Articles

The publication, in the context of current international law and legal doctrine, provides a theoretical and legal analysis of the statements of the Vilnius Court on the status of Lithuania as an “occupied State” in 1940–1990, whether “the Republic of Lithuania and the Soviet Union were different States from the standpoint of international law” during the pointed period. In this regard, on the basis of the Soviet-Lithuanian bilateral agreements, reliable archival sources and foreign materials of international affairs departments, the problem of compliance or violation of the international legal norms in force at that time with the procedure for Lithuania’s entry into the USSR is considered. The article reveals the concept, content and consolidation of the term “occupation (military occupation)” in international law, as well as the features of the occupation regime in relation to the topic of the publication. The views of well-known representatives of the Western European and Baltic legal doctrines of the concept of the “Soviet occupation of the Baltic States” are considered. A theoretical analysis of the concept of “annexation” in international relations is given, the absence of its normative consolidation in international law is noted, a number of examples of annexation in European interstate practice on the eve and during the Second World War are given. Based on the analysis of the legal nature of the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, the recognition by almost the entire international community and the prevailing views in the international legal doctrine, the legality of Lithuania’s being a part of the USSR in the period 1940–1941 as a union republic is justified.

Foreign legal and political science notes the positive effect from the interpenetration of the institutions of direct and representative democracy, especially by way of modern digital technologies. The key forms of such interpenetration have been and remain the popular (civil) legislative initiative and public hearings (public discussion of bills). The experience of crowdsourcing in carrying out legislative work, the involvement of citizens in the work of parliamentarians show a multiple increase in the level of citizens’ trust in the institutions of parliamentary democracy, which is confirmed by foreign studies. According to the Levada Center in Russia since 2015 the level of disapproval about activities of the Russian State Duma has exceeded the level of approval and since this time the level of disapproval continue to grow up. For this reason, it is highly important for Russia to research the experience of those countries, that have managed to change the predominantly negative attitude of citizens towards parliamentary institutions to predominantly positive. For Russia, where, according to the Levada Center, the level of disapproval of the State Duma has exceeded the level of approval since 2015, the study of the experience of countries that have managed to change the predominantly negative

attitude of citizens towards parliamentary institutions to predominantly positive is of high importance. The author comes to the conclusion that in Russia it is necessary to revive the popular legislative initiative at the federal level, including through the introduction of the institution of the legislative proposal. Secondly, the author proposes to legislatively regulate the possibility of submitting legislative proposals to the State Duma, including by expanding the functionality of the Russian Public Initiative Internet portal (roi.ru). Thirdly, the author considers it expedient to create in Russia an electronic platform for interaction between the parliament and civil society “Electronic Parliament of Russia”, which allows, through electronic democracy, to increase public confidence in the activities of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

In the context of the information society and the formation of the digital economy, it is relevant to study the legal support for the turnover of personal data at the corporate level in order to develop proposals for improving the mechanism for processing and protecting personal data. The article analyzes the general issues that are previously studied by the administration before starting the processing of personal data, on which the decision on the readiness to work with personal data and the intensity of the use of internal corporate forces and means depends. The content of the concept of ensuring the security of personal data is disclosed. The analysis of the regulatory framework and a systematic approach to the study of the rules governing the collection, processing, storage and use of personal data in organizations allowed the author to formulate the conceptual provisions of the methodology, the content of which is complex measures of an organizational, legal and technical nature used to ensure the security of personal data in organizations. The methodology structurally reveals the content of the main corporate acts and provides recommendations for their improvement when working with personal data in the context of digitalization.

The author shows the natural loss, damage and destruction of things, and also describes period of transportability of goods. In the article, the author defines the possibilities of contractual regulation of division the risks of natural loss, damage and destruction of things between the parties. The author comes to the conclusion that the natural loss, damage and destruction of a thing are processes caused by the natural features of a thing or caused by an external influence on a thing, as a result of which the existence of a thing as an object of law disappears or its economic purpose changes. Based on the classification of legal facts, natural loss is an event that reduces the number of things, while maintaining their quality. The author defines property damage as a deterioration in the quality of things. Based on the theory of legal facts, damage can be the result of both natural factors or the result of illegal human actions. Its legal consequences depend on the causes of damage. The author considers the destruction of a thing as a complete loss of its useful properties. The expiration date in the article is defined as a scientifically and technologically determined period, after which the thing becomes unusable and may constitute a danger to life and health. It is concluded that based on the functional purpose of the expiration date, it is not subject to extension in respect of goods already put into circulation, and it is not allowed to reduce this period under the agreement.

The objective of this work is to clarify the place and significance of strategic planning documents in the regulation of relations on environmental protection and nature management. The creation of strategic planning documents is caused by the implementation of the planning function, and therefore is not something new for management in the field of environmental protection and nature management. But, as we believe, the significance of such documents has greatly strengthened after the adoption of the Federal Law “On Strategic Planning in the Russian Federation”. Different types of strategic planning documents, through which regulation and management in the sphere of interaction between society and nature is carried out, are analyzed in the article. By their legal nature, strategic planning documents, if they contain legal norms, are normative legal acts and are usually approved by acts of the President of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation, by orders of various ministries. At the same time, strategic planning documents contain provisions that, in their meaning, should be in legislative acts, as well as provisions that can influence the development of legislation on environmental protection and natural resources, create new trends in legal regulation, including those of them that are unconvincing in terms of implementation of the general principles of environmental legislation. In these conditions, a clear line between such documents, on the one hand, and legislative and other normative legal acts that traditionally regulate environmental relations, on the other hand, must be established. The author concludes that the delineation of the regulatory legal acts should be due to the rule, according to the constitutional foundations, of primary legal regulation exclusively at the legislative level or at the level by legal act of the President of the Russian Federation.

The review gives a brief description of the new monograph by V.D. Zorkin, its main provisions are considered. One of the main topics raised in the book is the relationship between the stability of the state and human rights. It is concluded that human rights should not be opposed to public and state security, since it is the state that ultimately guarantees the legal protection of the individual. The weakening of the State can lead to the undermining of the system of guarantees of human rights. Zorkin examines this dilemma on the example of Russia, points out the main, from his point of view, problems of the Russian legal statehood.

The institution of representation in different legal systems has a noticeable specificity. There are differences in the classification, terminology, contract structures used as the basis for the emergence of relations of representation, forms of authorization of the agent, the consequences of actions of an unauthorized agent, issues of entry of the principal and a third person into direct relations with each other, etc. Since the services of agents are in demand in cross-border trade, the international community (states, scientists, associations of entrepreneurs) attempts to overcome the uncertainties and conflicts that arise in the case of the cross-border nature of these relations in their regulation by national legal sources by unifying the substantive legal norms on the relations of the agent and the principal, as well as on the relations of these persons with a third party. In order to solve the problem of forming a common, uniform approach to the legal regulation of relations of representation in international commerce, the article formulates its universal concept, which includes the main features of the regulation of internal and external relations within its framework, inherent in various national legal systems, international conventions and non-national sources of law, the practice of cross-border commerce; identifies specific features that characterize representation in international commerce; shows the features of its unified legal regulation.