Articles

The article is about the organizational basis of the innovative scientific and technological centers activity (ISTC) and its legal forms: 1) the organizational structure of the ISTC established in the law; 2) organizational relationship between persons involved in the project implementation, defining as a person’s special legal status depending on the ISTC management company’s decision (either on granting the status of a project participant to a legal entity, or on concluding an agreement on the implementation of scientific and technological activities with a person without the project participant status). The author, considering the elements of management in the ISTC organizational structure, concludes that there are differences in management relations in the ISTC and in a corporation. The article defines features of the ISTC management system and management subjects’ legal status: the management company — a joint-stock company endowed with public legal powers and carrying out general management of the ISTC activities, and the fund — a non-profit organization that acts as the owner or tenant of the property, which is part of the ISTC, as well as making strategic decisions on the ISTC creation and functioning. Analyzing the organizational relationship, the author highlights the legal consequences of the organizational relationship existence between the persons involved in the project implementation.

Fundamental changes in the social and state system after the revolutionary events of 1917 initiated a series of large-scale changes in social relations and legal institutions, which could not but affect the penal system inherited by Soviet Russia from the Russian Empire. In the first months after the establishment of Soviet power, continuity with the pre-revolutionary order of organizing places of detention was maintained, subsequently, as Soviet legislation developed and the penitentiary system was reformed, the Soviet penal system began to acquire its own characteristic features. The article analyzes the conditions and processes of formation and formation of the penitentiary system of the Soviet state with the involvement of archival materials, legal acts and scientific works, examines their organizational structure, the composition of the governing bodies and their interdepartmental struggle, as well as the types of places of detention, conditions of detention, rights and duties of prisoners. The relevance of the study of the Soviet system of execution of punishments lies in the consideration of the contradictions of its development in the light, on the one hand, of the features of the historically revolutionary character inherent in these events, and on the other hand, the identified need to inherit some of the institutions of this system that existed under previous governments. In the current conditions of the ongoing reorganization of the correctional system after the collapse of the USSR, taking into account such experience can also be relevant and useful for further reforms.

The article presents the problematic issues of anti-corruption regulation to prevent conflicts of interest when a former state and municipal employee is engaged in activities carried out for remuneration as a member of a collegial body of management or control of legal entities. The author points out the gaps in the anti-corruption legislation in terms of the lack of any control procedures in order to prevent a possible conflict of interest when nominating as a candidate and electing a former state or municipal employee to the management or control bodies of a business entity, in respect of which during his official activities exercised certain functions of state, municipal (administrative) management, including control or supervision, and receiving remuneration for work in such bodies of a business entity. An analysis of the risks of a conflict of public and private interests with the participation of former state or municipal employees in the management and control bodies of commercial and non-profit organizations is given. Possible solutions to this problem are proposed on the basis of the current system of the procedure for resolving a possible conflict of interest when concluding an employment contract or a civil law contract for the performance of work (services) with a former state or municipal employee, taking into account the specifics of corporate relations in business entities.

In recent years, the process of giving the heads of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation additional powers to overcome the consequences of emergency situations (such as the pandemic of the new coronavirus infection COVID‑19 or the introduction of illegal (“sanctions”) restrictive economic measures against the Russian Federation) has been actively developing. This allotment, in particular, was carried out by Presidential Ukases No. 239 of April 2, 2020 and No. 121 of March 16, 2022. The author believes that the trend indicated by them is a new one in the development of Russian federalism. At the same time, it should be noted that the measures taken in 2022 to ensure socio-economic stability were not limited to expanding the rights of the heads of the subjects of the Russian Federation, but also provided for a number of other measures that change the design of the system of relations between the federal center and the subjects of the Russian Federation. The article analyzes the content of the above-mentioned measures and activities from the perspective of the theory of state functions, they are regarded as manifestations of the dynamics of the federal function of the state.

The relevance of this study lies in the fact that, despite many years of research on the relationship between man and the state, problems in this part continue to persist, a panacea for establishing a complete understanding between these actors has not been found. This article is an attempt to answer some questions through the prism of the analysis of the constitutional and legal status of subjects based on the author’s theory of their relationship. This work is devoted to the study of the constitutional and legal status of a person, the state as a whole, the Russian Federation and state bodies from the standpoint of the theory of the correlation of subjects of law developed by the author, the essence of which is to establish and study absolutely all relations of subjects, including ineffective influence by virtue of powers, rights or duties that do not involve active actions, for subsequent legal regulation and accounting of what is really happening in life. In the preparation of this material, methods of analysis and synthesis were mainly used, since in order to consider the connections between the subjects, it was necessary to study each of them separately in order to come to the desired conclusions after the subsequent unification. A large volume of the invoice is taken from the scientific literature, in connection with which it is obvious to use the method of expert assessments. The result of the work done is to establish the true position of the subjects listed above in the system of their relationship with each other, which can be the basis for subsequent management decisions, the transformation of constitutional and legal regulation or further research by scientists interested in similar issues.

The article analyzes the tasks of reforming the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which, according to the author, can be solved only with the adoption of the new Basic Law of the country. In this case, the following prerequisites should become key: economic reforms; certainty in terms of ideological foundations; improvement of the public authority system; improvement of the system of public authority; securing the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, the foundations of civil society and the institutions of direct democracy; reflecting the tasks of the country’s territorial organization; regulation of the law enforcement system. The new text of the Constitution should take into account most of the novelties of the 2020 constitutional reform. But since, according to the existing procedure, it is impossible to amend chapters 1, 2, 9 of the Basic Law and many innovations are reflected in other chapters, therefore, when creating a new text, itis necessary to clearly follow the logic of constitutional regulation.

The article examines and analyzes the scientific views of Professor Ninel Fedorovna Kuznetsova on the problem of the correlation of criminal and moral norms. Based on the works of N.F. Kuznetsova, being an outstanding representative of the criminological school of the Soviet period, the ideas dominating in the 60–70s of the twentieth century about the possibility of the complete eradication of crime in a socialist society, about the replacement of criminal law norms with moral norms are shown. Despite the fact that the works considered in the article were written during the existence of communist ideology, many of the provisions, conclusions and views of Prof. N.F. Kuznetsova are relevant at the present time. First of all, this concerns the issues of the correlation of moral norms and the norms of criminal law. The thesis on the characterization of the relationship between criminal law and morality as a harmonious and complementary interaction fully deserves support. The conclusions of the scientist about the reasons why certain acts are no longer considered criminal in a particular historical period have retained their relevance. First of all, this is due to significant socio-economic transformations in the society and the state, as well as to a decrease in the degree of public danger of individual crimes, their low prevalence and the absence of a tendency to increase their number

The article deals with the legal regulation of abortion procedures in the USA after the landmark 2022 decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization of the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court overruled its own precedents stating that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; the authority to regulate abortion belongs to state representatives. The main approaches to establishing the criteria for the legality of abortion, developed by the American states, the case law positions, especially resolving the ethical conflict of the mother-child competing interests, are covered in the article. The special attention is given to the historical roots for the adoption of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In particular, the legal position of the US Supreme Court on the issue of a right to abortion, expressed in previous court decisions, is analyzed, as well as medical and financial measures taken by states to guarantee the access to safe abortion. The norms of new legislative acts of the American states that significantly limit the possibility of abortion are also discussed. The main conclusion of the article is that the change of the US Supreme Court position regarding the right to abortion and the states’ interest to interfere can be legally and historically justified.

This article is devoted to debatable issues of qualification of hooliganism. The author analyzes the changes made to Article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which regulates responsibility for hooliganism, and the practice of its application. The article deals with the problem of distinguishing between hooliganism and crimes committed out of hooligan motives: the author comes to the conclusion that these crimes are distinguished according to the signs of the objective side. The article also touches upon the problem of qualification of hooliganism committed with the use of violence in conjunction with crimes against health: the author comes to the conclusion that when solving this problem, it is necessary to be guided by the rule of competition between the part and the whole. In accordance with this rule, the norm providing for criminal liability for hooliganism covers beatings and intentional infliction of minor bodily harm, therefore, the relevant articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should not be imputed in conjunction with Article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The article analyzes the problem of distinguishing between hooliganism on railway, sea, inland water or air transport, as well as on any other public transport (paragraph 1 of article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and actions committed out of hooligan motives that threaten safety operation of vehicles (Article 267.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The author comes to the conclusion that the main problems associated with the qualification of hooliganism are caused by legislative errors in the construction of this criminal law norm.

The article deals with issues related to the legal nature and ethical component of the institute of de minimis infractions provided for in Part 2 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Using Russian and foreign philosophical and legal concepts, the author substantiates the conclusion about the close connection between de minimis infractions and the Roman natural law maxim summum jus, summa injuria (“The rigor or height of law is the height of wrong”). It is noted that the essence of the institute of de minimis infractions consists in the refusal of the law-enforcer to implement criminal repression in order to achieve the requirements of justice of a particular case, contrary to the strict prescription of the norm provided by the article of the Special Part of the criminal law. On the basis of the analysis of practice of Russian courts in criminal cases, the article demonstrates that the mechanism established by part 2 of article 14 of the Criminal Code is applied in case of conflict between standards of morality and criminal-law prohibitions. In order to overcome this conflict, the law-enforcer analyses the act for the presence or absence in it of a sign of public danger, i.e. actually assesses the legitimacy of criminalization of an act in a particular case, in other words, the law-enforcer acts as if he were the legislator.