Preview

Lex Russica

Advanced search
Vol 76, No 6 (2023)
View or download the full issue PDF (Russian)

PRIVATE LAW / JUS PRIVATUM

9-21 383
Abstract

Civil legal personality is a special property of subjects, symbolizing the connection between a person and the State. In the legal context, legal personality is a form of the opportunities that the State provides its citizens with and associations they create in order to acquire and exercise property rights and personal nonproperty rights. The author concludes that it is through the content of legal personality that a person has the opportunity to become the owner of certain subjective civil rights and obligations through entering into a civil legal relationship. The basis of the activity of individuals and legal entities aimed at implementing their rights is civil legal personality as a form of legal existence of people, their organizations and associations. Legal personality as a form of legal existence is based on the principle of formal equality of actors. In the context of its content, legal personality includes the ability of individuals and legal entities to acquire and exercise subjective rights by their actions, to acquire and perform duties themselves. Forms of implementation of rights accompany the actions of individuals and legal entities equal in the legal aspect and ensure their civil law regulation. Legal personality offers a unilateral order of actions implementing rights and actions with the participation of others, which always leads to the creation of links among subjects of rights and obligations. A significant part of these connections is of a property nature, since social benefits in the civil form of «property» constitute the subject of the legally protected interest of subjects of civil law. Propriatary legal personality as the ability to perform actions in the legal form of a «transaction» forms the basis of purposeful actions implementing rights in relation to property and in relation to other persons regarding property.

22-33 260
Abstract

The paper is devoted to examination of the decline in the overall quality of life of a person who has suffered health damage as an independent kind of non-economic losses. The author defines doctrinal and regulatory prerequisites for the development of scientifically grounded criteria for its assessment and compensation in tort obligations. It has been established that, despite the use of the term «physical suffering» in Article 151 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, this element does not have reliable accounting methods when determining compensation for moral damage, largely due to the concentration of the appropriate method of civil rights protection on the act of unlawful behavior itself and the combination of the functions of conditional restoration of individually perceived losses and private sanctions. Taking into account significant foreign experience (Australia, Spain, Italy, USA, France, etc.), the author substantiates that consideration of adverse changes in the general parameters of the physical condition of the victim separately from the moral harm construction is predetermined by their role as a non-economic basis for the life of each person, resulting from a resource-oriented approach to the category of quality of life. The author proposes the method of calculating compensation for non-material damagebased on the principles of isolation of the assessment of physical conditions for temporary and persistent injuries, the complexity of factors of the impact of health damage on the overall quality of life of the injured person, the objectivity of the characteristics of the severity of pain. The scope of application of the construction of moral harm in legal relations under consideration is clarified, extending it to physical and moral suffering, developing from the accompanying intangible losses of «special value» (loss of the ability to enjoy professional activities and ordinary daily activities, loss of prospects for personal growth in sports and hobbies, etc.).

34-47 245
Abstract

The paper discusses the problems of execution of contracts for exploration, oil production, and transportation of hydrocarbons in the Arctic amid enormous sanctions pressure that the oil and gas industry is experiencing today. The aper demonstrates the impact of blocking restrictions, which negatively affected export and import contracts. Recent international agreements have been in a particularly vulnerable position. Emerging risks can shake the debt sustainability of a transaction. Their alienation immediately reveals commercial risks. A transaction made in favor of a creditor, as it seems, should burden such risks. However, it is not easy to determine the forecast values of expenses from the acquisition, assignment of rights to oil production, transportation of refined products due to debt repayment. There is an opportunity to take advantage of industry and corporate import substitution plans, especially in the field of crude oil exports, thereby resisting these risks. Meanwhile, the system of business and legal norms still constitutes a vast field of risks. They change in time, in space, due to price regulation, but also against the background of traditional law enforcement – the search for beneficial owners. Sectoral restrictions already imply facilitation of institutional risk. The author applies a systematic approach – from particular cases of manifestation (of risks), whether they are uncompensated costs as part of the network infrastructure and to a causal relationship with derivatives, non-revolving financial instruments. It is noted how difficult it is then to execute settlement forward contracts if the limits of price fluctuations for these contracts are exceeded many times. The importance of restorative requirements, mandatory in this regard, is emphasized. Russia’s response to the sanctions is to deepen reorientation of hydrocarbon flows from the West to the East. This explains generalization of the role of the Northern Sea Route, based on the assessment of available resources, plans for the re-equipment of ports according to their specialization and depending on the requests of different levels of consumers.

48-56 278
Abstract

Periodic bursts of deterioration of the sanitary and epidemiological situation in certain regions and in Russia as a whole make remote performance of a labor function by an employee relevant and in demand. The remote format of work increases economic profitability of the employer’s activities. Transition to remote work is not a formal change of the place of performance of the labor function, it involves a significant organizational and local regulatory restructuring.

Mandatory and optional transfer to a remote form of work involves the inclusion of certain terms in the employment contract, as well as in additional agreements to the employment contract. The classical rules of interaction between an employee and an employer are not applicable for the remote exercise of the labor function. Prior to the conclusion of employment contracts with remote employees of the employer organization, it is recommended that local regulations be developed and published for all the employees to read them. It is important to note that the employee must acknowledge by signing that he has read each local regulatory act.

The work of a remote employee means certain specifics of his interaction with the employer, including the use of electronic document circulation system and electronic digital signature.

Traditional approaches to determining the working time and rest time of a remote worker are also inapplicable. Such an employee independently and under his own responsibility chooses the mode of work depending on the tasks periodically given by the employer. It is impossible to apply the classical grounds to terminate an employment contract concluded with a remote employee, since it seems necessary to take into account the specifics of the remote labor function.

In the doctrine and law enforcement practice, there is no uniform approach to solving problems related to the remote exercise of a labor function, the interaction between a remote employee and an employer. Based on the analysis of current provisions of labor and information legislation, judicial and business practice, conclusions and recommendations are made in the article regarding the solution of problems related to the conclusion and termination of an employment contract with a remote employee, as well as regarding the documents supporting the contract.

CRIMINAL LAW SCIENCES / JUS CRIMINALE

57-69 381
Abstract

The paper discusses the main stages of the development of the theory of criminal procedural evidence. The author analyzes and systematizes various approaches of procedural researchers, on the basis of which the basic doctrinal approaches to understanding evidence are distinguished: 1) formal-logical; 2) factual; 3) dualistic; 4) liminal (transitional); 5) synthetic; 6) cybernetic (informational); 6) pragmatic (Anglo-Saxon). The paper defines the causes of their emergence, evaluates their advantages and disadvantages.

It is noted that the diversity of approaches to understanding evidence can be explained by the predetermination of various academic approachers and related legislative provisions, initially different ideological ideas and trends that play a priority role in certain periods of society development. At the same time, it is argued that these approaches do not exclude each other, but reveal different elements of criminal procedural evidence as a comprehended, multidimensional complex of cognitive-certifying techniques and argumentative-logical operations: the cybernetic approach as accumulation of useful information; pragmatic approach as its proper certification; formal-logical and factual approaches as justification of law enforcement decisions and positions of the parties, etc.

In this regard, the conclusion is formulated about the optimality and the greatest acceptability for the use of another, so-called non-synthetic approach. Evidence is proposed to be understood as information assets provided for by law and predetermined by substantive or ideal traces-displays, subject to accumulation as legally suitable (permissible) information products, and then used as argumentative resources, which support the investigator, inquiror, court in establishing circumstances relevant to the criminal case and substantiating law enforcement decisions., and to the parties in attempts to influence the nature and content of these decisions.

PUBLIC LAW / JUS PUBLICUM

70-78 330
Abstract

The paper examines some problems of the procedure for initiating administrative proceedings under Russian law. Administrative proceedings currently represent an independent procedural form of protection of public rights and interests, while being the «antipode» against civil proceedings. However, the administrative procedure legislation does not provide for any criterion for determining cases of public legal nature, which causes the problem of determining the applicable legal proceedings when initiating specific cases. The author proves that public law, unlike private law, always belongs to an unlimited number of persons. By virtue of this, cases of a public legal nature should also be determined based on the attribution of the disputed right. It is proposed to consolidate as a mandatory element of an administrative statement of claim the public nature of the right or interest violated, in the opinion of the administrative plaintiff, by acts, decisions or acts (or omissions to act) of public authorities. Since in a number of administrative cases the law provides for the mandatory participation of a judicial representative with a law degree or Cand. Sci. (Law) degree, it is proposed in such cases to fix the requirement to indicate in the administrative statement of claim the rules of law governing disputed legal relations, as well as regulatory and other legal acts to be applied in the case (by analogy with arbitration legal proceedings and the presentation of a statement by the prosecutor in civil proceedings). The rule of Article 128 of the Code of Administrative Procedure of the Russian Federation (CAP) concerning the right of a court to refuse a person to accept an administrative statement of claim, if its content does not indicate a violation of his rights by a contested act of public authority, has been criticized. It is proposed to exclude this provision from CAP due to the contradiction of its legal position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

79-89 264
Abstract

Various types of control and supervisory measures provide the anti-terrorist protection of transport (railways included) from potential threats. An important role is assigned to the federal state control (supervision) in the field of transport security, despite the fact that Federal Law No. 17‑FZ of 10.01.2003 «On Railway Transport in the Russian Federation» and the Charter of Railway Transport do not mention this type of transport supervision. The analysis of the subject, objects, participants and the content of administrative and legal relations arising in the implementation of transport supervision on railway transport allows us to attribute this activity to the control and supervisory and identify a number of its features. The peculiarity of risk management to ensure the anti-terrorist security of railways is the attribution of certain types of activities of controlled persons to one category of severity and risk probability group. This provision makes it possible to plan and carry out uniform preventive measures against one controlled person both within the framework of federal state control (supervision) in the field of transport security and within the framework of federal state control (supervision) in the field of railway transport. Amendments have been proposed to the Federal Law «On Railway Transport in the Russian Federation» in terms of supplementing it with norms on transport security and to the Regulation on Federal State Control (Supervision) in the field of Transport Security, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1051 of 06/29/2021. The main directions for transport supervision improvement include: carrying out control measures aimed at identifying potential threats to the automated transport security system; expanding the list of situations that can be simulated during the experiment; using a permanent raid as a special mode of transport supervision on the railway; conducting an inspection visit with respect to vehicle owners; developing an information resource for conducting self-examination as a preventive measure.

90-99 269
Abstract

The author examines the legal nature of class actions using a teleological approach. The paper provides an overview of the prevailing ideas and discussions in the literature about the targeted orientation of a class action. In particular, the two most significant goals are described in detail: efficiency and representation. The author emphasizes that structurally they are two-component: the goal of efficiency is related to the recovery of compensation and monetary restraint; the goal of representation is related to the accessibility of justice and the adoption of new legal norms. Within the framework of the analysis of the provisions of the legal doctrine, the author substantiates that giving priority to a particular purpose of a class action significantly limits the understanding of its legal nature and does not contribute to its assessment as an integral procedural and legal instrument. In addition, the author draws attention to the economic aspect of a class action, which, by combining separate claims related to similar circumstances, makes the initiation of the process financially expedient for plaintiffs, whose court costs are evenly distributed among all members of the group. On the other hand, class actions contribute to reducing the costs of defendants who may oppose several claims in a single trial. The burden on the judicial system is also reduced due to a smaller number of initiated cases. The paper argues that the objectives of a class action should be considered in their unity. This approach allows us to turn to a broader understanding of the class action and to identifying its key features, some of which relate to efficiency, and some – to the goal of representation. The author concludes that only a coordinated understanding of the objectives of a class action can become the basis for a clearer understanding of its legal nature and improvement of procedural legislation.

100-109 316
Abstract

The principle of legal certainty, according to which the established rules should allow interested parties to clearly understand the scope of the obligations imposed on them, has found wide application in the practice of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU Court) on customs legal relations. The CJEU and the EAEU Court not only use this principle as an additional method of argumentation, but also as an independent basis for monitoring the legality of secondary law acts adopted by the bodies of these integration associations. As the analysis of the practice of the CJEU shows, this principle has two main aspects: material, expressed in the requirement of clarity of the act, and temporal, associated primarily with the prohibition of retroactive effect of the EU act. At the same time, within the framework of the material aspect, the EU Court draws attention not only to the absence of internal contradictions in the act, but also to compliance with the requirement to publish the act and to indicate the legal framework. In the practice of the EAEU Court (and earlier the EurAsEC Court) on customs legal relations, compliance with the principle of legal certainty is checked in terms of clarity and consistency of the Commission’s decisions. As the practice of the EAEU Court devoted to the classification of certain types of goods shows, a violation of these requirements may be a consequence of both the confusion in the content of one classification decision of classification features characteristic of different commodity items, and the absence in the classification decision of the necessary classification features that allow distinguishing the goods subject to classification in different commodity items. In these cases, non-compliance with the requirement of legal certainty serves as an unconditional basis for recognizing the Commission’s decisions as inconsistent with the law of the Union.

GENOME / GENOME

110-120 257
Abstract

The paper deals with the constitutionalism and constitutionalization of certain provisions of genomics and bioethics at the present stage. The author analyzes constitutional domestic and foreign normative acts, the subject of which are relations in the field of genomics and the correlation of these relations with bioethics. The paper presents the opinions of Russian and foreign scientists regarding bioethics and related phenomena. The paper examines individual bioethical aspects, potential risks and threats, and searches for elements of the scientific concept of bioethical and somatic dignity of the individual in Russian legislation. The paper discusses the general issues of the legal regime of the human genome and the issues of genetic, genomic, biomedical research. The author raises the question of the balance of private and public interests as an optimal combination of personal interest and scientific ones. Having studied the legislation, the author speaks about the need to legally consolidate the definition of the concepts «genetic research with human participation» and «genomic research with human participation» at the federal level. The author expresses the opinion that the introduction of this conceptual apparatus into medical legislation would help to unify value-based legal approaches and models of legal regulation, and would also be the most important guarantee of the inviolability of human somatic dignity, eliminating unjustified risk and potential threats of subsequent biomedical research and experiments with human participation.

The author concludes: the categories of bioethical and somatic dignity require further disclosure in Russian legislation and state policy in the field of biomedicine.

CYBERSPACE / CYBERSPACE

121-127 439
Abstract

The paper aims to determine the role of digital platforms in the organization of the financial market on the basis of a critical analysis of existing regulatory legal acts, scientific papers and practices on the said market. To achieve the stated goal, the following tasks were set: to determine the content of such concepts as «digital platform» and «digital financial platform»; to identify the types of digital platforms; to classify digital financial platforms; to identify the impact of the introduction of digital platforms in the activities of financial organizations on public relations emerging in the financial market.

It is established that the digital platform can be viewed from various points of view: as an information system, a digital environment, a combination of digital tools and services, a hosting service provider, a set of rules according to which participants interact.

It is noted that digitalization in general and the introduction of digital platforms in particular lead to changes in the structure of the financial market, business models of financial organizations, the order of interaction between financial service providers and their customers, the behavior of consumers of financial services, as well as to a number of other fundamental shifts affecting the financial market.

In the course of the study, digital financial platforms and financial platforms in the proper sense of the word are differentiated (the functioning of which is regulated by the norms of Federal Law № 211‑FZ dated 20.07.2020 «On Financial transactions using a financial platform»).

The classification of digital financial platforms is carried out on various grounds: depending on the type of services provided with their help (basic digital financial platforms, infrastructure digital financial platforms, service (optional) digital financial platforms), by the nature of the financial services provided (independent digital financial platforms, intermediary digital financial platforms, mixed), by functional purpose as part of the activities of the financial market regulator (RegTech and SupTech platforms).

128-137 378
Abstract

The author examines the essence, features of implementation, and prospects of transformation of the content of the good faith principle in connection with the need to regulate civil relations in the digital environment. In particular, based on historical and doctrinal aspects, the author concludes that the good faith principles appliesin the context of current legislation. The author claims that this category is a principle of civil law, despite the doubts of some researchers. At the same time, conscientiousness is the most important evaluation category of domestic civil law, elevated to the rank of the basic principles of civil legislation. Based on the results of consideration of individual model and real-world examples from practice, the author concludes that good faith remains an actual and necessary tool that can be used both in legislative and law enforcement activities when solving legal problems of legal regulation of relations related to the use of digital technologies. In this case, some specific features of the principle of good faith may be identified. They are in particular as follow. There is an increase in the standard of providing information to the counterparty (in relations in the digital environment, the requirements for necessary information, as well as its content, become higher). In the future, it is possible to tighten the consequences for failure to provide information in the context of paragraph 3 of Article 307 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (clearly that some information can not be reported during a «live» interaction, for example, about obvious shortcomings of the product. However, the situation is different in the online space. It is necessary to consider the site interface as a circumstance affecting the assessment of conscientiousness of behavior (in this regard, font, colors, distractions are subject to evaluation).

PHILOSOPHY OF LAW / PHILOSOPHIA LEX

138-147 305
Abstract

The paper considers the significance of the work of the Italian lawyer Santi Romano «Law and Order» (1917–1918) for the formation and development of the concept of legal pluralism. The author’s conclusions related to the theory of multiple institutions--the rule of law in society--are analyzed. The paper reveals thecorrelation of S. Romano’s theses with the views of the representatives of the St. Petersburg school of Philosophy of law (S.I. Gessen, L.I. Petrazhitskiy, P.A. Sorokin, G.D. Gurvich), the views of L. Dugi, M. Oriu, O. Ehrlich, M. Weber. It is established that S. Romano can be considered a harbinger of modern studies of legal pluralism within the framework of legal anthropology, the direction of «law and globalization». His ideas also intersect with the concepts of «direct social law», «shadow law», highlighted in the Soviet and Russian theory of state and law. The author raises the question about the veracity of S. Romano’s certain statements about the concept of legal pluralism as a whole. It is noted that contrary to the opinion of the author of «Law and Order», not every organized social group has its own law, and the state can block the emergence of informal law, change the structure of society. It is argued that legal pluralism manifests itself not only in the multiplicity of legal systems (legal orders), but also in the reflection of the interests and values of different subjects within specific legal systems. At the same time, the very possibility of the emergence of informal law and the more general fact of the coexistence of various systems (subsystems) of law in modern society are confirmed.

It is concluded that the general significance of S. Romano’s work and other similar studies lies in attempts to theoretically substantiate the relationship between social pluralism, social competition on the one hand and legal pluralism on the other. Despite some shortcomings of these works and the need to clarify the understanding of legal pluralism, this relationship itself is indisputable, and the relevant research is important and relevant.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS AND REVIEWS / INDEX LIBRORUM

148-157 263
Abstract

According to its content, the new study presented by Professor P. P. Serkov goes far beyond its formal title, which means the focus on the place of legal relations in legal policy.

Like the ancient Roman commander Cato the Elder, who ended all his speeches in the Senate with the same phrase dedicated to the sad fate of Carthage, Professor P. P. Serkov ends any lengthy discussions about law, legal relations, legal policy, legal ideology, legal socialization, legal principles, morality, religion in one way or another with a conclusion about the effect of what appeared, in his opinion, in the pre-state era, the principle of equivalence, parity of subjective rights and obligations, which was justified in previous works.

The main features of legal research are the involvement of the methodology of other sciences (philosophy, political science and psychology), as well as the fact that legal policy, positive law around the world are evaluated («law sleeps») not directly, but indirectly--through an appeal to legal theory, which is criticized for focusing on the «artificiality of law».

The review of the original research draws attention to the extremes and contradictions in the author’s positions. In its constructive provisions, it fills both legal science and political science with new knowledge, justifying the need to reduce the inevitable distance between politics and law by taking into account the mechanisms of the emergence, development and completion of legal relations. In its polemical part, the monograph rightly warns legal science about the danger of moving in a circle, about the need for an adequate perception of the reality of being based on the achievements of other sciences to increase its efficiency.



Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.


ISSN 1729-5920 (Print)
ISSN 2686-7869 (Online)