Abstract: Due to the resource oriented state of the Russian economy, the taxation of the recovery of minerals is one of the main sources of revenue for the budget of the Russian Federation. Even minor changes in the price of oil on the international market have a huge impact upon the national budget of the Russian Federation, and the problem of replenishing it has lately become quite relevant. Over the course of being enacted the Mineral Resource Extraction Tax (MRET) has proven its fiscal orientation, while its regulating regulatory function has moved to the background and in doing so, acquired multiple problems in the field of oil extraction. This article reveals the flaws within the MRET of the Russian Federation and reviews the ways of improving it under the current conditions. The conclusions are made on the quality of the conducted tax policies in the Russian Federation with regards to taxation of the petroleum extraction industry, including changes to the current legislation. Presently, we can observe an annual increase in the MRET revenue into the budget of the Russian Federation and the growth in the specific weight of tax within the overall structure of budget revenue. However, despite the positive dynamics of the MRET index, there is a growing number of flaws within the current system of oil taxation that have negative effect on the present state and future development of the industry.

Keywords: Technology, investments, raw material base, incentives, tax burden, MRET, extraction of petroleum, revenue, tax strategy, mineral resources.

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the study of the issue of civil legal awareness within the social-political practices and values of the Russian citizens. Civil legal awareness is being viewed as a necessary element of the functioning of the civil society and legal state that recognizes the rights, liberties, and interests of human and citizen as the highest values. A special attention is given to the analysis of the link between civil legal awareness and the level of social and institutional trust, public and political participation, value orientation, and political alignments in the modern Russian society. Analysis of the issue takes into account the key positions of the theory of modernization with regards to the transformation of the socio-political subjectivity of the society and the citizen that allow the conceptualization of the link between civil legal awareness and the socio-political practices and value orientations of the Russian citizens. The author makes a conclusion on the existence of a deep divide between the traditions of the socio-political participation that carry a mostly collectivistic, conventional, and institutional character and a low level of trust that has formed in the post-Soviet period by the public institution, which in many ways substantiates the divergence in the civil legal awareness, values, and practices of civil participation in the modern Russian society.

Keywords: Civil legal awareness, Civil participation, Socio-political practice, Values, Russian society, Civil society, Institutions, Authority, Government, Citizens.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the implementation of the general legal tendency towards decentralization of regulation in the area of intellectual rights. The relevance of this topic is substantiated by the demand for various forms of soft law and self-regulation within the framework of globalization and development of information society. The article presents an analysis of the examples of soft regulation within international law of intellectual property. It reveals the effects of the non-obligatory acts of international organizations upon the forming of the positions on relevant issues and development of new normative acts. The author’s conclusions are based on discovered aspects of the decentralization process within the law on intellectual property. The peculiarity of self-regulation in the area of intellectual rights lies in the weak development of voluntary agreements between right holders and the information intermediaries. This is caused by the use of provisions of the dominant paradigm of intellectual rights within the agreements.

Keywords: Information intermediary, soft law, intellectual property, legal paradigm, intellectual property rights, selfregulation, decentralization, copyright holder, international law, free licenses.

Abstract: In this work the author attempts to formulate the key requirements for providing criminal legal protection of the public relations in the area of informatization. The system of criminal legal protection of public relations that is responsible for meeting the informational demand and is intended for providing the criminal legal stimulation of the positive, and minimization of the negative social consequences of informatization can be referred to as “information security”. The subject remains in the state of information security when the effectiveness of their activity is provided with accurate and sufficient information for making a decision. This state can be achieved by the social activity in three interlinked groups of social relations that represent the structural elements of information security: public relations in the sphere of use of information technologies; in the sphere of providing access to information resource; in the sphere of creating an information resource. At the same time the public danger of infringing on the information security is not independent, but rather depends on the social significance of the relations within which the information demand emerges. The author proposes the main directions for improving the legislation on the criminal liability for the crimes in the area of information technologies, as well as the sphere of limited access of information. The bases are provided for the unreasonableness of a wide implementation of means of criminal justice in the sphere of forming an information resource.

Keywords: Jurisprudence, Informatization, Information security, Crime, Information technologies, Limited access to information, Forming of information resource, Effectiveness, Abuse of criminal law, Optimization of legislation on criminal liability.

Abstract: The problem of religious extremism is currently the key threat to religious freedom of any nation, and is especially relevant for the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, at the core of which stand Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. As a result, the constant monitoring and improvements to the normative legal base on the fight with religious extremism in these countries remains a top priority. The authors offer a brief legal comparative analysis of the legislation pertaining to the fight against religious extremism within the EAEU and formulate recommendations on the use of the leading experience of Kazakhstan and Belarus in perfecting the Russia’s legislation in the area of fighting the religious extremism. Among the conclusions, the authors emphasize the need for a balanced system of law enforcement branches in order to wage an effective fight against the religious extremism. They note that there is currently a comparable system of the branches of law enforcement agencies within the EAEU that are responsible for the cooperation between religion and the government, which significantly simplifies the processes of the legislation unification in this sphere. The authors focus their attention on the fact that such branches should not possess authoritative powers, but should rather provide intermediary and consulting services to the branches of government authority and religious organizations.

Keywords: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Integration of legislation, Religious extremism, Religious freedom, Religious intolerance, Eurasian Economic Union, Kyrgyzstan, Viable organization.

Abstract: One of the problems of the legislative work of the Parliament is the reflection of the perception of legal order adhered to by the law abiding citizens of the country. In forming the criminal legislation, the Parliament relies on the main foundations and ideas that they consider dominant. As a result of the conducted research, the author discovered the following key foundations (principles) of the legislative regulation of the criminal legal relations: the principle of the dynamics of criminal legal elements; the principle of non-obligation (conditionality) of holding someone liable; the principle of reduction or limitation of liability; the principle of court discretion; the principle of monetary compensations for the damages caused by the crime; the principle of inequality in the damages caused by the crime and the punishment for it; the principle of priority of humane treatment of a person that has committed a crime; the principle of differentiation of criminal liability; the principle of relative equality of the citizens. The author also underlines the connection of the highlighted principles, their consequences for reflection of such classic legal principles as unavoidability of responsibility, justice, and equality of citizens before the law.

Keywords: Principe of unavoidability of liability, Criminal liability, Legislative activity, Rights and liberties, Restoration of social fairness, Principles of law, Principles of legal regulation, Principle of humanism, Lawmaking, Constitutional guarantees.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the questions of criminal legal protection of cultural and archeological heritage of the Russian Federation. The research is conducted based on the analysis of the changes to the current Russian legislation on protection of the objects of cultural heritage and changes to the criminal legislation on protection of these objects made by the Federal Law #245-FZ from July 23, 2013. It examines the objective and subjective definitions of a crime provided by the article #2433 introduced into the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. A review is given to the issues of implementation of criminal legislation and the law on the protection of cultural heritage based on the new changes stated above. The article analyzes the key relevant aspects of implementing the dispositions of the norms of criminal law on the responsibility of protection of cultural and archeological heritage. The conclusion made in this article can be useful for the law enforcement agencies in investigation and review of criminal cases pertaining to this category, students, post-graduate students, as well as all who are interested in the issues of jurisprudence.

Keywords: Criminal legal protection, Archeological heritage, Cultural heritage, Legislation on culture, Criminal law, Disposition of criminal legal norm, Signs of criminal activity, Criminal liability, Circumstances that exampt from liability, Archeological field work.

Abstract: Based on the author’s concept of municipal representative democracy as an open and dynamically developing system, this article reviews the issues of collaboration between the representative branches of the municipal institutions on one hand, and the representative branches of the government authority of the Russian Federation and its constituents on the other. The goal of this analysis is the constitutional substantiation of the collaboration between the various levels of the representative branches of authority as an immanent manifestation of a constitutional unity of a democracy and the corresponding systemic relations within the organization of representative authority. The article reveals the formulated and formed by the practice methods of collaboration between the representative branches of government authorities and municipal self-governance, gives a general assessment of its effectiveness and formulates the measures for improvement of these relations. The author makes a conclusion that the existing mechanisms of connection between the representative branches carry a fragmentary, non-systematic character that require correction, specific (main) directions of which are offered in this article.

Keywords: Representative branches, Municipal representative democracy, Representative system, Representative democracy, Representative authority, Public representation, Democracy, Municipal self-governance, Collaboration of representative branches, Constitutional partnership.

Abstract: Activation of the Eurointegrational processes, reforms within most of the European countries in the area of local self-governance and regional development and their cooperation on various levels determines the coming together of territorial communities, their authorities and government officials, associations of the branches of local self-governance, etc. The result of implementing programs such as “Europe of Regions” and “Europe of Communities” evidently became the forming of the European system of local and regional self-governance, which can be defined as a combination of the main structural elements, subjects and forms of implementation of the local and regional self-governance, through which the European countries, their territorial communities, local and regional branches of authority, population, as well as international organizations (Council of Europe, EU, OSCE, BSEC) ensure the realization of right to self-governance, related functions, and carry out the set responsibilities. The article analyzes the methods of creation of such system, the principles, bases and subjects, legal-contractual and institutional mechanisms of ensuring and implementing this system. In author’s opinion, the legalization of its existence lies in the European Municipal Law, which is simultaneously characterized by the features of international law, supranational, as well as internal national law.

Keywords: Systems of self-governance, Regional self-governance, Principles, Terriotorial communities, Associations, Euroregions, Municipal law, Regional development, Transboundary cooperation, Charter.

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the modern government policy of the Russian Federation in the sphere of protection of morality. At the present stage, the government practically withdrew its influence on the forming of informational politics of the mass media and protection of the highest values of Russia in the area of providing morality and wellness of the citizens. This also relates to the Internet and publishing industry. At the same time the analysis of the current state of morality within the modern Russian society proves it necessary for the government to regulate this issue. Within the framework of this research the author makes specific recommendations on improving the government policy in the area of spiritual condition of the society. Based on the empirical research of the state of morality within Russian society and the analysis of the current legislation new recommendations are being proposed – the project of federal law “On the protection of morality, psychiatric wellness and psychological condition of the consumers of the products of mass media, information-telecommunication networks, and the publishing industry”. This article is first to conceptually substantiate the need for moral censorship and constitutionality of its legal nature. It presents key positions of the government bill on protection of morality; develops positions on creation of a specialized authority within this sphere – The Commission for Protection of Morality; offers specific actions with regards to the harmful information at various stages of regulation.

Keywords: Morality, Censorship, Government policy, Mass media, Internet, Psychological wellness, Legislative act, Child protection, Public interests, Media space .

Abstract: This article reviews the issues pertaining to the regulation of the claim and complaint process in the transportations of both, freight and passengers. The author offers the classification of the requirements for the claim process that includes such groups as: adherence to the allotted complaint periods; filing the complaint according to the set rules; inclusion of the necessary documents at the time of filing the complaint; compliance with the timeframe and the order of responding to a claim. This article is first to provide a complex comparative-legal analysis of the regulation of transportation bylaws and codices of the requirements for claim and complaint process of resolving disagreements during transportation. A special attention is given to the various approaches of the transportation sources towards this regulation. The author makes a conclusion on the necessity to improve the norms that would establish these requirements. The unification of the transportation normative base that regulates the claim and complaint process of the disagreements in transportation can serve as one of the key methods of such improvement.

Keywords: Submission of a claim, Party filing a complaint, Party receiving a complaint, Adhering to complaint deadlines, Proper filing of a complaint, Response to a complaint, Freight transportation, Passenger transportation, Pre-trial form of defense, Deadline for filing a complaint.

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the political views of Niccolo Machiavelli upon ensuring the territorial integrity of a nation and counteraction of regional separatism. It analyzes the treatises “The Prince” and “The Art of War”, and generalizes the experience of diplomatic work of the classic of political thought. The article demonstrates the dependency of the intensity of the centrifugal forces on the model of state governance: ruling a nation through nobility or governors. The issue of government unity is mostly prevalent in the nations that belong to the first type. Discussing the acceptable forms of ruling, the thinker comes to the conclusion that in order to unify a nation under the conditions of feudal fragmentation and clashing of the clans, the monarchy is more suitable than a republic. Taking into account the conquering nature of the politics of the medieval nations, an analysis is conducted on the legal and other means of maintaining the conquered countries within the borders: preservation of the legal and financial systems, and transfer of the capital into the newly conquered territory. Part of the methods is defined as forceful, and extralegal: destruction of the cities, and killing of the entire bloodline of the previous ruler. Certain recommendations are evaluated as rational for the modern countries that are fighting against separatism.

Keywords: Nicollo Machiavelli, Territorial integrity, Government borders, Statism, Government unity, Centrefugal forces, Separatism, Army, Civil peace, Law enforcement .

Abstract: On October 17, 2014 the Law Faculty of the National Research University “Higher School of Economics” hosted an international roundtable event called “Economic Criminal Law”: Europe’s and Russia’s perspectives” in honor of the Doctor of Juridical Sciences, Professor, and Merited Scientist of the Russian Federation Alfred E. Zhalinsky. The proceedings included presentation of the first volume of his selected works dedicated to criminology, as well as reports on the topic of the roundtable. Some of leading Russian and foreign scientist have taken part in this event. The article offers the Key positions of the reports made by the participants, including those on the need to form a separate independent sub-branch of Economic Criminal Law. An evaluation is given to the changes made to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The participants of the roundtable have reaffirmed the need for the more thought-out changes in criminal law, as well as the strengthening of the cooperation between Russian and other countries. The contribution of Alfred E. Zhalinsky into the cooperation with Germany has also been highlighted. A special attention should be given to the participation of Russia in the international organizations and the use of the capabilities of international law.

Keywords: Economic criminal law, international law, criminal law, international cooperation, economic crimes, money laundering, Criminal law, illegal entrepreneurship, legal entities liability, criminal policy.