Moscow University Law Bulletin. 2022. 3.

The article is devoted to the history of drafting the chapter on crimes in office in the criminal code of 1922. The theoretical and legislative basis of the chapter and its relation to pre-1917 criminal legislation is analysed. The amendments of the chapter in 1922–1926 are also discussed. The author refers to the case law of that time and especially to case law positions relevant until today. The special attention is given to the development of the notion “public official” compared with pre-1917 legislation. The basis for creation of construct of organizational and economical functions is analysed. The author cites case law as to workplace of public official as necessary element in description of this subjective element of crime. The main conclusion of the article is that the code of 1922 created the basis of the contemporary approach to crimes in office. This approach is mainly characterized by discussion the line between public and private sectors, public and private official persons, criminal liability for crimes in office in public and private sectors.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the relationship between the law of the World Trade Organization and regional trade agreements, as well as the competition of their dispute resolution bodies. World practice has proposed several ways to eliminate competition between the jurisdictions of dispute resolution bodies of regional trade agreements and the WTO. One of them is the inclusion in the regional trade agreements of the forum exclusion clause — clauses on the exclusion of jurisdiction. Another approach is the introduction by regional trade agreements into their law of a norm that requires member states to resolve all disputes arising from founding treaties, within the framework of the mechanisms enshrined in them themselves. An example of such a rule is Article 344 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Which approach can be followed by the law of the Eurasian Economic Union and the case law of its judicial body is a question that the author discusses in this article. As a result, the author admits the possibility of treaty making within Eurasian economic union which may resolve the question of the competition between the jurisdictions of the Court of Eurasian economic union and WTO Dispute Settlement Body.

The article is focused on the analysis of the “legal work” and “legal means” concepts characterizing professional activities of lawyers. Universal definitions of these concepts are formulated. It is proposed to understand legal work as the activity for creation and use of legal means, where the legal means is understood as the product of the mentioned activity: (1) a material or digital object — a document, or (2) an act, both used as a means for further activities targeted at a certain legal result. We substantiate the conclusion that the legal result of using the legal means is an intermediate output in relation to the planned final result (economic, social, political, etc.). Therefore, effective legal work engages legal means in such a way that the legal result they help to achieve is optimal for achieving the planned final economic, social and other results. Defined are the persons being the subjects of legal work and performing certain activities as a part of legal work in commercial organizations. The main goals and directions of legal work in commercial organizations are defined. The types of legal means used in the legal work in commercial organizations are specified. It is concluded that effectiveness of law is determined by the effective use of the legal means by all subjects of legal work.

This paper discusses the legal nature of the disclosure of evidence in English and American criminal proceedings — an institution that attracts special attention
of researchers due to the lack of direct continental analogues and its importance as a
procedural safeguard. In order to establish the place of the criminal discovery in the
Anglo-American system of criminal procedure, its genesis in the course of the procedural transformations of the 17th-19th centuries is researched. Author concludes that its
appearance is a consequence of the elimination of “prosecutorial bias”, created by socalled “lawyerisation”. By researching jurisprudence of the courts, statutory regulation
and doctrine, author finds that the main function of criminal discovery is to supply the
court with facts of the case. Taking into account the absence of judicial activity of the jury
in the Anglo-American criminal process, it would be impossible to make a correct decision on the merits of the case without disclosing the materials of the parties to each other

We completed a historical and legal research of the target-program approach to environmental protection and nature management planning in relation to the Lake Baikal and the adjacent territory in the Russian Empire until 1917, in the Soviet period and until 2018. Since 1960 the planning activities in relation to the Lake Baikal and its basin were of the greatest importance; the history of adoption, as well as efficiency of the implementation of the relevant documents is discussed, and the related problems are analyzed. Also analyzed are specific features of how Baikal protection target programs have been implemented. In the course of the study, 5 stages of the development of program-target documents were identified (pre-revolutionary, which began in the 19th century; the period from 1920 to 1960; the period from 1960 until the end of the USSR; the period from 1990 to 2018; the modern period, since 2018). The article lists the special features inherent in each of the periods. The conclusion is made that many contemporary issues with the protection of the Lake Baikal are due to historical circumstances, including those formed during the Soviet period.

The following article deals with the issues of legal qualification of anticompetitive agreements of undertakings in the market of the medical services. Depending on the terms, such agreements may be qualified as avoidable transaction on the basis of clause 2 of Articles 168, 169 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. According to Article 180 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, an anticompetitive agreement, taking into account its content, may be invalidated in the part that this agreement is contrary to the law. The author comes to the conclusion that the agreement, the content of which violates the direct prohibitions established by the antitrust law, can be considered as “conditionally invalid”. Restriction of competition as a consequence of the implementation of this agreement, as well as the absence of circumstances in which the agreement can be recognized as permissible, is assumed. If it is proved that there are no circumstances that can serve as grounds for declaring the agreement invalid (insignificant deal; avoidable transaction or contentious transaction), the agreement is recognized as permissible. Some types of such agreements, means of protection the rights and legitimate interests of undertakings and other persons violated by an anticompetitive agreement are considered.

This article analyses the work of Professor David Lvovich Zlatopolsky, one of the major and authoritative Soviet researchers of federalism. The author’s main works on federalism and nation-state building are reviewed and briefly analysed, on the basis of which three stages are proposed in his work, each of which reflects the author’s understanding of the stages of state-building in the USSR. The special attention is given to late works of D.L. Zlatopolsky in which he analyzed the reasons of collapse of the Soviet federal system and problem aspects of new Russian federalism fixed in the Constitution of 1993. The article is timed to coincide with the centenary of the founding of the USSR and the twentieth anniversary of David Lvovich’s death. Its relevance is predetermined by the fact that fundamental geopolitical changes are taking place in the post-Soviet space, interethnic conflicts are arising and «freezing», the statehood of some nations is strengthening while the statehood of others is weakening. A critical comprehension of the Soviet experience, described in numerous works by David Levovich, with a multifaceted perception of the federal development of the USSR and RSFSR, will allow us to take into account and not repeat the Soviet mistakes in modern Russian federalist construction in the future.

The study of the topic outlined in this article, taking into account such a volume, will contribute to the development of forensic knowledge about the scientific school of the famous forensic scientist, not only in the countries formed in the post-Soviet space, but also on a global scale. This study will also help to supplement the volume of forensic knowledge about the scientific school of the Department of Criminalistics, Faculty of Law, Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. The essay presents the results of a study by the scientific school of Professor V. Ya. Koldin, the author’s vision of modern problems of criminology, its significance for issues of general scientific and legal knowledge, law enforcement practice and education is presented. Professor V. Ya. Koldin understood criminology as an information-cognitive structure. With this approach in mind, he built his creative activity. Certain aspects of his work in scientific and pedagogical activities, including the training of lawyers and scientists from other countries, his huge contribution to the creation of scientific and didactic material on forensic science in the countries where he was sent as a Soviet specialist are shown. There are many followers in his scientific school, in their scientific works the system-activity and information approaches in forensic activity are implemented. The purpose of this study is the desire to more fully reveal the provisions that characterize his contribution to the development of scientific knowledge about the forensic science of information technology, as well as his practical experience in didactics.

The review reveals the content of an interdisciplinary monographic study “Digitalization of law enforcement: the search for new solutions” (M., 2022) which presents a conceptual view on law enforcement activities in the context of the development of digital technologies and technical innovations based on methodological approaches inherent to the social sciences and the principles of post-non-classical rationality. The authors substantiate the key role of the technological factor in the development of law enforcement, showing how modern technologies involved in law enforcement activity change not only the form of its expression, appearance, but, above all, its main content. According to the presented concept, the current state and dynamics of law enforcement, the patterns of its further evolution and the degree of effectiveness are determined by the technological order of Russian society. It is noted that the transitional stage of modern Russian society, due to the change of technological orders, ensured the hybrid coexistence of classical and nonclassical models of law enforcement, the “crossing” of the biological subject of law enforcement with technological elements, algorithms, program codes, technical innovations, expert systems, etc., defining at the present stage the formal quantitative and qualitative characteristics of law enforcement activities. Revealing from new methodological positions the fundamental patterns of digital transformations of law enforcement, the authors, on the basis of understanding of the laws of the technological environment of innovations in which law enforcement is increasingly carried out, make an attempt to expand the boundaries of existing ideas about the essence of law enforcement and the directions of its further evolutionary movement, indicating forecasts and possible risks.