Abstract: This article analyses the current state of affairs on creating "legal certainty" for economic entities in exploring, mining, using, and appropriating space resources. This study uses a parallel analysis of various events (legal, political, and economic ones) in the regulation of the extraction of space resources, as well as relevant legal acts. The studied sources are relevant acts of international and national space law, "gray" literature, and Russian and foreign publications. The transformation of international ideas about the possibility of national and/or private appropriation of space resources is proposed to be considered not only based on an analysis of norms and doctrine but also by considering various countries' institutional changes and technological achievements. The theoretical question of ownership of extraterrestrial resources and territories, discussed since the early 1960s, has moved from the distant future to the present. The current international space law seems insufficiently unambiguous for private companies and therefore requires clarification. However, the pace of modernizing international law lags behind the needs of the development of the space economy and needs to meet the interests of space investors and entrepreneurs. It is concluded that the chain of events of 2014–2022 testifies to the concerted actions of a group of countries aimed at deliberately forming an international legal custom—the source of international space law. It is shown that the adoption of a universal decision shared by all states in the field of space resources is hampered by the existence of equally significant but competing legal principles. Today, economic challenges are decisive in developing international space law: legal certainty in the extraction of space resources is necessary to ensure the economic priority and competitiveness of technologically advanced states in space.

Keywords: adaptive regulation, COPUOS, outer space treaty, international space law, space economy, space resources appropriation, space resources mining, space resources exploration, space resources, customary international law

Abstract: In the environmental legislation of the Russian Federation, designed to regulate public relations about nature, the concept of nature protection is a priority. Lake Baikal is a territory with special conditions of use, with unique natural characteristics and a powerful system of ecological and legal regulation of public relations in the field of environmental protection. For effective planning and regulation of economic activity in the coastal territories of Lake Baikal, it is advisable to involve an ecological and legal mechanism for environmental protection, which allows unambiguously determining the priority right to use the territory, relying on environmental legislation and protecting the rights of nature in resolving conflict situations. The use of the legal environmental zoning tool, which significantly enhances the ecological and legal mechanism by means of cartographic visualization, implemented with the involvement of geoinformation systems, allows us to simultaneously display the effect of all regulatory and legal restrictions on a specific area of the territory. This makes it easy to navigate the legislative space manifested on the ground, taking into account the characteristics of the territory, determine the priority right to use the territory and find the optimal permitted option for conducting permitted activities. So, on the example of the Slyudyansky district of the Irkutsk region, a comparison of the categories of legal zoning with maps of real use of resources was carried out, which clearly showed contradictions in real and permitted use. The visual implementation of the ecological and legal mechanism and the possibility of improving environmental management is shown, through the introduction of a mechanism that allows to identify violations in the regulated use of the territory in an operational mode, ensuring safe rational use of natural resources through the search for the optimal use of different areas of the territory.

Keywords: territorial management, Baikal natural territory, environmental management, regulation anthropogenic activities, environmental law, environmental legal mechanism, protection of lake Baikal, legal ecological zoning, geoinformation system, geoinformation mapping

Abstract: The relevance of the study is explained by the significant growth of scientific publications, as well as the publication of legal acts containing the category of legal regime. Their analysis shows that there is a split in the legal world and a certain vagueness in understanding the content of the term legal regime. Due to the fact that the category stated in the title of the article becomes the basic unit of the legal apparatus, the subject of the work is the search and development of a unified methodological approach to its content. The accumulated volume of available research on this issue is huge and requires the scientific community to come to a common understanding of this legal phenomenon. The author suggests for discussion several essential characteristics and elements that allow distinguishing the legal regime as a special type of legal regulation from the usual, current one. Particular attention is paid to the formulation of the concept of legal regime, which allows to distinguish it from other types of legal regulation. Based on the analysis, it is concluded that only a complete detailing of all the elements and properties of the legal regime is able to give it terminological unity, scientific stability and practical clarity for scientists and addressees of the legal regime, to ensure the unconditional implementation of its prescriptions. The following conclusions are formulated in the paper. The unjustified use of the indisputable authority of the category of legal regime by virtue of its unconditional recognition by the scientific community, blind worship in front of it is nothing but a legal fetish or a legal chimera. The legal regime in the narrow sense is a limited in scope and time, an exception from the general order of legal regulation, due to the need to implement legal measures and means provided by the state, with the predominant use of certain methods, to eliminate the actual circumstances hindering its current implementation (or the creation of favorable conditions), in order to ensure the occurrence of the desired law and order.

Keywords: desired law and order, achievement, elimination of circumstances, measures and means, withdrawal, limited time, legal regulation, a special kind, narrow understanding, legal regime

Abstract: This article is devoted to the issue of preserving the integrity of the Russian state system of scientific certification in the context of the growing diversity of regulatory and legal acts, as well as practices for awarding academic degrees. The recent expansion of the autonomy of a number of scientific and educational organizations raises a number of doubts, primarily related to the ability to ensure equal rights and opportunities for applicants for academic degrees in different parts of the system. This article provides a comparative analysis of state acts and regulatory acts of organizations that carry out procedures for the independent awarding of academic degrees. In the course of this study, three subsystems were identified that operate according to comparable rules but provide different rights and opportunities. The first subsystem is dissertation councils under the leadership of the Higher Attestation Commission and Russia’s Ministry of Education and Science. There, a place is occupied by special dissertation councils, in which the applicant avoids the publication of articles and the text of the dissertation, as well as other publicity requirements. The second subsystem is formed by scientific and educational organizations found on a special list. Similar norms and requirements apply within the framework of their local regulations, but there are also noticeable differences. These include reducing the number of dissertation councils, including candidates of sciences in them, the possibility of defending a candidate's thesis in the form of a scientific report, etc. The third subsystem includes spiritual education organizations awarding theological degrees. The ambiguity of the attitude toward such degrees remains at the federal legislation level. Theological degrees are recognized along with other academic degrees during state licensing and accreditation procedures, but their holders are not guaranteed mandatory surcharges, apostille affixing, etc. The analysis made it possible to identify indicators that are important for checking the integrity of the system and determining the direction of its improvement.

Keywords: Doctor of Philosophy, theological degrees, scientific report, dissertation, higher education, dissertation council, state policy, scientific certification, academic degrees, PhD

Abstract: This article analyzes features of urban planning and socio-economic development in Russia concerning problems that require legislative resolution. The author uses analysis, synthesis, formal legal, and logical methods to explore urban planning and socio-economic development issues. The dialectical method was applied to analyze legislation and its emerging practice. It was revealed that the change in the functional zones of urban land can often be carried out unreasonably, which leads to challenging these changes in court. At the same time, the consequences of such contestation by the legislator are not directly indicated, leading to legal uncertainty regarding the possible use of the land. It is proposed to legislate the consequences of declaring disputed changes invalid by the court, including restoring the former functional zone and bringing the territorial zone in line with the functional one by introducing changes to city authorities' land use and development rules. Based on the study's results on the practice of socio-economic development of cities, it was established that master plans and concepts are being developed in cities, the adoption of which is not provided for by the legislation on urban planning and strategic planning. According to the author, it is necessary to amend the Federal Law "On Strategic Planning in the Russian Federation" and supplement the list of municipal strategic planning documents with master plans and the concept of the city's development, which will correspond to the established practice. It is expected that the proposed ideas will improve the efficiency of urban space management and attract private investment in the formation of a comfortable urban environment.

Keywords: territorial zoning, functional zoning, general plan, concepts of city development, master plans, contestation of the functional zone, socio-economic development of cities, socio-economic development strategies, urban development of cities, strategic planning documents