The article gives a legal evaluation of the mechanism of realization of the constitutional principle of equal rights and self-determination of the peoples in the newly adopted constituent entities of the Russian Federation - the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol - the city of Federal Significance. The principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples is understood in two ways: as political and cultural self-determination. The content of political self-determination amounts to the right of peoples to choose the form of their national statehood. The author concludes that the realization of this right is possible only within the Russian Federation. In the framework of the existing constitutional regulation this right can be implemented by the peoples inhabiting the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol in several ways: by means of territorial separation of a any compactly living people and creating a separate constituent entity of the Russian Federation; by means of using the possibility to change the status of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation; by means of changing the name of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation; by means of combining two or more bordering constituent entities of the Russian Federation and the formation of a new constituent entity of the Russian Federation; by changing the borders between constituent entities of the Federation. The article analyses the mechanisms of realization of the right to cultural self-determination of peoples inhabiting the newly formed entities of the Russian Federation, the content of which is the right to maintain and develop their culture and language, traditions and customs. Particular attention is paid to the problem of cultural self-determination of the Crimean Tatars. Given the political activity of the Crimean Tatar ethnos, the article draws a conclusion that the regulation of inter-ethnic relations at the constitutional level in the Republic of Crimea requires a larger number of rules-guarantees in respect of its representatives. From the author's point of view, it is necessary to adopt a special law of the Republic of Crimea on the status of the Crimean Tatars. Also, the legal regulation in the sphere of circulation of the official languages of the Republic of Crimea, in particular the status of the Tatar language, remains insufficient. The author suggests other ways of addressing the issue of Crimean Tatars. The solution to the problem of their political selfdetermination is possible by means of reforming electoral systems. At the local government level, according to the author, the experience of constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the establishment of administrative-territorial units with special status can be employed.

The article compares different types of municipalities that can be found in the federal legislation and the legislation of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, examines the problem of the powers of the constituent entities to establish new types of municipalities. When analyzing the legal status of municipalities the author underlines that the question of equality between different types of municipalities is not so unambiguous. For example, it is emphasized that the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the State Duma materials provide for different kinds of municipalities, the Federal legislator has quite clearly articulated their desire to establish their differences. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of differences in the legal status of municipalities referred to the same type. In this context, the paper scrutinizes the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation held in December, 2015, on the so-called Irkutsk case.

The article analyzes the legal construction of P. 1 Art. 104 of the RF Constitution that assigns to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation the right of legislative initiative on matters of its Jurisdiction. The paper discusses the narrow and the broad approaches to legal understanding of the term "matters of jurisdiction" in relation to the Constitutional Court, provides arguments to refute the reasons of the representatives of the narrow approach with regard to the violation of the principle of separation of powers in the realization of the right of legislative initiative of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. The author examines the competence approach to granting the right of legislative initiative and concludes that the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is one of the organs of general competence, so it must possess the general (not limited) right of legislative initiative. Thus, a restrictive interpretation of the phrase "matters of jurisdiction" used in relation to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is incorrect. The article deals with the historical aspect of putting the principle of "no man can be judge in his own case" into legal practice. The author contests the assertion that implementation of the right of legislative initiative would put the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the position of a judge in its own case. Then the author provides the following arguments: implementation of this right does not guarantee enactment of a draft law with original textual content; a federal organ of constitutionality review in most cases examines the content of the draft law in question taking into account its law enforcement practice rather than its textual flaws; when formulating the conclusions we should rely on a presumption of good faith of judges of Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, and not vice versa. The study concludes that the fact that the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation very rarely realizes its subjective right of legislative initiative guaranteed by the Constitution can be explained by political considerations, as well as by the fact that the realization of this right does not amount to main functions of a federal body of constitutionality review. A widespread in the legal science opinion according to which the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation exercising its right to legislative initiative violates the principle "no man can be judge in his own case" is based on an extremely broad interpretation of the legal content of the principle, such an interpretation is inconsistent with a provision of the Constitution of Russia which gives the federal organ of constitutionality review the right of legislative initiative.

This article deals with the legal status of the management companies created to perform certain public powers in relation to a limited area. It is noted that a similar experience was widespread and used in the zones of territorial development, territories of advance socio-economic development, special economic zones, the international medical cluster, free port "Vladivostok". Special attention is given to the legal status of the management company of the Skolkovo Innovation Centre - Foundation for the Development of the Center for elaboration and commercialization of new technologies. The author identifies its legal characteristics. The author makes an estimation of legal norms governing the order of exercising public powers by the Fund. The paper draws a conclusion about the significance of State supervision over management companies authorized to implement separate public powers. Management companies must comply with the transferred state powers in the interests of the society as a whole, rather than any single organization or a group of people. The author gives examples of checks carried out in respect of the management company of the "Skolkovo" Center. The article analyses certain provisions of the Russian Audit Chamber report concerning the results of the audit "Allocation of Federal budget funds targeted at implementation of activities connected with establishing and functioning of the Innovation Center "Skolkovo" in 2013-2015" (in cooperation with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation). The Report focuses on the fact that many public authorities do not exercise their powers on the territory of Skolkovo. The legislation relies on the fact that special units of the federal bodies of state power and organs of control over payment of insurance premiums must be established. However, in the vast majority of cases, these bodies have not been established. There is a dishonest approach to determination of powers of the highest official level managers (lack of job descriptions). Also, the article draws attention to the fact that the formation of territories with special status and with the corresponding management company is provided for by the Federal Law of December 31, 2014, № 488-FZ "On industrial policy in the Russian Federation." But in this case, the same shortcomings of legal regulation that are fixed in the status of the Skolkovo Foundation exist.

The article is devoted to the place of financial law in the system of public and private law. The author thoroughly examines the question concerning dividing the system of law into legal sectors of public and private law, as well as the objective nature of such a division. Meanwhile the author highlights different approaches: division of private and public law on the basis of substantive and formal criteria. The author scrutinizes an interest as the material basis of dividing law into public and private. Public law is seen as a set of rules designed to protect values aimed at protecting values associated with the mere existence of the State, and private law is seen as a block of legal norms ensuring the ongoing vitality of the citizen. Along with this, the article contains criticism of dividing law into public and private based on the definition of a public interest as public interests recognized by the state and expressed in the regulatory rules and enforced by the state; division of law into public and private based on the primary role of the State in protection of the interests of an individual, which makes law private. The article substantiates the fallacy of the conclusions. The author notes the inadequacy of the material criterion used to divide law into public and private. The paper analyses the formal criteria of dividing law into public and private depending on the way the right is protected, by way of regulating relations. The author draws a conclusion with regard to the need to apply both substantive and formal criteria to divide law into public and private. In the light of identified criteria, financial law is referred to branches of public law. The article notes the impossibility of making an extremely strict classification of legal material into public and private law, the process of convergence of these two legal categories. The author raises a problem of providing a balance between the public interest of the State and private interests while organizing financial and legal regulation. The author stresses that detailed regulation of the rights and obligations of natural and legal entities in the sphere of public finance activities will contribute to balancing public and private interests in financial law. In the end, the author concludes that public grounds dominate in financial and legal regulation, as well as individual elements of private regulation still can be found.

This article takes a look at the issues of legal regulation of public revenue. Noting the complexity of the financial activities of the state and local self-government, using not only revenue of the budgets of the budget system of the Russian Federation, but also incomes of various decentralized funds, including privately owned (e.g. non-governmental pension funds, deposit insurance agencies, capital repair) in order to meet the public interests, the author suggests using a more spacious term "public revenue" instead of "public (municipal) income." This term that encompasses all the revenues of all public funds will provide for systematic examination of all social relations in the field of formation of monetary funds used for public purposes. The author identifies the problems of the sphere of the legal regulation of public revenue. The author carries out an analysis of the contemporary status of the public revenue sphere in terms of financial law as a branch of legislation and as a branch of law. The article notes inconsistency of normative legal acts, the existence of significant conflicts. Special attention is paid to fixing mandatory budgetary incomes, difficulties in determining a list of compulsory payments, lack of unity in terminology. "Mandatory payments" and "taxes and duties" are examined as systematic categories. The author draws attention to the blurring of boundaries of public law regulation and regulatory and civil methods when collecting public payments (for example, a system of natural resources payments). The article notes the lack of financial and legal regulation in the field of compulsory payments transferred to decentralized funds. The article shows that the scope of the legal theory also does not allow us to provide answers to arising questions. Currently, there is no separate set of all norms that govern all relations in the field of public monetary funds. The study conducted in the article leads us to conclusions with regard to the need to improve public revenue in two directions - improving the legislative regulation of public income, eliminating gaps and conflicts, as well as forming a separate, independent financial and legal institution - the institution of public revenue, which will allow comprehensive examination of all problems in the field of public funds and improvement of the legal regulation in this sphere.

In criminal law, there are a number of institutions with temporal nature: conditional sentence, conditional discharge, temporary suspension, limitation period, conviction. In the theory of law attempts were taken to carry out a cumulative analysis of some of them based on their conditional or non-punitive nature. It is the last feature that allowed combining these measures into an integrated institution of probation that is currently analyzed exclusively at the theoretical level. A slightly different approach to the analysis of probation is based on its temporal nature, genetic connection with timing. There has never been a comprehensive inquiry into the timing of probation under criminal law. A fragmented analysis of the issues leads to different conclusions on major issues: the notion of a probationary period, the date of its commencement and ending, its size and significance. It remains unnoticed that in the course of evolution time limits under criminal law acquired a number of functions: evaluation of the effectiveness and appropriateness of prosecution, decreased or increased repression, inspiring and encouraging individuals who have committed socially dangerous acts, etc. Based on extensive empirical and theoretical material and foreign experience, the article attempts to evaluate the reasonableness of normatively defined extents of terms of separate institutions of criminal law (conditional sentence; conditional discharge; conviction).

The article provides a critical analysis of Art. 75 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, two parts of which combine rules different in their legal purpose. It is proved that this Article establishes two types of exemption from criminal liability: actual and voluntary repentance applied in order of encouragement and concessions that lies in the basis of a compromise. Differentiation of these norms is based on the method of legal effect, the content of legal relationship, the type of criminal law effect, the content of legally significant circumstances and the functions of the criminal law. It is alleged that only the first part of Article 75 of the criminal code is referred to active repentance as a variety of a criminal-law encouragement. Part two of the Article establishes the rule that has a compromise rather than encouraging nature. To prove this conclusion the following arguments are given: no need to verify "well deserved" post-crime behavior of a perpetrator while applying Paragraph 2 Article 75 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; a forced nature of putting this norm in the criminal law that allows by means of concessions in the form of exemption from criminal responsibility prevent harmful consequences of committed crimes that cannot be eliminated in other ways; avoidance of the loss of public danger of an offender, etc. The author finds it inappropriate to harmonize Paragraph 1 and Paragraph 2 of Article 75 of the RF Criminal Code by means of transferring the active repentance norm from encouraging into compromise because this can result in excessive leniency of the criminal law. Based on systematization of research positions, as well as doctrinal interpretation of criminal law, comparative analysis of both parts of the criticized Article, the author offers to put Paragraph 2 of Article 75 of the Criminal Code beyond the active repentance, or even abandon its consolidation in the criminal law, as it duplicates the provisions of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The article deals with the role of various processes of changes in the political systems that contribute into a coherent and managed transition to the rule of law. It is concluded that the process of transformation does not amount to the purposeful reform of public institutions, but a more complex and less studied process of changing the social order, because it includes a key characteristic of the reform which is implemented by the public authorities in a number of areas of social life in accordance with the legislation. When transformation is taking place, the problem of uncertainty of results comes to the fore. This suggests that serious political difficulties emerged that appeared in Russia during the transition period. The results of the transformation process in modern Russia are tracked on the ground of a variety of reasons: changes were compared with both promulgated ideas of the reformers and pre-reform indicators. Further differences appear in explaining patterns and mechanisms of the transformation process, inevitability and creativity of its results. The transformation approach insists on the fact that the state legal system possesses its own laws of development that do not depend on the will and the objectives of the State mechanism. We have to admit that failures in the implementation of Russian reform are quite logical. The changes were of an individual nature, because they did involve essential institutional nuclear of the political system. Thus, the article aims to answer the following questions: how to make the process of transition to the rule of law consistent and manageable; whether the process of transformation is completed or has not taken place at all in modern Russia; what is the role of reforming and modernization for the foundations of the rule-of-law state? The author develops the model of public law environment that shows the most acceptable vector of transition to the rule-of-law state analyzing such factors as institutionalization, political regimes, their consolidation, and building of a nation. The author identifies the advantages and disadvantages of a process of changes (reform, modernization, transformation), depending on their ability of forming correct directions to the rule-of-law state.

The author has examined the problems of the contemporary condition of an organization, functioning of multifunctional centers. The main objective was to develop recommendations aimed at enhancing the effectiveness and quality of public and municipal services via multi-functional centers (MFC). A multi-functional center is regarded as one of the modes of providing services by the authorities among other means, the operation of which is based on the principle of a "one-stop service center": a public and municipal service center, a universal e-card. The conclusions are based on the statistical data provided by the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia with regard to the number of MFCs opened in Russia, satisfaction of the population with the quality of the services provided by the MFCs. The author analyses the normative legal acts enacted at the federal, regional, and municipal levels. At the regional and municipal levels the process of formation of the system of providing services according to the principle of "one-stop service center" is still in progress. The legal regulation of this sphere is significantly different in different constituent entities in forms and contents of regulations. Not all municipalities are ready to provide services through the multifunctional centers. Difficulties are caused by insufficient IT, financial, personnel support. It is suggested that an imperative method of encouraging municipal authorities to exercise powers allowing to conclude agreements with multifunctional centers, make the procedure of delegating state functions from public authorities to the entities of private law - the MFCs - should be applied.

The article deals with the role of early family education in shaping the identity of a juvenile offender. The authors stress the importance of emotional and physical contact with the mother, and while growing older, with other family members, as well as criminal significance of hostility to unborn child and especially after childbirth. There is a paranoid state from a violent offender and the absence of financial condition of the lucrative offender. A child does not acquire a sense of emotional comfort, security, safety. The article shows a representative study of the relationship of future violent offenders with their families, especially mothers. These data are compared with the results of a survey of juvenile lucrative criminals. In committing offences violent criminals have increased anxiety, they expect outside threats that we don't mention when considering lucrative criminals, which can cause various disorders of mental activity, when an individual is unable to define his own identity. In the genesis and structure of the individual perpetrators of theft, there is inevitably a defect of socialization of emotions of fear, but the mere existence of selfish criminals suggests that this socialization is not always successful. Narrowing the scope of child status at later stages of ontogenesis lead to pathological adaptations type psychosomatic symptoms, to various forms of anti-social behaviour. The motives of committed lucrative crimes often lie in the plane of the unconscious feelings of its insolvency in social terms. Studies confirm previously known fact that the less close family ties, however, the more likely connections outside the family, the value of the family is decreasing. Juvenile convicts of lucrative crimes did not lack attention of father and mother, otherwise, they loved and cared of them, but this communication with parents was not morally close enough. For lucrative criminals it is not the acceptance or rejection of their parents which is important but some material need.

The current policy of the Russian Federation in the Penal sphere stems from the need for a humane attitude to persons, breaking a law. The achievement of the goals for improving the efficiency of institutions and bodies implementing sentences and reduce recidivism of crimes committed by persons who have served their sentence, the concept of development of the penal correction system of the Russian Federation up to the year 2020 is associated with the development of the legislation and subsequent implementation in practice a set of measures focus on social adaptation of convicts. The vast majority of the principles enshrined in the Penal Enforcement Code of the Russian Federation are implemented in practical activities of the institutions and bodies of criminal executive system. The scientific literature provides quite detailed approaches to the concept and classification of the principles of the criminal-executive law and legislation. Individual scien-tists-penitenciarists distinguish principles of independent institutes and the criminal-executive law, for example the institute of changes in terms of serving the sentence of deprivation of liberty. There is a lack of legal regulation, and accordingly the application within the specified legal institution for the principle of a progressive system of serving the sentence of deprivation of liberty. The authors justify the urgency and necessity of introducing the principle of a progressive system of serving imprisonment in penal enforcement legislation make proposals to improve the given industry. Structurally, the article consists of several parts. In part one of this article, the authors explore the concept and classification of the principles of law generally and criminal-executive law in particular. In the second part of the article the authors analyze the concept and the essence of modern progressive system serving the sentence of deprivation of liberty, and are considering various approaches of scientists-penitenciarists to the issue. In the third part of the article they justify the proposals submitted in the Criminal-Executive legislation of the Russian Federation associated with the principle of a progressive system of serving imprisonment.

This paper presents an analysis of the content of Part 3 Art. 32 of the Constitution, which enshrines the prohibition citizens held in places of deprivation of liberty by a court sentence to participate in the electoral process. The author highlights some features of electoral rights formulated in the decision of the European Court of Human Rights dated July 4, 2013 in the case "Anchugov and Gladkov v. Russian Federation": the right to vote is not a privilege; presumption in favour of inclusion (universal suffrage should be the main principle); the availability of good and compelling reasons for restrictions of the electoral rights of prisoners. The author considers the legal position laid down in the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of April 19, 2016 No12-P regarding the applicability of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights. The article analyses foreign practice of dealing with similar cases: United States Supreme Court decision in "Richardson v. Ramirez" (1974); the practice of the Supreme Court of Canada ("Belczowski v. the Queen", 1991; "Sovje case", 2002); the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa in "August and others v. Electoral Commission, and others"(1999); the practice of the Supreme Court of India ("Jan Chaukidar (Peoples Watch) v. UOI Ors&." 2004; "Rama Prasad Sarkar v. The State Of West Bengal & Ors., 2011). The author considers in detail the reasons for a series of rulings by the European Court of human rights, preceding the decision against the Russian Federation (the case of "Hirst v. United Kingdom", 2005; "Frodl' Prouty Austria", 2010; "Skoppola v. Italy", 2011). The author supports the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the non-applicability of the judgement of the European Court of human rights in the Russian Federation due to contradictions presented by interpreting the provisions of the European Convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

This article discusses issues related to the introduction of criminal responsibility of legal entities in Russia and Germany. It is stressed that for Russia in 2015 the issue in question acquired its special relevance again in connection with the draft federal law "On amendments to some legislative acts of the Russian Federation in connection with the introduction of criminal responsibility of legal persons", # 750443-6. For Germany, this problem is especially important due to the fact that in 2013, Federal Land North Rhine-Westphalia was introduced to the draft law on the introduction of criminal liability of legal persons and other organizations. The article notes that the Russian Federation civil and administrative liability of legal persons corresponds with universally recognized norms and principles of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation, on the one hand, and does not contradict Part 4 Art. 15 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, on the other hand, makes it possible to identify the subject of criminal responsibility in accordance with the compliance with the peculiar Russian criminal law principles, teachings about crime and punishment, not destroy the current enforcement. In Germany, the responsibility of legal persons is of "quasi criminal" character. It is established on the basis of the public offence Act (Gesetz über Ordnungswidrigkeiten (OWiG)) of May 24, 1968 (as amended on February 19,1987), which is an important source of additional criminal law (strafrechtliche Nebengesetze). The article emphasizes that the legislator in both Russia and Germany elected criminal law, guilt-based, bound to a particular person. Legal entity does not have legal capacity as such, and therefore liability. Therefore, improving legislation would be sufficient to effectively combat crime. In conclusion the author justifies inexpediency of establishment of criminal responsibility of legal persons in the Russian Federation and Germany.

The article describes a problem of forms of government in Russia as a constitutional State. Even in the national political and legal thought in the second half of XIX-beginning of XX century there was a main controversy between proponents of federalization and the so-called autonomy of individual territories of Russia. The first thought that the Federation allows you to give a legal response to the challenges of nationalism and proletarian internationalism in Bolshevik version. The second thought in Russian Empire at that time had no equal-sized territory that can exist independently, and thus serve as full members of the Federation. Modern Russia, according to the Constitution of 1993 onwards, is a federal State. Specification of Russian federalism principles is carried out in Chapter 3 of the Constitution in art. 71, which sets out the objects of the exclusive jurisdiction of the Russian Federation, in art. 72, which lists the subjects of joint jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as in art. 73, establishing that outside the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the powers of the Russian Federation on the matters of joint competence of the Russian Federation and constituent entities of the Russian Federation the Russian Federation entities have full state power. However, economic, social, and political differentiation of regions which differ substantially in living and working conditions of citizens raise doubts as to the fairness of the current system. The grant nature of the majority of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and, consequently, their dependence on subsidies of the Federal Government, do not leave opportunities for clusters of public interests groups, living in the constituent entities of the Federation. The current system of federal relations in modern Russia is more in line with the views of the native writers of the early twentieth century about autonomy than about federalism. And accordingly, it generates the same antinomy in theory and the negative consequences in practice. In order to overcome them, it is necessary to address the basic principles of constitutionalism as a form of awareness: freedom and justice, based on the recognition of the equal dignity of the human being. Federalism in the constitutional state is based on the clustering together of public groups, possessing legal capacity. Therefore, there can not be joint subjects of the centre and the members of the Federation in the Federal constitutional state under art. 72 of our Constitution, because thereby severely restricted the legal personality of the members of the Federation.

The article is devoted to the study of the legal regulation of money circulation in the UK. The author discusses the etymology of official British monetary unit, organized bodies and sources of legal regulation of money circulation in the UK. The article studies in detail such concept as "legal tender", especially the approach of British rule-making bodies to the rules of recognition of banknotes and coins legal tender, depending on the territory of treatment, their type and value. Analysis of the mechanism of legal regulation of alternative money is made: based on the concept of the limited application of the legal tender in the UK legally in circulation there are regional and local currency. In this connection, the author elaborates on the study of emission-related problems, and treatment of banknotes of authorized banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland, local currencies, currency Crown Crown lands. Special attention is given to the study of the rules of use of electronic means of payment: electronic money and digital (virtual, crypto-) currency. The author examines the concept of electronic money in accordance with normative legal acts of the European Union and Britain, types of issuers of electronic money, requirements for organizations to register as issuers of electronic money, as well as other aspects of electronic money in the UK. The article deals with the concept of virtual currency, its relationship with digital currencies, the approach of the financial authority of Great Britain to the risk assessment of virtual currency in the sphere of counteraction to laundering of proceeds received by criminal way and terrorism financing, as well as rules for the taxation of transactions carried out using virtual currency, and nailed, obtained from such operations, indirect and direct taxes in the UK.

This article discusses two Codes: 1589 and 1606/07. For unexplained reasons, these two large collections of laws almost fell out of the field of view of Soviet and modern historical and legal sciences. The objective of this article is to restore the unjustly forgotten monuments of law of the 16th-early 17th centuries: the Code of 1589, adopted during the reign of Fedor Ioannovich and Consolidated Code of 1606/07 promised to the people by Lzhedmitry (I), and released under Tsar Vasily Shuisky. Both Codes had a significant impact on the further development of the law. The 1589 Code provided the first systematization of legislation, implemented during the period subsequent to the adoption of the 1550 Code of Justice, covering the reign of Fedor Ioannovich and Boris Godunov. Many innovations of these Codes possessed a great democracy compared with previous legislation. The aim of this Code was the settlement of relations in the Russian North, not aware of feudal land tenure and serfdom. The 1606/07 Code regulated more extensive in volume range of relations than the 1589 Code. Large-scale tasks arose before the drafters of the Code: the settlement of the government's relationship with the nobility, who Lzhedmitry wished to rely on, as well as the relations of the peasantry, with both the government and with their owners-nobles and children of Boyar, while roll in any direction, instead of establishing relations could bring to their aggravation, so Lzhedmitry carefully balanced between social groups, which explained the compromise in the consolidated code of laws. The 1606/07 Code is a very interesting legal monument representing the first experience of systematization in the form of codification of the legislation in the history of Russian law common law. It combined rules and regulations on the basis of the subject into chapters and homogeneous chapter in the bounds, the Code comprising 25 of which. Subsequently, this way of systematizing the regulations was accepted by the members of the order of the N.I. Odoevskiy when drafting the Council Code. It should also be borne in mind that COdes of Justice 1589 and 1606/07, irrespective of their use, indicate the level of legal thought and legal qualification degree reached by lawmakers of Russia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. They also represent a significant interest to historians of law because they found its most complete reflection events, which shook Russia at the end of the first decade of the XVI-XVII centuries. Adopted normative acts in this period mainly became known to the legislators thanks to the texts in these Codes. The article focuses the greatest attention on state-legal relations, the judicial system and legal proceedings, as well as undertaken by the 1589 and 1606/07 Codes combat against bribery in the judiciary. Consideration of the principles of the repressive policies of the State, made it possible to refute established in Soviet and modern literature, opinion on the strengthening of the "principle of deterrence" at the end of the 16th century, and on the basis of the analysis of the application of sanctions articles both Codes, sanctioning of offences, including serious, courts prove the democratic nature of the work carried out in these punitive policies.

Nikolai Kravchenko (1880-1955) was one of the founding fathers of the Russian Science of international labour law. Many years of his life and musical legacy were obliterated. Biographies of eminent legal scholars are not only interesting and instructive in themselves, but also greatly contributed to a better understanding of the scientific legacy of scientist. Knowledge of biographies and scientific heritage predecessors is a prerequisite for the growth of modern scientific researchers of international law and even a kind of moral requirement. N.N. Kravchenko was the author of Russia's first monographic research on international legal regulation of the employment relationship. In 1913, in Tomsk University he defended his Doctoral thesis "The idea of international regulation of labour in its historical development up to the Berlin Conference, 1890." (published in 1913, in Tomsk). The scientist rightly wrote about the origination of international labor law, and has been a consistent supporter of international legal protection of labour. He considered in detail the origins of the formation of the concept of international legal regulation of labour, views of such distinguished members as R. Owen, Zh.A. Banki, A. Wagner, I. Baron, L. Valevski, E. Frei and others. He contributed to the creation of Collegiate Schools of international law and labour law in Tomsk, Kazan, Minsk, and served as the first head of the Chair of international law, AUEIL University (the predecessor of the Kutafin Moscow State Law University). From March 1949 to October 1950 he headed the Department of international law at the AUEIL (Moscow).

The article contains an analysis of some problems of the electoral law of the Russian Federation, undertaken on the basis of scientific works of N.A. Mikhaleva. There is a conclusion about the necessity of including in the text of the Constitution of the Russian Federation of separate chapter regulating the Organization and conduct of the elections in Russia. The author considers it appropriate at the constitutional level to consolidate the principles of suffrage for all levels of elections (voluntariness, freedom of citizen participation at elections, their frequency and alternativeness, etc.); outline the types of electoral systems used in all elections, securing, for example, that the legislative (representative) organs of State power and bodies of local self-government shall be carried out using a mixed electoral system (majority-proportional); listed in the Constitution of the Russian Federation all those elections, which were conducted at the Federal and regional levels; fasten the exhaustive list of restrictions associated with the realization of the electoral rights of citizens. The article concludes that there is a need for further improvements to the legislation on political parties as one of the most important subjects of the electoral process.

The article is devoted to the underexplored issue of constitutional legal regulation of the education system, its assessment as a constitutional value. The author analyzes the legal aspect of the educational reform initiated over the past two decades. This process is considered as a two-step. It is noted that in the first phase (1990-ies.) chronic underfunding of the education system, hit the moral and ethical foundations of the Russian society, undermining respect for a techer and teaching work. It resulted in the departure of most highly qualified specialists from middle and high schools. During the second phase (2000-ies) the national educational system itself was under danger. To this period the author relates the widespread introduction of the unified State exam (EGE), the introduction of a two-tier system of education "Bachelor-master program" creation of grade-ranking system as a universal criterion of estimation of knowledge of students and many other additional innovations. This article analyzes the most negative consequences of the education reform: a) fall of the social status of teachers and lecturers; b) bureaucratization of the education system; c) elimination of a centralized system; d) elimination of the educational criteria and standards; e) introduction the unified State exam (EGE) as a means of admission to higher education; f) introduction of a system of "Bachelor-master program"; g) the introduction of grade-ranking system of evaluation of student performance. The author provides a detailed analysis of the Federal law "On education" adopted in Russia in 2012, particular attention is given to the legal structures, capable, in the author's opinion, to lead to the most dangerous results. The article offers a way out of this difficult situation and related necessary directions in social and public activities. The author justifies the thesis that the draft law "On national education", proposed to adoption in the State Duma by the communist fraction in the autumn 2012, could have been largely in tune with contemporary realities. There is an analysis of the advantages of the specified document compared with the current legislation.