Russian constitutionalism. The main conclusion of the author is that there is need for an explication of axiological fundamentals of constitutionalism for the implementation of the spirit of the Constitution of 1993 into the state administration system.

Keywords: constitutionalism, power, freedom, public autonomy, private autonomy, human dignity, the Constitution of the Russian Federation, legal mind, paradigm, legal conscience.

Abstract: Topicality of the study is due to the need of the constitutional legal cognition of the changes in the sphere of Russian federalism. The goal of the study is to continue scientific analysis of the problems and specific features regarding distinguishing objects of competence between the federal center and constituent subjects. The object of studies includes social relations, which are formed in the process of formation and development of federal relations, which are based on distinguishing the objects of competence in the modern Russian democratic state. The object of studies involves the norms of constitutional law, by which the objects of competence are distinguished within the legal system of the Russian Federation. The goal of the study is to define place of the issues of exclusive and joint competence of the federation and its constituent subjects within the legal guarantees of federal relations. The methodological basis for the study is formed with the general scientific dialectic cognition method. When writing the article the author used normative legal, comparative legal, and other special methods of scientific cognition. The article also involves analysis of various points of view regarding distinguishing competences and responsibility between the federal center and the constituent subjects, including examples from the legislative practice of the Chechen Republic. The author made a conclusion that the tendency for the centralization of the public power, which should be balanced by the other tendencies – decentralization of the public power, establishing the thesis of the special role of contracts.

Keywords: objects of competence, state government bodies, dualism, charter, territory, competence, constitution, federal law, cooperation principle, constituent subject of the Russian Federation.

Abstract: In this article based upon the examples from the work of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the Senate of Canada the authors analyze the work of the higher chambers of parliaments in the sphere of cross-national relations. The co-authors analyze the normative legal acts, regulating the work of the specialized Councils and Committees for National Issues, participation of the higher chambers in other procedures, aimed at dealing with cross-national discords, they also provide recommendations for the improvement of the said sphere of activities of higher parliamentary chambers in the federal states. The methodology of studies involves a complex of general scientific methods of studies, as well as comparative legal, sociological, normative, and technical legal analysis, other scientific approaches, allowing to reveal the key patterns in the practical development of work of the higher parliamentary chambers, including the information of the Consultative Council under the auspices of the Chairman of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on cross-national relations and interaction with religious associations, and the Permanent Committee on Human Rights under the auspices of the Canadian Senate. Among the theoretical methods applied in the process of studies, there were analysis, generalization and comparative legal method. The scientific novelty is due to provision of the comparative legal studies based upon the analysis of practice of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the Senate of Canada in the sphere of cross-national relations. As a result, the authors note that in the current conditions the higher chambers of parliaments actively participate in the implementation of the state policy in the sphere of harmonization of relations among the nations.

Keywords: parliamentarism, the Council of the Federation of the Russian Federation, the Senate of Canada, the national issue, the collegiate bodies, the higher chamber of parliament, state policy, cross-national relations, protection of human rights, migration policy.

Abstract: The object of studies in this article involves types of territorial units (provinces, autonomies, protectorates), administrative organs and mechanisms. The article involves analysis of regional reforms of the Empire period, criteria and goals for singling out administrative units. The author shows that at all of the stages of reforming the administrative system of Russia, both in a historical retrospectives and at the current stage, there is non-uniform approach, differences in understanding of goals and purposes of the reforms, lack of step-by-step attitude to their implementation in the center and in the regions. The methodological basis for the study involves a combination of general and special scientific methodological cognition principles in the sphere of social relations, which were used by the author in order to provide an objective study of the object of studies: analysis, synthesis, deduction, historical legal, dialectic, etc. The novelty of the article is due to the fact that the author for the first time provides comparative analysis of the institutions of general governorship in the Russian Federation, as well as the institution of the plenipotentiary representative of the President of the Russian Federation, then it is proven that turning to the historical experience of Russia assists understanding of the ongoing changes in the relations between the federal center and the constituent subjects of the federation and the development of the optimum model for the public regional policy.

Keywords: state, state territorial structure, empire, province, autonomy, protectorate, governor, governor-general, province, federation.

Abstract: The article involves the study of patterns in the sphere of functioning of the institution of the state protection in Russia, including its modern state, functioning, perspectives and directions of its development. The practice of application of certain security measures towards the persons under the protection of the state deserves special attention. The author provides the studies of the current legislation, regulating the social relations arising in the process of functioning of the state protection mechanism, offering the possible solutions for the revealed problems in the close relation to the practice of application of certain security measures. For the sake of collection, studying and generalization of theoretical and empirical materials the author used general logical, scientific and specialized research methods, analysis, synthesis, observation, comparison, documental studies, formal logical, evaluation, generalization of data, etc., historical and comparative legal methods. The author provided a complex study of the modern state, legal regulation, organization and tactics of the activities of the operative divisions of internal affairs bodies regarding revealing the persons, prevention and interception of encroachments upon the life, health, and property of persons under state protection. The author provided his own interpretation of a number of provisions, which were early insufficiently developed or were not sufficiently developed in the theory of operative investigation activities and theory of criminal law. In particular, the studies concern the issues of organization and tactics of prevention and solving of crimes within the context of protection guarantees by the special operative divisions of internal affairs bodies.

Keywords: state protection, security measures, encroachments, counteraction, real threat, personal security, temporary placement, movement, confidentiality of the information, provision of weapons.

Abstract: The study concerns legalization of income attained by criminal means in accordance with the current criminal legislation. Attention is paid to the fact that several hundred thousand economic crimes are registered in Russia annually, and among these crimes tens of thousands of crimes are related to large and extra large criminal income (in 2010 – 51 969, in 2011 – 40 315, in 2012 – 36 083), which provides for their connection with “money laundering”. At the same time the correlation of these crimes and the crimes under the legalization of criminal income under Art. 174, 174.1 of the Criminal Code is just several per cent ( 3 per cent in 2010, 1,7 per cent in 2011, 1,4 per cent in 2012). Latent legalization of criminal income is related to the changing means of committing these crimes, complications with proving them, making revealing and investigation of such crimes difficult. In the opinion of the author the instability of criminal legislation and constant changes in the norms on criminal responsibility for the legalization of criminal income has a negative influence upon the use of proven preventive and interceptive measures against such crimes. The article contains analysis of practice and current legislation of Russia, allowing to use legal systems of credit and finances relations for the illegal purposes. Therefore, the investigation quality in the cases regarding legalization of criminal income, as guaranteed by revealing all circumstances, requiring proof, allows to uncover the factors facilitating money laundering and to solve the problems regarding destruction of the very economic basis for the crime, minimization of its development and reproduction. At the same time prophylactic measures are implemented both based on specific criminal cases, and upon the results of analysis of groups of cases, which is held in order to collect a wider range of information on crime and organization of activities of law-enforcement bodies in the sphere of fighting legalization of criminal profits. Improvement oft information guarantees also provides efficient means for fighting this type of criminal activities, since it allows for uncovering the sources for legalization of criminal income. To an extent, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service is an information and analytical body, which receives most of the information regarding suspicious deals and operations.

Keywords: legalization of income, latency, counteraction, legalization factors, security, responsibility, damage, crime, transnational, economics.

Abstract: From the moment of its formation the Russian Federation has passed a long way from the unconnected initiatives to the institutional procedures for public control in the justice and law-enforcement systems. Unlike the states, where the democratic rule formed “naturally”, Russia needs to implement institutionalization of public control in a short historic period of time, at the same time (and not consequently) with the various public control practices. The article includes analysis of three forms of public control organization. Implantation or direct copying of institutions, as constituted in the modern developed societies in the spheres ranging from the market to the public policy and human rights in the history of new Russia has reopened the institutionalization problem. In the Russian conditions we deal with the forming (and not the formed) institutions, while the institutionalization process is to a great extent artificial, and not natural. Accordingly, the approaches to the formation and analysis of these issues should be developed anew. As a methodology, the author offers a public control unit including five elements: 1) actors and their interaction based upon the reciprocal character of social act, based upon the principles of self-government, self-administration, self-sufficiency; 2) type of goal which is related to curbing discretion abuse; 3) object of control – state activities; 4) means of implementation – public policy; 5) civil ethics, based on non-violent methods. This system is not merely theoretical, it is based upon the interpretation of expert interviews of the leaders of the recognized non-governmental organizations. The author introduces the ideas on the five phases of institutionalization of public control, as well as the ideas of scenarios and types of institutionalization. According to the offered methodology, the author analyzes three forms of organization of public control: representative of the public in the qualification boards of judges, public supervision commission and civil control over the police activities.

Keywords: institution, public control, court, prison, police, institutionalization, actor, scenario, type, public supervision commission.

Abstract: The object of this article involves the functions of the main strategies of the political leaders in the framework of the authoritarian regime environment. Based upon the theoretical thesis, according to which the main procedural factor guaranteeing sustainability of the authoritarian regime is an ability of a political leader to form an empowered coalition, the author concentrates on strategic aspects of totalitarian sustainability. The author supports theoretical provisions, according to which the basic strategies for coalition forming for the authoritarian ruler are cooptation, repressions and legitimation. This article systematizes the main functions performed by these administration mechanisms towards the three main political actors: insiders, outsiders and electorate. The methodological basis for the analysis of sustainability factors are procedural theories, including neo-institutional approach, theory of rational choice and neo-patrimonial concept. The article systematizes the main procedural factors for the authoritarian sustainability, the author singles out and substantiates the functions of the three key strategies for the political leader in a non-democratic regime environment – cooptation, repressions and legitimation. The conclusion is made that stability of authoritarian regime depends on the capability and possibilities for the use of all three basic strategies by the leader. Only the joint use of cooptation, repressions and legitimation may minimize the risks involved in each of them separately. The provided theoretical positions may be used as an analytic framework for analysis of non-democratic political regimes.

Keywords: political regimes, authoritarianism, procedural factors, non-democratic regimes, political sustainability, political theory, dictate, political development, political institutions, strategy.

Abstract: The object of studies involves legal norms, including the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the current federal and regional legislation (constitutions, statutes, laws regulating the issues of implementation of activities within constitutionally provided competence of the Federation and its constituent subjects by the legislative (representative) government bodies of the constituent subjects of the Russian Federation, other sources of law, practice of implementation of competence by the regional parliaments based upon the nature and functional purpose of the legislative (representative) government bodies of the constituent subjects of the Russian Federation, scientific ideas, as provided for by the legal doctrine. The main methods involve general scientific methods (dialectic, systemic), specific legal methods (comparative legal studies, formal legal method). The use of these methods has allowed to single out the main problems regarding implementation of competence of legislative (representative) government bodies of the constituent subjects of the Russian Federation. The scientific novelty is due to the attempt of complex constitutional legal study of the issues of implementation of legislative (representative) state government bodies of the constituent subjects of the Russian Federation and related problems. The article pays special attention to the imperfections of the current legislation in the sphere of legal regulation of legislative competence of parliaments of the constituent subjects in the spheres of joint competence. The authors make propositions for the improvement of the mechanism of implementation of the control competence of the legislative (representative) government bodies of the constituent subjects of the Russian Federation.

Keywords: objects of competence, legislative (representative) bodies, competence, distinguishing, constituent subjects, federation, legislation, law-making competence, responsibility mechanism, parliamentary control.

Abstract: The article contains analysis of the current situation in the sphere of activities of the APEC as a pan-Asian- Pacific economic organization, and its expected future due to its possible transformation into the regional institutions dealing with the security issues. The author evaluates new challenges and threats, which may cause significant damage to the interests of the Member States due to the growing scale of their public danger and internationalization. The agenda of the summits and meetings of competent ministers within the framework of the organization, as well as the documents resulting from these events visibly show and proof that collective actions in this direction may only be successful if they are based upon close cooperation among the states. At the same time there are still problems, such as lack of legally binding means within the general political and legal mechanisms of functioning of the APEC, which is due to lack of united approach to their regulation and application by the participants of the Forum. Finally, based upon the analysis the author formulates some conclusions of long-term relevance for the development of the security dimension in the APEC activities.

Keywords: APEC, international law, economic cooperation, Member States, summits, regional security, new threats, terrorism, military and political situation, critical sectors.

Abstract: The issues regarding application of estimate terms in the Russian legal system were rather broadly discussed in the Russian legal doctrine. Good faith, reasonability, proportionality and other terms were studied both from the general theoretical and institutional standpoints, and more specifically, within the civil law framework. The Russian civil law scholars pointed out the complications regarding application of the legal norms containing these categories, evaluating the role of judicial discretion in resolving relevant issues. At the same time the modern international law literature did not provide comprehensive analysis, moreover, the English language literature lacks the long-standing legal term for the definition of what is referred to as “estimate term” in Russian. The specific features of the method of international law (method of coordination of sovereign expressions of will) do not necessarily stand for the absence of the relevant norms, and the tendencies for the formulation of obligations within the frame international treaties, or international treaties in general, require that this phenomenon is studied at the international law level. The modern international humanitarian law contains a large amount of the so-called “estimate terms”, which were formulated in early or mid-XX century. The article involves a brief overview of the practice and problems of their application with the due regard to the modern reality, which substantiates practical value of this study.

Keywords: method of international law, international humanitarian law, humanity, reasonability, proportionality, estimate terms, Hague rules, Geneva rules, combatants, armed hostilities.

Abstract: The object of studies concerns the norms of the draft law (later the adopted law) “On Reform of Local Court” , regulating the guarantees of independence of the justices of peace and volost judges in Russia. The author studied the process of evolution of views of the legislator on the complex of guarantees of independence of judges, such as special procedure for the formation of the judicial corpus, irremovability of judges, independence of the court from the administration, high standards of material guarantees of judges. The author studies the governmental discussion regarding the issue of keeping the volost courts and their further reforms. In the process of studies the author applied the following study methods: comparative historical studies, comparative legal studies, historical typological, chronological and others. It is noted that in 1905 the problems regarding functioning of the local justice made the government return to the idea of liquidation of volost courts and restoration of the justices of peace according to the model of 1864. However, the cadres, financial and ideological issues made the legislators leave the drastic measures aside, and just reorganize the volost court. In the process of drafting a new law, the legislators took into consideration a number of mistakes regarding guarantees of independence of judges. However, many problems remained unsolved. For example, the justices of peace remained dependent upon the county assembly, the procedure of bringing judges to disciplinary responsibility was not reformed, the amount of monthly fees of volost judges could not be a sufficient guarantee of their independence, etc. Some of these issues were meant to be resolved in the future, which did not happed because of the events of the 1917.

Keywords: independence of judges, irremovability of judges, volost court, justice of peace, Ministry of Justice, the Council of Ministers, I.G. Scheglovitov.

Abstract: The object of studies is the “Volyn Program” G. Yuzevsky as an attempt of the complex transformation of social and political landscape in the Volyn province in the conditions of social and political antagonism of ethnical nature in this region. The “Volyn experiment of G.Yuzevsky based upon the “Volyn Program” took place in the conditions of growing authoritarian tendencies in the political system of the 2nd Rzeczpospolita Polska, which finally destroyed efforts of the military governor (voivod) for the implementation of the “Volyn Program”. The article also concerns a significant aspect of influence of the “Volyn Program” upon the regional political aspect in the Volyn province, as a reflection of the ongoing general public political processes in the 2nd Rzeczpospolita Polska in the second half of the period between the wars. The research involved general scientific methods, such as logical, historical, systemic and special scientific methods, such as institutional, behaviorist, functional. The novelty of the study is due to the fact that the topic of “Volyn Program of G. Yuzevsky has no analogues in the modern Russian political science. The main conclusions are as follows. The “Volyn Program” is an interesting example of the conceptual basis for the construction of social and political area in the conditions of poly-ethnic region, where the majority of people are being subject to legal, political, social and cultural discrimination on the part of title nation minority from the state of which the province is the part.

Keywords: Volyn Ukrainian Union, political process, 2nd Rzeczpospolita Polska, Volyn Experiment, Volyn Program, Volyn province, G. Yuzevsky “Sokalsky Kordon”, Polish-Ukrainian association, public integration.

Abstract: The author studies the problems of illegal takeover of transportation vehicles (hijacking) taking into account the quality and quantity changes. It is established that one of the quality changes is hijacking of a transportation vehicle with its subsequent return to a victim for the monetary compensation. The legal evaluation of the acts of suspects by law-enforcement bodies is usually provides for hijacking, even if there is evidence of theft. The author provides analysis of the practice of illegal takeover of cars or other transportation vehicles in various regions of the Russian Federation, providing for elements of crimes necessary for initiation of a criminal case on car theft. However, immediate examination actions included repeated interrogation of a victim and a suspect in order to examine the fact of hijacking. The evaluation of the public danger of car hijacking by the legislator is not sufficiently consistent and unambiguous. Applicatio of Art. 166 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation causes practical difficulties due to the lack of clarity in definitions, single-valued interpretation of acts, object, immediate object and moment of completion of this type of crime. All of the above causes difficulties in proving the unlawful takeover of a transportation vehicle with no purpose as to its theft. The norm on hijacking of auto-transportation vehicles with no purpose as to theft is aimed to protect the interests of people in the sphere of road transportation security (automobiles being sources of aggravated danger), which is still a problem. The investigative practice does not reflect the modern reality, when there is no theft of transportation vehicles, but there is hijacking with subsequent return of the car to a victim for a large sum of money. We consider that this crime should be excluded from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Keywords: transportation vehicle, hijacking, takeover, theft, destruction, harm, inquiry, investigation, evidence, compensation.

Abstract: The article concerns the issues of responsibility of one-person and collegiate managing bodies of a legal entity through the prism of the Decree of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation of July 30, 2013 N. 62 “On some issues regarding compensation of damage by the persons holding positions in the bodies of a legal entity”, as well as the role of the legal category of interest of a legal entity, being key in the corporate disputes. The authors provide characteristics of piercing the corporate veil, its elements and grounds for bringing the managing persons to responsibility, as well as the balance of interests of majority and minority shareholders and means of protection of the assets of a legal entity in cases of conflict of interests. The article includes analysis of the practice of the civil law responsibility of the members of the managing bodies of a legal entity taking into consideration the Decree of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation of July 30, 2013 N. 62 “On some issues regarding compensation of damage by the persons holding positions in the bodies of a legal entity”, establishing the legal targets when defining the balance of interests of shareholders and managing bodies of a legal entity. In the opinion of the authors the legal basis for the application of doctrine for piercing the corporate veil in Russia should be the norm of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on abuse of a right. Abroad good faith is understood as an obligation of the parties to cooperate in order to achieve some common result of the economic deal. Such a non-legal declaration should still be reflected in the specific obligations, as provided by law (for example, to avoid influence upon the will of the parties, etc.). At the same time, the courts need clear directions regarding what needs to be proven in such cases.

Keywords: interest, balance of interests, legal entities, shareholders, fiction, legal relations, legal practice, corporate veil, responsibility, losses.

Abstract: The article concerns the origin of state sovereignty, organization of state government and its functional purpose. Detailed attention is paid to the manifestation of the supreme power in the federal states. The author studies political and legal ideas of Russian and foreign authors, studying the transformation of the definition of sovereignty from the middle ages to our days. The attention is paid to the influence of the globalization processes upon the sovereignty and appearance of federalism. Federal structure of the state is regarded in its relation to sovereignty. The author establishes the criteria for state sovereignty of a certain subject. In the process of studies the author applied comparative legal and analytical legal analysis. The methods of correlation and comparison were also used. It is noted in the article that it is only the people organized as a state, having its own supreme power for the implementation of its direct goals and interests, has true sovereignty. And it is only in the presence of strong supreme power throughout the territory of the state, it is possible to guarantee state security and to form conditions for the development and progress of the people, society and state itself.

Keywords: sovereignty, state, power, supremacy, federalism, centralization, decentralization, competence, security, threats.