Family entrepreneurship is a legal concept with a very flexible content, the flexibility of which is explained by the difficulty of determining the boundaries of the family itself. As part of the legal categorical apparatus, family entrepreneurship can be used as a means of additional influence on the sphere of human value. It is not required to legislatively consolidate the meaning of the concept, namely, to turn it at the level of federal laws into a legal term with a well-defined content. Affirmative government stimulation of family entrepreneurship by creating broad preferences can have negative consequences associated with abuse, including disguising the business as family. To support family entrepreneurship, it is preferable to use the legal model of a public competition held according to criteria determined by regional authorities. At the federal level, it is advisable to form a foundation to support family business that would participate in financing competitions and their holding in collaboration with the regional authorities. A more thorough approach requiring wider public discussion is also possible: in the context of the crisis of the institution of the family and aggravating demographic problems, an institution based on the federal law of the Family Foundation could become an important institutional prerequisite for finding ways to solve them. The organization of competitions for family businesses could become one of the main activities of such a foundation.

Based on general theoretical knowledge about the role and place of presumptions in legal regulation and taking into account the peculiarities of their action in family legal regulations, the author refers to normative presumptions enshrined in the rules establishing the origin of a child. Methodologically, intermediate and final conclusions regarding the problem constituted a theoretical message, according to which the lawmaker does not use presumptions to establish maternity due to the objective nature of motherhood. As technical and legal tools built into the rules on establishing the origin of a child, presumptions are involved in establishing paternity, but not in all cases. This is evidenced by the dichotomy of rules indicating a voluntary and compulsory procedure for the paternity establishment. The instrumental role of presumptions has implications for the voluntary order of establishing paternal descent. This procedure is based on the marriage of the parents, and, if the marriage did not take place, on the joint statement of the mother and the illegitimate father. The compulsory (judicial) procedure for establishing paternity does not imply the use of presumptions, since it is based on the principles of competition. In the context of the emergence of reliable sources of evidence of paternity, the division into voluntary and compulsory order remains relevant. Therefore, the subject of author’s research is limited to a description of the voluntary procedure for establishing paternity, in which normative presumptions are involved. This order is not focused on a simple reflection of biological or genetic reality — its presence in this order is always assumed and does not provide for finding any evidence. This is how the cultural vision of the proper procedure for establishing voluntary paternity is expressed, reflecting the political and bioethical standards of human reproduction.

The ideas of equality and freedom of contract in civil relations are harmonious and constructive only if they are limited. The presence of a weaker party to the contract, in particular the consumer, constitutes one of the factors requiring the establishment of limitations. The paper is devoted to the study of manipulation in relation to non-professional participants in civil trafficking. The author attempts to evaluate new methods of influencing the will of the consumer, aimed at forming an imaginary will to conclude a contract (neuromarketing). The paper proposes a definition of the concept of manipulative behavior in legal relations and describes its features. The author concludes that misleading, as well as consumer deception and manipulation, are various legal phenomena. It is justified that manipulative behavior is a type of abuse of law. Using the practice of the Perm Krai courts as a case study, the author analyzes the effectiveness of possible methods of protection under manipulative influence, namely: Articles 10, 168, 178, 428 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Preference is noted for recognizing a transaction concluded with the help of manipulation as invalid on the grounds of Article 10 and 168 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

The paper provides an up-to-date study of the features of certification of prosecutors and employees of the Investigative Committee in the context of the rapid development of digital technologies and the current international political situation. The article examines the process of assessing the professional qualities and competencies of prosecutors and employees of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. The article expressed the opinion that it is necessary to strengthen attention to the assessment of digital knowledge and skills of this category of workers, to take into account not only already acquired skills, but also the ability to adapt to new technologies. In addition, the importance of assessing the knowledge of prosecutors and employees of the Investigative Committee in the field of international law during certification events was noted, taking into account events in the international arena.

The paper is devoted to the axiomatics of the concept of responsible delegation of power by the people: 1) the people are the source of power, the powers of bodies and officials arise as delegated from this source; 2) popular sovereignty is systemically interconnected with the State; the delegation of power by the people to legitimately formed bodies is an act of confirmation and strengthening of state sovereignty; 3) democracy is a legal and organizational principle of relations between the people and the state; it is a legal state — a complex legal relationship that provides grounds for specific legal relations where the political rights of citizens are realized; 4) the democratic way of forming authorities is a valuable product of the development of civilization, with the potential for improvement within the framework of the concept of responsible delegation of power by the people; 5) the status of the people as a source of power, bearer of sovereignty, the legal state of democracy in relation to each citizen is expressed through his personal participation in the delegation of power in the framework of democratic procedures; 6) an important goal and principle is the perception by each citizen of his participation in the delegation of power by the people as a constitutional value and the formation of the most responsible attitude to such participation. For the purpose of scientific discussion, the construction of professional democracy is proposed as a synthesis of genuine democracy in the traditional sense and the rational selection of managerial personnel according to thoughtful professional criteria, built into the mechanisms of responsible delegation of power by the people. Within its framework, it is recommended to change the electoral legislation in terms of expanding the information available to voters about candidates.

The paper is devoted to examining the concept and functions, as well as the main tasks of the institution of ombudsmen for human rights. The author examined the views of modern legal science and practice on the concept of the institution of ombudsmen for human rights. The paper provides a definition and a classification of the functions of this important institution of state human rights activities. The author proposes to distinguish the following main functions: protective, expert, mediative, control, educational, heuristic, axiological, and coordinating. The author analyzed the main tasks in the activities of the institution of ombudsmen for human rights in the Russian Federation at the federal and regional levels, as well as in the BRICS member states. The author proposed to identify four main tasks in the activities of the Institute of Ombudsmen for Human Rights in the Russian Federation: consideration of citizens’ appeals; improving legislation; legal education; international cooperation, as well as more than 10 additional ones. An analysis of the normative legal acts and practical activities of the institution of ombudsmen for human rights in the Russian Federation, as well as the legislation of foreign states on ombudsmen, allowed the author to highlight modern trends in the development of this human rights mechanism and offer prospects for its improvement.

The introduction of digital technologies into the sphere of human rights and freedoms is ambiguous, leading to a blurring of established ideas about constitutional human rights and freedoms. In general, all groups of constitutional human rights and freedoms have been digitalized. The use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence has contributed to the creation of new forms of implementation of constitutional rights and freedoms. However, digitalization has also created new threats that can only be neutralized by creating new legal mechanisms. Practice has shown that law as a universal social regulator is applicable to regulating public relations in the digital environment. Spontaneous instruments of self-regulation are not based on basic constitutional principles, including the recognition of human rights and freedoms as the highest value, therefore, they cannot serve as the main source of regulation. In the context of rapidly developing technologies and changing public relations, the importance of constitutional principles, as well as human rights and freedoms, as a basic value, the foundation for building new legal relations in the digital environment and creating new digital rights is increasing. 

In particular, given the extent of the penetration of digital technologies into the implementation of constitutional human rights and freedoms, it is necessary first of all to legislate the guarantee of human access to the Internet as a condition for the implementation of constitutional rights and freedoms in the digital environment, as well as to supplement the provisions prohibiting discrimination of human rights and freedoms depending on the form of rights and freedoms implementation.

The paper is devoted to the issue of the current and future impact of the special military operation launched in February 2022 on crime in Russia. The purpose of the paper is the following. Based on criminal records statistics and doctrinal points of view, the author aims to identify socially dangerous acts caused by a special military operation; to make assumptions about the development of the criminal situation in the country in the context of a special military operation; to propose measures to prevent the deterioration of the criminal situation. The following aspects have been consistently analyzed: criminality of persons pardoned for participation in a special military operation (taking into account the historical experience of involving prisoners in combat); criminality due to post-traumatic stress disorder; criminality due to the increase in income of participants in a special military operation, as well as in connection with their acquisition of skills in handling firearms; fraudulent actions against relatives of participants in a special military operation; juvenile delinquency; crime related to forced migration; extremist manifestations; war crime. The data on criminal records for 2019–2023 for a number of crimes and in the context of the category of socially dangerous acts committed are separately noted. The empirical basis of the study was data from the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Rosstat and the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia. The results of the study can be applied in law enforcement, in the legislative process and in further scientific research on the impact of military operations on crime.

The paper analyzes the method of legislative consolidation of the duty of proof in the norm, revealing the content of the presumption of innocence. The provisions of Part 2 of Article 14 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation are assessed as not fully consistent with the essence of criminal procedural evidence. The author substantiates the failure of the legislator’s use of the term «burden of proof» in this norm, which is not synonymous with the concept of «duty of proof». Attention is drawn to the fact that the concept of «burden of proof», reflecting proof only in a logical aspect, does not cover the process of forming criminal procedural evidence. In the author’s opinion, the use of the concept of the «burden of proof of the charge» would be justified to some extent if part 2 of Article 14 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation concerned only the stage of the trial, since the function of the prosecution in its pure form is implemented only in court. The strict connection of this concept with the concept of «accusation» is especially critically assessed. Based on a comparative legal analysis, a number of advantages of the criminal procedure legislation of some neighboring countries have been identified, both in terms of the method chosen by the legislator of these countries to reflect the duty of proof in it, and in terms of the methodological approach to its implementation. Specific recommendations are made to the legislator on improving legislation by excluding Part 2 of Article 14 from the Code of Criminal Procedure and adding Part 2 to Article 85 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which establishes the duty of proof.

The paper analyzes the importance of reproductive technologies as to inheritance law, examines the conditions for the exercise of the rights of heirs by law or will to reproductive material after the death of the person who provided it, as well as issues related to the establishment of the fact of the child’s descent from specific persons. The author notes that these problems are more regulated in common law countries, the judicial practice of which has gradually developed the doctrine-supported concept of the possibility of disposing of biomaterials in case of death and posthumous conception of a child as the basis for establishing its origin and recognizing its inheritance rights. The issues raised are widely discussed in modern doctrine, but the current legislation does not contain any relevant instructions, and the conservative approach to their solution still dominates in Russian judicial practice. Based on the study of the most significant opinions of foreign courts, the author makes a conclusion about the expediency of creatively borrowing the most successful of them in the further development of Russian inheritance law and the need to transfer to the legal field solutions to complex ethical problems associated with the birth of posthumous offspring. In order to expand the testamentary capacity of Russian citizens and taking into account the possibilities of modern assisted reproductive technologies, it is proposed to allow the transfer of the reproductive biological material of the deceased person to the surviving spouse or parents, to consolidate the right of citizens to dispose of such material in a will and to provide for the possibility of including living children born within 3 years after the death of the testator among the heirs.

The problems covered in the paper are inspired by the significant anniversary of one of the oldest higher educational institutions in Russia — Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, which can be used as an example to trace the dramatic relationship between theology and science in the pre-revolutionary period of our history. Kazan Imperial University was an unusual educational institution in every sense of the word. In addition to purely educational and scientific, other functions were assigned to it. It still has a special mission today. This is a very difficult topic, and each historical epoch has offered its own answers to the interrelation of different worldviews. Relatively recently, theology and science were perceived as opposite, mutually exclusive cognitive systems. The authors look at the problem somewhat differently. Perhaps for the first time in Russian jurisprudence, teleology and theology are considered as sense-making factors in the development of law. And not by themselves, but in some connection. We are fully aware of the responsibility for such a statement of the issue. Nevertheless, the intellectual history of mankind provides certain grounds for such an unusual point of view for our science.