Articles

The article analyzes the features of the design, interpretation and use of a woman’s state of pregnancy as an aggravating factor (art. 63 (1)(z) CC RF). It attempts to examine the evolution of the legislative approach to the formation of this circumstance in Russian criminal law. At the same time, different views on the solution of existing problems of interpreting the state of pregnancy as a circumstance aggravating the punishment that are available in the doctrine of criminal law are critically considered; proposals were developed to improve the legislative regulation of this circumstance and practice of its application.

The article discusses the concepts of cyberviolence and cyberharassment and describes types of the latter. The illustrations from Russian and foreign cases are given. The author points out the problems of qualification of acts related to the types of cyberharassment according to the Russian Criminal Code and states that the Russian approach towards object of crime is not correct and should be changed.

The article investigates the features of the legal nature of customary law from the perspective of ethnographic theory of law (ethnic legal studies). On the base of Russian and foreign sources the essence of the customary law is substantiated, the legal owner of which are people (ethnos), providing understanding of multiple legal categories, regulated most important spheres of their livehood. Customary law studies are done on the base of civilization approach to historical-legal development of the institutions as reflection of legal values of the particular ethnos.

The article examines the changes that occurred in the Soviet state in the first months of the great Patriotic war. The work is based on the study of normative legal acts of wartime.

The law of the Republic of Belarus “on amendments to laws” dated July 18, 2019 No. 219-Z introduced significant changes and additions to the Labor code of the Republic of Belarus. These innovations can be assessed as the third global reform of labor legislation. Law No. 219-Z of July 18, 2019 introduced a new Chapter in the Labor code of Belarus on the contract system of employment, in which the norms from a number of decrees of the President of the Republic of Belarus were implemented. A number of conflicts, legal and technical errors related to the adoption of the Law of July 18, 2019 were identified. No. 219-Z, which may lead to problems in practice when applying the updated Labor code of Belarus. The authors make suggestions for improving the labor legislation of Belarus. A comparison is made with the labor legislation of the Russian Federation. It is concluded that the Belarusian lawmaker approached the reform of the Labor Code without sufficient conceptual understanding.

In the present article the author considers main arguments and conclusions made by the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion of 1951 in the Reservations Case from historical perspective as well as general political and legal context. The analysis performed by the author reveals related advantages as well as drawbacks of the compatibility test and the system of the horizonal individual control over the reservations suggested by the Advisory Opinion. The author argues that despite of the obvious weak points of the suggested test and individual control over the reservations the Advisory Opinion of 1951 remains one of the most significant achievements of the Court radically changing the status of the reservations and paving the way to successful codification of international law.

The article discusses the legal nature of public control in the field of waste management in comparison with other types of control and supervision activities, environmental management functions, a separate type of public control — public environmental control. An analysis of the relationship between the legal regulation of public control in the field of waste management and the legal regulation of public environmental control, as well as public control in general, was carried out from a formal and substantive point of view. The vagueness of legal regulation in some aspects makes it impossible to unambiguously identify cases where relations regarding the implementation of public control in the field of waste management are regulated with those features that are established in the legislation on environmental protection. The legislation on public control can be applied to public control in the field of waste management, with normatively established exceptions and with the obligatory taking into account the general conclusions of the science of environmental law.

The article discusses the dialectical representation of the subject of forensic science, the reflection and role of consistent patterns and contingency in the disclosure and investigation of crimes. Definitions are given to the concepts of “consistent patterns”, “contingency”, examples of their understanding and use in science. It is noted that in forensics randomness often has a negative meaning, it is perceived as randomness, unpredictability, absurdity, but it can also have a positive meaning when randomness “plays” in favor of the investigation and provides the investigator with some freedom of choice.

The article reveals the concept of “counteraction to the investigation of crimes”, justifies the conclusion that counteraction to the investigation of crimes by lawyers (defenders) cannot be legal contrary to the opinion of a number of well-known criminalists who believe that such counteraction can be legal.

The article deals with the influence of the leading question on the confession. The leading question, however, is not only understood in the traditional sense of the term as a question that contains information that prompts the answer. More broadly, it is a matter that accompanies the use of any information of evidence, the reporting of factual information in various investigative situations. This question leads to a certain answer. Introduction of the concept of “probability-oriented question” allows to differentiate between information and actions of a leading nature.