Articles

The motivational function has essential features that distinguish it from other functions of law. It allows us to reveal such essential properties of social security law that do not manifest themselves when studying other functions. Taking as a basis the mechanism of motivational influence, including the laws of motivation, the structure of motives and their classification, the paper examines the issues of motivational influence that are important for the law of social security. The study revealed that pensions, benefits, and other types of social security have motivational significance not so much for social security legal relations as for labor legal relations. This confirms that social security and, first of all, pension rights are formed not in social security legal relations, but in labor, service or business legal relations. But these rights (the right to a pension, the right to benefits) are certain motivators for persons engaged in labor activity. In other words, motives that have a legal nature and are formed on the basis of the norms of social security legislation, encourage the subjects of labor relations to more productive work. Attention is also drawn to the shortcomings of the system of motives, it is shown that in certain cases it is more correct for the state to provide additional pension benefits, thereby assessing the previous work activity of citizens and establishing additional motives for those persons who have not yet retired.

The article examines the problem of extending the principle of party autonomy to non-contractual obligations from the historical perspective. The stages of the formation of supranational regulation of this issue in the European Union, in individual national legal systems, as well as in the Russian Federation are described. Both accepted and rejected by the legislation and the doctrine modalities of the choice of applicable law for non-contractual obligations are explored. From the position of historical development, the article analyzes the key dichotomies constituting the problem of the legitimacy of choosing the applicable law in non-contractual obligations: the justifiableness of the ex-ante choice of the applicable law, or the validity only of the ex-post choice; the admissibility of choosing as applicable the law of any foreign legal order, or the advisability of establishing criteria that limit the range of choice; the validity of the party autonomy in any legal relationship, or the reasonability of limiting or completely abandoning the party autonomy depending on the sphere of civil transactions or on the characteristics of the parties involved in legal relations. The author comes to the conclusion about the dynamic spread of the principle of party autonomy in non-contractual obligations over a relatively short historical period, along with the tendency to expand the scope of the principle of lex voluntatis in involuntary relations in general, as well as the liberalization of the modalities of such a choice of applicable law, in particular. Based on the results of the study, the author predicts the further elimination of a number of restrictive norms and an increase in the practical and doctrinal significance of the freedom to choose the applicable law in non-contractual obligations.

The article sets the challenge of assessing the regulatory function of taxation in relation to the production of polymers from hydrocarbon raw materials (plastic), as well as based on the study of the impact of plastic on the environment and human health the author seeks to develop tax and legal measures aimed at reducing the production of plastic. Herewith consideration is given to the possibility of producing polymers from alternative sources other than hydrocarbons (bioplastics). Currently, there are tax incentives in the Russian Federation aimed at processing hydrocarbons into plastic. This stimulates the production of plastic. But at the same time, the legislation does not sufficiently take into account the need to protect the natural environment and human health in relation to the widespread use of plastic and its degradation to microplastics. The author comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to introduce excise taxes on a number of plastic products, in particular, on plastic bags. The author’s conclusions are supported by references to international experience in this matter. On the other hand, the production of bioplastics should be exempt from excise taxation. The article also analyzes possible measures of tax incentives for the collection and processing of plastic. The author draws attention to the need to create material incentives for the population in relation to the collection of plastic. Such incentives can also be based on excise taxes and partial exemptions from excise taxes on the production of recycled plastic.

The article examines how in the process of centralization was changed the form of the state unity of Russia. The topic is interesting not only a theoretical understanding of the problem, but also a historical and legal analysis of the existing state unity of Russia. The article traces that the change in the form of the state unity of Russia is associated with the liberation from vassal dependence on the successor of the Golden Horde, the Great Horde. The article substantiates that the creation of a unified Russian state and its centralization differ somewhat in time, although they coincide at the last stages. These changes began to manifest themselves, first of all, in the change in the legal status of the feudal elite, the service class, which was reflected in the status of their land holdings. These changes manifest themselves after the feudal war of the middle of the XV century and are expressed in the strengthening of the central government (the order of succession to the Grand ducal throne changes and the power of the Grand Prince increases), specific land ownership is practically nullified and residential land ownership becomes the main one, the free transfer of boyars and free servants from the Grand Duke to other landowners is prohibited. This contributes to the creation of a consolidated class (social group) of serving people in the fatherland.

Reviewed the monograph by E. A. Frolova “Rational Foundations of Law: Classics and Modernity”. The reviewers come to the conclusion about the relevance of this book and its significance for the development of theoretical-legal and philosophical-legal thought in Russia and note that E. A. Frolova objectively investigated the essence of law from a theoretical standpoint. This approach gave her the opportunity to identify urgent problems of modern legal science and propose ways to resolve them. The review notes the deep study of legal sources, as well as scientific literature of various centuries, carried out in the course of the study.

The article reveals the main ideas and content of the current monographic research on the topic “Changing of Technological Orders and Legal Development of Russia” (Moscow, 2021), in which the author’s concept of legal genesis is presented on an interdisciplinary basis. This concept determines the legal genesis of the defining role of the dominant technology and technological structure of Russian society. Based on the position of the authors of the monograph, the specifics of the emergence, state and dynamics of the development of law, its regularities are largely determined by the technological factor at a particular historical period of time on the path of society’s movement from the traditional to the post-industrial type. Revealing from new methodological positions the fundamental natural connections of technological, economic and legal processes significant for the general theory and history of law at different historical stages, the authors build a certain logic of cyclical, wave development of the history of Russian law, due to the convergence of economic, technological and legal processes proper. An original interpretation of the periodization of the history of Russian law depending on technological structures is given, it is shown that in the evolution of domestic law, changes in its systemic and structural characteristics, a special place should be given to the role of the technological factor and the problem of dialectics of economic, technological and legal convergence.

This research is the fourth in a series of articles devoted to the issues of genetic and legal education. In the first work, the author revealed the measure of freedom of the subject of law determining the mode of data use on the example of genetic information; in the second — the measure of freedom of the subject-addressee of genetic education in the context of its content; in the third — the features of the forms of genetic and legal education in the society of the Industry 4.0 era. The objective of the article is to analyze the work of genetic and legal education executors. The success and effectiveness genetic and legal education directly depends on its executors, who have to have the particular knowledge in respective field. And if this problem is being solved on school education level, then in regards to the remaining multimillion audience there’s still a lot of work that specialists have to do. As a result of this the objectives of this article are to study specific competences of genetic and legal education executors and study the form and means of this education. Authors focus on education factors which influence the competence model of subjects, performing genetic and legal education, composition. They also focus on the skill set and knowledge that the team of these educators should have, meaning special skills of genetic and law education executors are being analyzed. This article views the practical meaning of genetic and law education, its types and corresponding to it methods (official and unofficial education) are being analyzed. Authors conclude that it is necessary to conceptualize genetic legal education, and therefore provide relevant recommendations for science and practice pointing out the necessity to combine official and unofficial forms of education and work over the question of introduction of “genetic ombudsman”. In the course of this study, logical, comparative-legal and formal-legal methods were used.

The article examines the possibility of prosecution for the crime of aggression committed through cyber-attacks (cyberaggression) under international criminal law. The author analyzes the material elements of the crime, examines the most extensive cyberattacks in the last 15 years and concludes that such requirements of the art. 8bis as commitment of the act of aggression only by State and the threshold requirement for the act of aggression to reach the level of manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations, as well as the lack of indication on the opened or closed list of acts of aggression in art. 8bis, makes its application to cyberaggression difficult. The Rome Statute’s provisions on the subject of the crime of aggression which limit both primary perpetrators and accomplices to those who are in position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the action of a State, prevent cybercrime perpetrators from being held liable for the crime of aggression. Similar difficulties arise when applying the mental element requirements of the crime of aggression to possible cases of cyberaggression, such as intent and knowledge to commit crime of aggression. At the same time the author recognizes the possibility and even the need to extend the definition of aggression to cases of committing this crime through cyberattacks.

The legal problems associated with Austria’s permanent neutrality are discussed in both Austrian and Russian international law literature controversially. Already the establishment of the Austrian neutrality in 1955 raises some legal questions. This article addresses — after an introduction to permanent neutrality as an institute of international law — the question of whether the Austrian neutrality is anchored in international law and, if so, on what legal basis that anchoring is based. By means of a comparative presentation of the Austrian and Soviet/Russian international law doctrine, an attempt is made to work out which of these various legal opinions appears justifiable from the view of the international law of neutrality. It will be shown that the obligations arising from Austria’s status of permanent neutrality go beyond those that are explicitly mentioned in the federal constitutional law on neutrality (Neutrality Act). Furthermore, it is presented that there are convincing reasons to argue for an anchoring of the Austrian neutrality in international treaty law in the Moscow Memorandum (April 1955) as well as in the State Treaty of Vienna (May 1955) and that the notification of the Neutrality Act provides another opportunity for a legal basis in international law. Furthermore, an attempt is made to show why the legal opinion which assumes that the Austrian neutrality is merely anchored in the Neutrality Act, and thus only on national law ground, has to be rejected.