The author gives the author’s approach to defining the role of the Church in the formation of the legal system of Rus’. The paper elucidates the particular significance of the Archiepiscopal See of the Novgorod Republic in the history of the state and legal development in Rus’, given the direct involvement of the people of Novgorod in creating the first native legal monuments, as well as their extensive political and economic contacts that facilitated the transformation of canon law into a regulator of secular life. The study examines the influence of the political environment, as well as social, ideological, and intra-church conflicts, on the development of the system of legal regulation. It highlights the importance of adopting Western European experience in the reception of Roman law for enriching domestic legal practice with a universal conceptual framework — one that made it possible to frame complex and contentious issues of both ecclesiastical and secular life within the structure of academic debate and formal legal documents. The paper substantiates the relevance of researching the lawmaking, judicial, and administrative practices of the Archiepiscopal See of the Novgorod Republic in order to identify the decisive factors in the state and legal development of Rus’. Based on an analysis of historical sources and scholarly approaches to the issues addressed, the author concludes that it is necessary to formally recognize the role of theological doctrine as a source of law at the initial stage of the formation of the national legal system.

The paper analyzes how appellate courts review judicial decisions issued under simplified procedural frameworks, identifying current challenges, gaps in legal regulation, and prospects for the development of electronic case resolution procedures. It demonstrates that simplified proceedings constitute a self-sufficient and necessary progressive form of expedited adjudication of civil and other private law cases, characterized by clear factual circumstances and a straightforward evidentiary process. The effectiveness and necessity of simplified proceedings are substantiated through their key advantages: reducing court caseloads and shortening the time required for case resolution, including the period for a judgment to become final and enforceable; promoting procedural economy in terms of time and financial resources for the parties; and advancing legal techniques, procedural mechanisms, and e-justice. The study further establishes that, as a means of optimizing civil procedure, simplified proceedings cannot entail a curtailed application of the fundamental principles of civil litigation. In other words, courts may not deprive the rules governing the submission of evidence in simplified proceedings of the guarantees of adversarial process, nor may they deny the principle of transparency in the publication of judicial decisions. In this regard, further optimization of the rules governing simplified proceedings — both at the trial and appellate levels — must respond to contemporary social and legal demands. The authors conclude that there is a need to further develop, refine, and streamline the simplified model within appellate proceedings.

Within the criminal procedural framework for ensuring access to justice, the institution of jurisdiction serves as a universal mechanism that guarantees a person’s practical ability to seek judicial protection at any stage of criminal proceedings. The significant legislative transformations to which the rules governing jurisdiction have been subjected in recent years have brought into focus the question whether this institution is capable not merely of performing a technical function of allocating criminal cases among courts, but also of safeguarding access to specific procedural rights. The findings of the study indicate a marked departure by the Russian legislature from the previously established model of differentiated jurisdiction. The blurring of boundaries among the jurisdiction of military courts, courts of general jurisdiction, and magistrate courts has resulted from a disregard for the procedural and institutional particularities of their respective functions. The author demonstrates that the mechanism for changing jurisdiction in order to ensure the personal safety of participants in criminal proceedings is characterized by undue complexity and a narrowly circumscribed scope of application. Conversely, the procedure for removing and transferring a criminal case to another court to safeguard the objectivity and impartiality of the trial is marked by indeterminacy and, in essence, duplicates the procedure for challenging a panel of judges. An analysis of specific judicial decisions shows that these circumstances prevent the full potential of the mechanism for changing jurisdiction from being realized and contribute to inconsistent judicial practice. The study substantiates the need to legitimize changes in territorial jurisdiction in the event of certain insurmountable circumstances that restrict access to justice, particularly in cases where there is a prolonged inability to empanel a jury.

The author analyzes contemporary sexual offenses committed through information and telecommunications networks; clarifies the forms of remote sexual misconduct that are not currently prohibited (such as live sexual posing in front of a webcam, exchanging explicit messages and photos, etc.); examines regulatory measures adopted in other jurisdictions to restrict such conduct; and proposes measures to counteract criminal manifestations of a sexual nature in cyberspace. The measures identified by the author as necessary to reduce the incidence of such offenses include the imposition of a duty on service providers to report sexual offenses committed via the Internet; the establishment of a registry of persons convicted of sexual offenses; and expanded media coverage addressing the problem of virtual sexual exploitation. For educational purposes, the study recommends the development of informational materials describing both contact and non-contact forms of sexual abuse. The paper further analyzes the social harm posed by sexual offenses committed in a non-contact manner through information and telecommunications networks and proposes measures for the further improvements to specific provisions set forth in Chapters 18 and 25 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The author analyzes various approaches to implementing the concept of an environmental constitution in modern states, identifies current challenges in putting this concept into practice, and proposes indicators for its implementation and for the harmonization of environmental rights and responsibilities in the constitutions of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The study finds that in the Russian Federation the concept of an environmental constitution is beginning to take shape through the enshrinement of fundamental constitutional environmental rights and duties both in constitutional provisions and in the federal law on environmental protection. The author distinguishes between an environmental constitution and a green constitution, explaining that the former focuses on the individual as part of the environment, whereas the latter addresses the environment itself, natural resources, and environmental and biological security. In addition, the author highlights studies that directly examine issues related to the environmental constitution, as well as environmental rights and responsibilities that should be consolidated at the constitutional level.

The foundation of the entire social security system lies in its organizational and legal forms (methods) of implementation. The defining characteristics of each form are identified through analysis of the features that demonstrate their specific nature. The most significant features that make it possible to classify a particular type of social security under a specific organizational method are determined according to the sources of funding and the grounds for provision, considered exclusively in combination. At the federal level, social security is implemented through three primary forms: state social security, state social assistance, and mandatory social insurance. Any member of society may qualify for support measures within the framework of state social security, provided they meet the need-based criteria established by the government (low income, child-rearing expenses, health status, unemployment, etc.). State social security is aimed at maintaining a decent standard of living for certain categories of individuals who have earned or merited this right (military personnel, cosmonauts, Heroes of the USSR and Russia, among others), as well as providing compensation for harm caused by adverse consequences of radiation and technological disasters. The third form makes it possible to provide social security coverage to insured persons at the expense of mandatory social insurance funds.

The aim of this study is to examine the feasibility of developing a concept for the evolution of the criminal justice system of the Russian Federation amid the digital transformation of society and the state. To achieve this aim, the paper sets and addresses the following objectives: to examine the ideals and norms of knowledge organization at the fundamental-conceptual level within the broader history of philosophy and science; to identify and describe the specific application of the deductive-axiomatic model in the field of criminal justice; to formulate principles for the concept of criminal justice development in the context of digitalization; and to outline preliminary goals for the evolution of criminal justice under the digital transformation of the state and society. The methods of analysis, abstraction, generalization and conceptualization are used. The experience of the initial stages of digitalization of criminal proceedings as described in scholarly publications by Russian legal scholars is analyzed; a critical assessment of the planning of this process is offered; and the potential and limits of managing current changes are demonstrated. The necessity of constructing the concept of digitalization of criminal proceedings in the form of a deductive-axiomatic system is substantiated. In this system, general principles are formulated as axioms that serve as the foundational premises for defining goals and selecting the means (institutions, technologies) necessary to achieve them. The principles of efficiency and the principle of justice are proposed as the principles of the concept of the development of the criminal justice system in the context of the digital transformation of society and the state. The goals of introducing technical innovations and organizational and legal innovations are to protect an individual using a computer, protect an individual from another individual using a computer, and protect an individual from the computer itself. The special role of applying an interdisciplinary approach combining the means and methods of legal science with the cognitive capabilities of philosophy, logic, management theory and other socio-humanitarian sciences is noted, and tasks for new research in this field are outlined.

This paper examines the transformation of collective bargaining relations in the context of the spread of information technologies (Internet platform algorithms, other digital technologies for production management, monitoring labor discipline, labor productivity, and others). Attention is given to the scholarly concepts of European, Latin American, and Asian scholars from BRICS countries who are exploring the impact of digitalization on the development of labor law. It is noted that digitalization in labor law has led to significant consequences, including the emergence of internet-platform workers and the widespread use of artificial intelligence algorithms to monitor and manage the labor process. The paper presents the regulatory experience of collective labor relations in the European Union and selected BRICS countries. Deficiencies in the legal regulation of the right to form and join trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, conclude collective agreements, and conduct strikes involving platform workers and other employees whose labor has been digitalized are identified. The author outlines several proposals for the development of collective labor relations in the context of digitalization. These involve guaranteeing selfemployed individuals, who in various legal systems typically include digital workers, the right to form and join professional unions and to conduct collective bargaining; incorporating into tariff (collective) agreements provisions on employment support during the digitization of organizational or technological processes, and others.

The introduction into legislation of a provision allowing for the deprivation of a digital currency holder’s right to judicial protection has given rise to numerous theoretical and practical issues. The legislator’s definition of this phenomenon as a restriction of law does not align with the legal nature of the restrictions. An analysis of doctrinal approaches to understanding the restriction of subjective civil rights, which made it possible to identify the characteristics of restrictions, has shown that the goal of state control over tax payment cannot be regarded as a basis for imposing a restriction. Comparing the sanction in question with the denial of legal protection reveals a distinction between the two. A similar conclusion is drawn when comparing it with natural obligations. It is argued that the introduced prohibition upsets the balance of interests among civil law subjects, recognizing, under equal conditions, different legal possibilities for judicial protection of subjective rights. The introduction of this construction violates the principles of civil law. The analyzed norm regulates relationships falling within the subject matter of civil law, arising between parties in pursuit of their private interests. Consequently, embedding a public interest into their private-law relationships appears inconsistent. Given that this definition deprives a party to civil legal relations of the right to judicial protection, permits an imbalance between public and private interests, as well as between the private interests of digital currency holders belonging to different groups of parties, granting them different legal possibilities, the conclusion is drawn that this rule should be excluded from current legislation.

Modern neurotechnologies represent a promising area that can provide extensive support in protecting the rights and legitimate interests of citizens in various areas of public life. The competent use of neurotechnologies to adopt balanced regulatory models in the field of information application, as well as the introduction into practice of legal expertise of information materials (media products) can significantly improve the policy of preserving traditional spiritual and moral values and, in general, the sphere of ensuring information security and cognitive sovereignty. This study presents an original classification of types of examination of information materials depending on the nature of regulation and type of jurisdictional activity; reveals the legal nature and legal status, subject, object, methodology and fundamentals of the methodology of legal expertise of information materials (destructive illegal content). The paper proposes a high-tech model of neuro-legal examination that combines the results of neurophysiological registration with the legal qualification of destructive effects and with the category of neuro-rights. Existing theories of legal regulation of the media environment are critically reassessed, particularly those that assume the neutrality of content distribution channels and underestimate the algorithmically amplified effects of cognitive pressure. Criteria for classifying information materials as high-risk zones are formulated, and theoretical prerequisites for the development of neuro-legal examination are proposed. The practical importance of integrating neurotechnologies into media content assessment procedures is emphasized for the development of high-tech legal models for regulating the media environment, adjusting regulatory requirements for platforms, and designing protection regimes against cognitive threats of destructive influence.

This paper presents a comprehensive comparative legal analysis of the institution of the Register of Unfair Suppliers (Reestr nedobrosovestnykh postavshchikov (RNP)) in Russia and Belarus within the context of the law of the Eurasian Economic Union. The study reveals that despite the public-law nature of the sanctions associated with inclusion in the RNP, the grounds for their application arise from the private-law conduct of the supplier during the conclusion or performance of a public procurement contract. The authors analyze in detail the legal nature of the RNP, the procedures for inclusion and exclusion from the register, the criteria for assessing the supplier’s guilt, and current judicial practice in both countries. Particular attention is given to the problem of proportionality of the application of this measure of responsibility and differences in approaches to withdrawal from the register. In Russia, there is no possibility of withdrawal from the RNP, which creates more stringent conditions for suppliers, while in Belarus there are various grounds for withdrawal, including cases involving domestic manufacturers and situations related to the affiliation of participants. The authors propose measures to improve the legislation of both states, including differentiation of terms of stay in the RNP, the development of withdrawal mechanisms, the formation of a positive register of bona fide suppliers and the harmonization of approaches to the management of RNP within the EAEU. The implementation of these proposals will ensure a balance between public interests and the rights of procurement participants, taking into account the principles of fairness, proportionality and individualization of responsibility.

The paper examines the process of radical transformation of Soviet agriculture during the precollectivization period, a topic that has received little attention in academic scholarship. It demonstrates that even on the eve of collectivization, the Soviet village differed fundamentally from its pre-revolutionary counterpart in terms of economic conditions, cultural level, technical equipment, and organizational changes. Law played a huge role in this transformation. Through legal acts, for the first time in Russian history, peasants obtained land in sufficient quantities, the mobilization of relevant specialists for agricultural activities was carried out, model charters for collective farms (communes, artels, associations for the joint cultivation of land) were developed, literacy (including agricultural literacy) was disseminated, and kulak farms were displaced. The state supported farm laborers and middle peasants, showing by example the benefits of collective agricultural production. The collective farms that emerged were not merely a simple sum of peasants and their former holdings; rather, with active state support, they reached a new qualitative level of development that would have been impossible under individual farming. At the same time, collective farms did not operate chaotically but on the basis of emerging planning (organizational plans, production plans). Much of the experience gained remains relevant to this day, both for our country and for foreign states.