S. V. Koshemarina Information support to elections: problems and perspectives of legal regulation.

The problem of separating “informing the electors” and “election campaign” had been the subject of the most heated discussion throughout the elections of the State Duma (4th convocation, 2003) and the Presidential elections of 2004. This article contains analysis of the above-mentioned issue within the framework of the federal election campaign of 2003-2004.

N. A. Podol'nyi Who shall act as defense lawyer in criminal proceedings?

Choice of lawyer for defence has always been the most complicated problem that the suspect, the accused, the defendant faces in each criminal case. Of course, one would like to have the most highly qualified professional to defend him. How can that be achieved? What are the criteria, which form the basis for the right choice. This article contains analysis of this problem.

V. V. Krasinskii Quality of Russian laws.

This article includes some criteria of socially-oriented evaluation of Russian legislation. The author provides classification of Russian laws into democratic and undemocratic ones, good quality and bad quality laws, fair and unfair laws, real and fictitious laws. The author also provides critical evaluation of a number of legislative acts, gives ideas for improvement of the current situation.

V. A. Mestnikov Methods of enhancement of operating efficiency of Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe.

As the author of this article notes, it would be incorrect to say that the OSCE lacks mechanisms necessary to realize its goals, however, the criticism of application of these mechanisms has certain basis to it. This article includes critical analysis of organization and activities of the OSCE, ways to make its activities more effective.

O. S. Zvonareva Globalization and interaction between civilizations: political and legal aspects.

Globalization processes influence individuals and peoples, states and civilizations, and it is no surprise that globalization becomes one of the most topical issues in many social sciences. The author of this article expresses her own position on how globalization shows itself in political and legal spheres, explains how the new phenomena of global (world) power come into being, how they are influenced by cultural and civilization factors, and most of all by role of the Western civilization, reviews the role of the Western concept of the human rights and of “global law”.