Vol 10, No 2 (2024)
Theoretical and historical legal sciences
Development of legislation on special natural value areas and natural monuments: historical and legal aspects
Abstract
This article is devoted to the emergence, improvement and application practice of state environmental laws integral system, which determine the value degree, ways to protect natural areas and natural monuments. The authors analyze the key provisions of the fundamental power state regulations, which acted at different Russian history stages and tried to reproduce the regulatory paradigm of «state – society – nature» relations. The work formulates conclusions on the prospects for the development of domestic legislation in this research field.
Legal status of judges as the basis of independent justice: theoretical and historical aspects
Abstract
The purpose of the article was to identify the historical prerequisites for the formation of the regulatory regulation of the status of judges in Russian legislation, as well as the influence of ideology prevailing in different periods of development of Russian state on the mechanism of legal support in the legislation of this institution. The use of the comparative historical method of cognition made it possible to conduct a retrospective review of the legislative framework of various historical periods in the context of analyzing the formation of legal status of a judge and its impact on the justice system. The main legal acts of the Russian, Soviet and modern periods are studied, and a progressive trend in improving the legal foundations for ensuring the status of judges is noted. It is concluded that the reform of the judicial system should be based on generally recognized principles of organization and administration of justice. The theoretical significance lies in the establishment of a similar nature of the reform of Russian legislation concerning the provision of the status of a judge in 1864 and 1991, as a result of which the principles of separation of powers, independence and irremovability of judges, and their subordination only to the law were proclaimed.
Public law (state-legal) sciences
Prohibition of the use of mobile communications in educational institutions as a subject of prosecutorial supervision
Abstract
December 19, 2023 Federal Law No. 273-FZ dated December 29, 2012 «On Education in the Russian Federation» was supplemented with a norm containing a ban on the use of mobile communication facilities by students during training sessions. Uniform and precise application of legislation in the field of education, respect for the rights of minors in this area is a special subject of prosecutorial supervision. The need for the Prosecutor’s office to pay attention to the implementation of this legislative innovation is primarily due to the task of ensuring compliance of local legal acts of educational organizations with the requirements of federal law. The article presents an analysis of the content of the imposed restriction, which makes it possible to determine the boundaries of its application, as well as to assess the legality of the interpretation of this rule at the level of legal acts of educational organizations. Any explanations at the local level of educational institutions must comply with the law and not distort its meaning. The article identifies those cases when the regulations concerning the use of mobile communication facilities conflict with the current norm of the Law on Education and, accordingly, require the use of prosecutorial response measures.
Private (civil) sciences
Civil and other responsibilities of the patient: issues of systematization and content
Abstract
The development of new areas of medicine requires the modernization of legal regulation of all its components, including established approaches regarding the legal status of the patient. The result of medical activity is formed in the process of its implementation with the direct participation of both a medical professional and a patient. Considering that, among other factors, the behavior of a citizen himself can become the causes of a deterioration in health, the category of “patient responsibilities” acquires its own value in terms of analyzing the effectiveness of medical care and updating its legal support. To this end, the paper analyzes the main duties of the patient in the context of their legal nature and content, classifies them, identifies the legal and factual basis, and determines the legal consequences of the violation. The authors emphasize the influence of the institute under study on the dynamics of the relationships that develop in the implementation of medical activities and identify the essential differences between the basic duties of the patient and civil obligations. Conclusions are drawn about the need to apply an integrated approach to the reconstruction of the legal status of a patient in the context of the development of personalized medicine.
Criminal legal sciences
On the prescriptions of criminal law as axioms
Abstract
The article attempts to consider the consequences of a theoretical approach to criminal law prescriptions as axioms. The conclusions are disappointing. Firstly, the ambivalent attitude of the legislator towards these prescriptions is evident. On the one hand, the latter accepts them and puts them into effect, apparently considering them proven. On the other hand, he often does not coordinate some prescriptions with others. At the same time, a strange situation is created, which is characterized by the fact that there are several prescriptions, each of which is subject to application in the form in which it is formulated, but, in essence, contradict each other. Moreover, there is such a thing both within criminal legislation and in relation to its provisions of criminal procedure and penal enforcement legislation. Secondly, judicial practice clearly does not consider criminal law prescriptions to be axioms. The Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation often clarifies them allegedly «in meaning», but actually changes the content and, in essence, changes the criminal law. Both do not comply with the principle of legality (Article 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and are the result of violations of the rules of legislative and interpretative techniques.
Judicial workload in the Russian justice system and ways to optimize it
Abstract
When developing a holistic system for assessing the quality of justice, one cannot do without paying attention to such a criterion as the degree of workload on a judge or court. The high rate of its growth in Russia and the low effectiveness of measures taken to stabilize it create conditions under which the ability to measure most of the substantive characteristics of justice, reflecting the quality of the judicial procedure, may soon be reduced to zero or the results of such measurement will be unrepresentative. Being an inherently non-procedural characteristic of the judiciary, the workload on judges, if it is high or unevenly distributed, can deform the procedural guarantees of accessibility and speed of justice, and for the judge himself limit the time frame for demonstrating the properties of independence and fairness endowed him by law. The purpose of the work is to assess the current indicators of the judicial workload, search for possible correlations between changes in its dynamics and changes in criminal procedure legislation. For this purpose, the author used comparative legal and analytical methods. As a result of the study, a number of circumstances were identified that influence the dynamics of the judicial workload, and the consequences of its high level, which have a negative impact on judicial proceedings, were shown. Methods are proposed to encourage preliminary investigation bodies to apply the institution of exemption from criminal liability, and the need to change the rules on the territorial jurisdiction of cases is substantiated.
Controversial issues of qualification of drug smuggling committed with the use of violence against a person carrying out customs or border control
Abstract
The article analyzes some issues of qualification of drug smuggling committed with the use of violence against a person carrying out customs or border control. The author concludes that for the purposes of article 229¹ of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation violence covers the entire scope of physical harm to health. The actions of a person who intentionally caused serious harm to the health of the injured person in the process of smuggling items provided for in Article 229¹ of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation, which caused his death by negligence, should be qualified according to the totality of crimes provided for in paragraph «b» of part four of Article 229¹ of the Criminal Code and part four of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation. In cases where the smuggling of items provided for in Article 229¹ of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation is committed with the threat of violence against a person carrying out customs or border control, additional qualifications are required under Article 318 of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation. If there was a murder of a person carrying out customs or border control, the deed should be qualified according to the totality of crimes provided for in paragraph «b» of Part 4 of Article 229¹ of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation and Article 317 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Problem of forms of implementation of criminal liability
Abstract
The article notes that the forms of criminal liability have occupied many scientists, but no consensus has been developed on them. Attention is focused on the fact that these forms largely depend on the definition of the essence of criminal liability and the moment when it begins to be implemented. The article substantiates the recognition of criminal responsibility as the obligation of a criminal to bear responsibility for what he has done, which does not mean its implementation, which occurs after the court verdict enters into force when the convicted person is serving a sentence or other measure of a criminal nature. It is implemented in the legal restrictions laid down in punishment (another measure of coercion). In this regard, it is argued that criminal liability cannot be realized without the imposition of punishment; with parole, amnesty and pardon. There is also no criminal liability with a criminal record, the limitations of which do not express it, but are its consequence. In conclusion, the authors substantiate that criminal liability is implemented in the following forms: punishment (the main form), suspended sentence, postponement of punishment, compulsory measures of educational influence, compulsory measures of a medical nature (in relation to sane persons), confiscation of property, court fine.
Russian criminal procedure: both inquisition and adversary
Abstract
The question of the adversarial nature of modern Russian criminal proceedings is one of the most controversial in science. The author adheres to the position that in modern Russian criminal proceedings, which remain committed to its continental European, that is, mixed model, inquisitorial (search) pre-trial proceedings are combined with adversarial judicial proceedings in criminal cases. Pre-trial proceedings are the activities of the state to form and substantiate charges for bringing them in court if there are grounds for this, or to refuse further criminal procedural activities in the absence of such grounds. The adversarial nature of the trial allows the court, with the active participation of the prosecution and defense, to establish the validity or unfoundedness of the state charge submitted to the court and resolve the criminal case. The opportunity for the defense to compete on an equal footing with the prosecution in court proceedings allows us to consider adversarial criminal proceedings to be its universal principle.
Prospects for the development of Russian criminal procedure form
Abstract
The article is devoted to the study of various approaches to defining the definition of the criminal procedure form, as well as various factors influencing its development. At the theoretical level, there are several options for defining this concept, which differ in the prevalence of a theoretical or practical approach. In the first case, the criminal procedure form is presented as the main guarantee of the rights of citizens involved in criminal procedural activities. The second approach focuses exclusively on procedural aspects, considering the criminal procedural form as the procedure for the production of procedural actions, the adoption and execution of interim and final decisions in a criminal case. It is also worth noting a differentiated approach to the development of the criminal procedure form. The current state of Russian criminal procedure does not allow us to clearly define the vector of its further development, since there is no unified approach of the legislator in this matter. Thus, the purpose of the study is to analyze and evaluate the prospects for the development of Russian criminal procedure form, taking into account various factors affecting its effectiveness. The research methods in the presented article are the dialectical method of scientific cognition, the comparative legal method, the formal logical method, the structural and functional method, the method of legal and technical research, etc. The conclusions and results of this scientific article are determined by the achievement of its goals.
International legal sciences
The Law on International Relations of the People’s Republic of China: what worries the West?
Abstract
The right of a state to defend its sovereignty has always seemed to be something unshakable. At present, in the era of double standards and a new interpretation of the basic principles, some States convince the community of the fallacy of such an approach and the importance of following their guidelines. The adoption of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on International Relations with China from the position of internal rights from the people in matters of their sovereignty, the reason is stipulated at the same time, which obliges them to continue to have power and authority. The provisions of the law finally undermine the attempt to introduce any unilateral restrictive measures, such as lawful action and the provision of the right to retaliatory countermeasures.
Tribune of young scientist
Special court rulings issued to lower courts in arbitration proceedings
Abstract
The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of one of the means of judicial response to violations of legality by lower courts identified during the consideration and resolution of cases, namely special court rulings. The aim of the research is to analyze theoretical and practical problems arising in the issuance and enforcement of special court rulings addressed to representatives of the judicial authority, based on the norms of arbitration procedural legislation and judicial practice. The main attention in the research is focused on the legal nature of the special court ruling, the grounds for its issuance, as well as problems in the implementation and enforcement of special court rulings issued to the lower court. The author uses general scientific and special research methods, such as comparison, analysis, generalization and synthesis, formal-legal method. Based on the results of the research, the author substantiates the punitive nature of special court rulings issued to lower courts, and proposes some recommendations to the existing legislation: to establish the authority of the higher court to issue a special court ruling to the lower court officially; to eliminate duplication of grounds for issuing special court rulings and cancellation or modification of a court decision; to establish a written form of special court rulings; to establish the start of the deadline for the performance of the obligation to inform about measures taken under a special court ruling from the moment the special court ruling enters into legal force; to establish a judicial fine as a measure of liability for non-performance of a special court ruling; and also to expand the grounds for liability for non-performance of a special court ruling.
Falsification of accounting of rights to securities (part 4 of Article 170.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)
Abstract
The article analyses the crime provided for by part 4 of Article 170.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and is one of the forms of criminal distortion of accounting registry records. The relevance of the chosen topic is predetermined by the deficit of scientific research in the field of the above offence. The study of criminal-legal norms ensuring the reliability of the register of securities owners, the depositary accounting system from the introduction and confirmation of incomplete or inaccurate information by a special subject is defined by the author as a research task. Relying on dogmatic and formal-legal methods of research, it is revealed that in the basis of the above offence the primacy of distortion of register records is characteristic only for the entry of inaccurate data; confirmation of such data is a legal fiction, where their compromise is equated to falsification. The problematics of many constitutive features of the sought criminal offence is noted. It is established that the goals of criminal falsification are achieved by destroying (certifying – in case of confirmation) the attributes of the mentioned register and system, affecting the property status of a financial institution in monetary terms and thus hiding the signs of its bankruptcy, grounds for revocation (cancellation) of the license or appointment of temporary administration. Taking into account the shortcomings of the legal matter, it is concluded that it is advisable to exclude part 4 of Article 170.1 from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and if the legislator disagrees with the above approach, a new wording of the above-mentioned punishable offence is also proposed.