The article is devoted to one the most acute issues of bioethics, namely, the issues of legal approaches to euthanasia. The institute of euthanasia is commonly investigated in ethical and philosophical contexts. However, there is no any comprehensive legal research of the issue under consideration. Due to the fact that the Russian Federation public order prohibits euthanasia, the study is based on comparative analysis of legal and historical resources, as well as case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The author represents the general historical review of development of approaches to the institute of euthanasia.

The article provides a brief insight into the history and reviews the current state of the health camps and health resorts in Russia. The conclusion is drawn that over the centuries Russia has developed traditions of health and resort recreation. The author suggests that some elements of the Soviet model of the relationship between the State and health resorts be extrapolated to the modern legal ground. The paper expresses the opinion about the possibility of using the legal mechanism of health resorts self-regulation. The legal status of health resorts is considered, the spectrum of functions and services performed by them is described. The author has classified services provided into basic (medical, temporary accommodation, nutrition) and supplementary (tourist, household, entertainment, sports and recreational, trade services) services. It has been proved that the specificity of the sanatorium-resort tourist product involves the complexity of the services it includes. Their integration and merger gives a synergistic effect, which leads to an increase in the efficiency of recreation and recovery as the main goal of tourism. The paper describes the system of requirements applied to regulate the work of health camps and health resorts. The paper demonstrates the importance of health resorts, determines their place in the tourist market, dwells on the specifics of health resorts in the sphere of tourism. The author focuses on the problems and contradictions of the legal regulation of activities of health resorts, ways of their minimization. Empirically, the research is founded on statistical data and the results of the author’s questionnaires used to question different parties involved . Analysis of the results of the survey showed that most respondents do not associate health resorts with tourism. However, under Russian and international regulations, health camps and health resorts are referred to medical tourism, the main specificity of which is that it involves medical treatment. The author provides arguments in favor of the necessity of systematic work aimed to explain obvious advantages of health tourism. Attention is drawn to the role of health camps and resorts in achieving the program goals of the State.

The problem of liability of persons managing a legal entity was raised in Russian civil law after the adoption of legislation on joint-stock companies. At the beginning, it was more theoretical in nature, since the civil legislation did not contain any mechanisms for the implementation of such liability. To date, due to the reform of the Civil Code and changing approaches in jurisprudence, disputes concerning property liability of directors have formed a considerable category of cases. The paper analyzes the elements of such civil wrongs as damage caused to a legal entity by persons who are members of the managerial boards and are able to exercise a significant impact on such boards. All elements of the civil wrong under consideration are being analyzed: the act, the consequences (damage), the causal link between the act and the consequences, and the fault of the wrong-doer. The paper also elucidates the participants involved in such disputes. Exploring specific court cases, the author shows which acts of directors are recognized by the courts as illegal, what restrictions are expressed in the legal standings of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation to qualify as illegal different acts of directors and other persons. In the vast majority of cases of this category, persons exercising the functions of the sole executive body are prosecuted. Sometimes they are also the participants at the same time. The scope of persons covered by the term “determining the acts of a legal entity” is not defined in the law, which also hampers judicial practice. Judicial proceedings bringing such persons to justice are exceptional. Therefore, the author proposes to define in the Civil Code all persons who can commit an act and thereby cause damage to a legal entity. In addition, it is proposed to establish criteria of unreasonableness and dishonesty of actions of directors and other persons.

In modern legal literature quite a large number of papers are devoted to the problems of legal regulation in which legal scholars try to improve the texts of normative legal acts. However, most of the problems in this area occur for another reason. They occur because of inconsistency of legal norms with regard to the relations that they are supposed to regulate. The paper not only attempts to present a different view on the process of lawmaking. It also suggests some ways to improve the procedure for creating normative legal acts on the basis of the theory of the balance between subjects of law. The article focuses on the relations that develop with regard to the territory as the most obvious physically expressed standing area determining relations between people. The paper has applied the main provisions of the previously developed theory of correlation of subjects of law in the framework of which the relations between different participants of legal relations concerning a certain territory are being analyzed. In addition, the author investigates the problems of the current legal regulation and the practice of implementation of legal relations. The modern legal doctrine has been analyzed in the context of the issue under consideration. The whole set of the presented approaches allowed the author to build logically more correct, in contrast to the existing, procedure for creating the rules of law concerning the territory. As the result of the study, the author suggests using new approaches to law-making processes on the basis of the identified problems of the balance between legal norms and relations that they are expected to regulate. The paper also describes the methodology of creating lawmaking and contains a case study of transformation of the existing normative legal regulation in Sevastopol.

The article considers the most general and most fundamental provisions of the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its consequences for ecology, energy, law. The author has analyzed the threats and challenges of digitalization processes for ecology and energy. It is shown that be the creation of an adequate environment of green technologies, products and services should provide the timely response to the great challenges of the 4th Industrial Revolution. It is proved that there will be no real progress in environmental security until economic growth, new technologies regardless of the form in which they are expressed and natural constraints and indicators of the “growth limit” of human expansion are connected and properly and necessarily linked to the pace of economic development. The authors have investigated the problems of strategic planning in the sphere of digitalization of ecological and energy spheres. The country has yet to develop common concepts suitable for strategic planning and to give each of these concepts a legal definition. To date, the lack of “coherence” of plans, responsibility and systematization of numerous normative acts (by-laws) on the basis of which federal and regional information resources are functioning is unacceptable. The article is aimed to develop legislation in the field of ecology and energy, development of legal mechanisms for the implementation of the program “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” as well as improvement of enforcement practices.

The article investigates constitutional legal relations and state legal relations as legal relations united by the common subject of legal regulation and different in purposes and methods of legal regulation. Constitutional legal relations are considered as relations aimed at building the rule of law state, recognition, observance and protection of human rights and freedoms. State-legal relations are aimed primarily at the implementation of public interests. The author concludes that the result of formation of legal relations is significantly influenced by the applied methods of legal regulation. Constitutional legal relations are formed on the basis of the application of such methods as: 1) restriction of interference of public authorities in regulation of human rights and freedoms; 2) self-regulation on issues of own competence of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and bodies of local self-government; 3) the contractual method of regulation on matters falling within the joint competence; 4) delegation of exclusive powers to the lower level of public authority. State-legal relations differ due to the application of the following methods: 1) detailed regulation and restriction of human rights and freedoms in order to realize public interests; 2) legislative delegation of powers on issues of joint jurisdiction; 3) redistribution of powers in favor of the higher level of public authority.

The development of constitutional and state-legal relations in modern legal reality is possible only in the context of competition of applied methods of legal regulation. The constitutional norm enforced mainly by state-legal methods is implemented in state-legal relations and excludes the construction of constitutional legal relations. The prevalence of state-legal methods can lead to the construction of pseudo-parallel constitutional legal relations, i.e. legal relations that do not affect the existing legal reality. On the contrary, the preferential application of constitutional and legal methods can be considered as a guarantee of impossibility of abuse of state legal methods in the process of enforcement of public interests.

Personal reception represents a way of submitting citizens’ complaints and one of the forms of implementation of the constitutional right of citizens to appeal (complain). However, the legislative regulation of the issue under consideration seems insufficient, which has given rise to adverse law enforcement practice.

The article determines signs of personal reception that allow us to distinguish it from other types of citizen’s communication with officials. The paper makes a thorough analysis of the duty of officials to conduct personal reception. Two models of performing the reception are highlighted: 1) personal reception is carried out only by chairpersons (of the government agency as a whole, its deputies or heads of structural divisions); 2) personal reception is carried out not only by chairpersons, but also by other authorized officials or specialized units. Moreover, the paper focuses on the problem of delegation of the obligation to perform personal reception to other officials.

The paper investigates the procedure of personal reception that includes four stages: registration for personal reception (optional stage); arrival of a citizen at the place and time provided for personal reception, identification and determination of the order of personal reception; personal intercourse with the official, including a statement of the essence of the oral request or submission of a written application; registration of a personal reception card. Special attention is paid to the issue of registration of a personal reception, which allowed to formulate conclusions about the most relevant content of a personal reception card. The procedure of holding the all- Russian day of personal reception and experience of introduction of regional uniform days of personal reception in constituent entitities of the Russian Federation is analyzed.

Also, the author scrutinizes the experience of organizing personal receptions in various governmental bodies and authorities in order to generalize additional guarantees of the rights of citizens during personal reception, as well as to develop an approximate list of feasible constrains.

In May 2018, at the 4th and final meeting of the Special Commission of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the draft Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters that had been developed since 1992 was represented. It is expected that after the Diplomatic Session that will be held in the mid-2019 the draft will be finalized and the Convention will be adopted and opened for signature.

In this regard, the article attempts to analyze the main provisions of the draft Convention and assess the appropriateness for the Russian Federation to access it, taking into account the fact that Russia has a limited number of international treaties permitting recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Russia and decisions of Russian courts abroad. Based on the results of the analysis, the author concludes that the adoption of this Convention will provide for a simple and effective basis for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments eligible for States with different legal, social and economic circumstances. This, in turn, will increase the practical value of court decisions ensuring the most comprehensive protection of the rights and interests of the party in whose favour the decision has been made and, as a consequence, will contribute to the attractiveness of this method of dispute resolution for parties involved in cross-border private law relations.

However, the mixed attitudes of the EU and the USA to the Draft Convention raises the question of their accession to the future Convention and may significantly reduce the impact of the adoption of the document under consideration.

Based on the results of compilation and analysis of statistical data on consideration of complaints of interested persons by the courts of general jurisdiction, filed pursuant to articles 125 and 125.1 of the code, the author proposes some measures for improving the system of judicial statistics given the active introduction of digital technology in the field of criminal procedural relations. The paper notes the priority role of the court in the implementation of the constitutional right of citizens to access justice and in their protection from illegal actions (inaction) and decisions of bodies and officials carrying out criminal prosecution. To optimize the areas of judicial activities the author suggests broad interpretation of the provisions of part 1 of article 30 of the Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation and the formation of the court composition for consideration of requests submitted with the court at pre-trial stages of the criminal process, with the use of an automated information system. The paper substantiates the necessity of successive integration of the State Automated System of legal statistics with the State Automated System «Pravosudie [Justice]», which will allow users of these systems to track the results of the procedural activities of the preliminary investigation, prosecution and court activities at all stages of criminal proceedings. The author also considers it relevant to reflect in more detail the results of consideration and resolution by the court of citizens’ appeals received at the initial stage of criminal proceedings in the annual analytical reviews prepared by the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation based on summary statistical reports of all courts of the Russian Federation.

The paper notes that the issue of the independence of penal law as a branch is not relevant; still the issue on the subject of this branch of law, which is understood in a narrow (classical) and broad senses, remains acute. The classical definition of the subject consists of social relations arising in the execution of all punishments, and now other measures of a criminal law nature. Currently, scientists are increasingly talking about the need to expand the subject of penal law due to the inclusion of public relations in the execution of measures of restraint in form of detention and house arrest; assistance in social adaptation of the persons released from serving of punishment and other measures of criminal legal character; and when applying the non-punitive means of influence on prisoners.

The author does not agree that the penal law should regulate only punishments and other measures of a criminal legal nature, which are a form of realization of criminal responsibility. In this regard, compulsory medical measures, confiscation of property and a court fine cannot be considered as such. If we consider criminal responsibility in a broad sense — as having a coercive rather than punitive character, then all measures of a criminal nature should be covered by it and be the subject of this branch of law. Penal law is not penal executive law but penal law.

The paper notes that not legally, but practically, the execution of detention and house arrest is included in the subject of penal law, as they are executed by institutions and bodies of the Federal Enforcement Service and are included in the course of penal law at the Russian Federal Enforcement Service universities. The author of the paper admits that these preventive measures may be the subject of penal law, which, as in relation to criminal law, is the executive branch in relation to criminal procedure law.

Many scholars believe that post-penitentiary relations are the subject of penal law. Agreeing with them, the author of the paper believes that in this case it is necessary to provide for the purpose of penal legislation — the resocialization of convicts, which includes correction, preparation of convicts for release and their social adaptation after release from punishment. As an example, the author refers to the regulation of such relations in the Penal Code of the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine.

Thus, the subject of penal law should be the criminal executive social relations that develop in the implementation of compulsory institutions of criminal and criminal procedure law, having an executive direction.

Despite the general dissatisfaction with the domestic bureaucracy, bureaucracy is a universal and most common apparatus of government in any developed state. In the paper the author tries to identify and analyze only the positive qualities of the bureaucratic management system in relation to modern conditions, deliberately not affecting the shortcomings of the bureaucratic organization. This approach is usually not used by researchers who seek to focus on the defects of bureaucracy. At the same time, it is necessary to know both the positive and negative sides of the modern bureaucratic apparatus in order to transfer them to the newly formed governing structures.

The author reveals the positive aspects of such qualities of the bureaucracy as strict regulation of activities, vertical hierarchy (with its inherent unity of command and centralization), the specification of the labor function of the official and structural units of the apparatus, the competence of officials, as well as the impersonality of relations between them. A rational bureaucracy resembles a well-programmed mechanism aimed at efficiently solving the problems that arise before it. Their implementation in the system of modern domestic bureaucracy is shown following the example of the norms of the current Russian legislation.

The author divides the concepts of «bureaucracy» and «bureaucratism», offering to be guided not by populist slogans about the elimination of bureaucracy at all, but by minimizing the defects of the managerial impact of the bureaucratic apparatus. The task of the political leadership of the country is to choose the structure that best meets the goals and objectives of the state, as well as the internal and external factors affecting it. It is important not to dwell on the search for the «only true» structure of the control apparatus, and learn to identify the positive and negative sides of the existing system and adjust them to meet the challenges.

The paper is devoted to the study of the historical aspect of the formation and development of justice in modern Kazakhstan, i.e. from the time when Genghis Khan established the Great tribal state throughout the vast territories from the Yellow to the Black sea. The choice of the topic is due to the lack of modern dissertation researches devoted to the history of formation and development of justice, chronologically sequential periodization covering the co-evolution phase of the research subject that must include the Mongol and Golden Horde period. Differences in historiography and misconceptions about the way of life of nomads also led to the choice of the research topic. The paper shows the similarities and differences of some features of the court procedure at the co-evolutionary and modern stages of development of statehood.

The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that in the context of the presidential programs «Modern state for all» and «Spiritual revival», focused on the revival of spiritual values of Kazakhstan, the study of justice in the Mongolian and Horde period is important for improving the efficiency of the modern judicial system. The theoretical and practical significance of the work is that it describes the legal views, legal culture, legal system of two ethnically close modern states, namely Mongolia and Kazakhstan based on a deep comparative analysis of written and historical versions.

According to the results of the study, the author comes to the following conclusions. First, the author connects the loss of the role of customary law in the regulation of social relations with the process of Kazakh-Russian integration and the adoption of the law of the Russian Empire, not the norms of the Mohammedan doctrine. Secondly, in the author’s opinion, the legal field of the Mongolian and Horde period covers a variety of rules governing social relations in the early feudal state. Thirdly, the author considers that during the period under consideration there were no clear criteria differentiating the categories «law» and «legislation». Fourth, according to the author, a mixture of functions of the legislative, executive and judicial authorities characterizes the legal system of modern Kazakhstan, which is the successor of the Golden Horde.

The relevance of the work lies in the study of regulatory legal acts of the Soviet rule, which became the first experience of creating norms of law in the changed socio-political reality, based on new principles, including criminal law.

The purpose is to analyze the Guidelines on the criminal law of the RSFSR of December 12, 1919, revealing the features of the content of the document.

In the process of research, general scientific methods of the sphere of humanitarian knowledge (e.g. system, structural and functional) were used. Special methods were also applied: technical and legal analysis, specification, interpretation, historical description. Legal experience is analyzed from the standpoint of the relationship of events and phenomena, as well as taking into account their development in a specific historical situation.

As early as the end of 1917 the RSFSR People’s Commissariat of Justice headed by the left SR I.Z. Steinberg announced the creation of the Soviet criminal code. The developed document is recognized as an independent normative act, a monument of criminal law, which corresponded to the principle of continuity and was transitional between the legislation of the Russian Empire and the RSFSR.

When the leadership of the RSFSR People’s Commissariat of Justice became bolshevik, a working group was created, and as a result, on December 12, 1919, Guidelines on the criminal law of the RSFSR were adopted. The document was the first existing codified act in the field of Soviet criminal law.

The guidelines are a small text, the content of which resembles the general part of criminal law. Despite this, it has several fundamental differences from the previous legislation. The main mechanism is repression, and the priority is the interests of workers.

The crime is considered as a violation of the order of social relations protected by criminal law. It is defined as an act or omission of an act dangerous for public relations, causing the need for the state authorities to fight against criminals. Despite the fact that the Guidelines identified the stages of the crime, they did not affect the measure of repression, which is determined by the degree of danger of the offender.

The task of punishment is to protect public order from the offender and prevention of a crime. Punishments appear in the form of adaptation of the criminal to public order, isolation and, in exceptional cases, physical destruction. However, the punishment should not cause unnecessary and excessivr suffering to the offender. In general, the Guidelines became the basis for the further development of legal doctrine and criminal law, as well as directed the vector of law enforcement activities of new judges.

Sexual harassment in the workplace has now become a significant social problem and, as a result, criminal legislation in many countries has included provisions prohibiting it. In our country, despite the change in moral standards of permitted forms of sexual behavior, the legislator has not yet implemented the requirements of the Council of Europe Convention On preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (CETS No. 210) (Istanbul Convention). The existing system of criminal law prohibitions does not effectively protect the individual from sexual harassment committed in the sphere of labor relations. Among the varieties of such acts not prohibited by the criminal law the author names the inducement to the actions of a sexual nature (associated with not the use of service dependencies, but regular contacts within the framework of labor relations); physical contact (touch), not conditioned by the nature or content of work, while not forming signs of sexual assault and causing physical pain; verbal or nonverbal abuse of a sexual nature; sexual harassment (harassment); other mental effects of a sexual nature. As shown by the analysis, these forms of deviant behavior has sufficient social danger, and the relative prevalence for their criminalization. The minimum harm from sexual harassment in the workplace is the negative impact on the psyche of the victim (both women and men), the degree of such impact due to the long-term nature of the labor realtions also becomes quite significant. In order to prevent excessive criminalization and reduce the risk of unjustified criminal prosecution, it is proposed to introduce a ban with the so called administrative prejudice, which implies the incurrence of administrative responsibility for sexual harassment in the workplace, and incurrence of criminal one — only for repeated actions of a person previously subjected to administrative punishment.