Foundations of Ecocentric Law

This scientific article discusses the reaosns for inefficiency (“impotence”) of modern environmental law as a normative reaction to the “destruction of Nature.” The scope of the destruction of Nature has been broadening. The environmental protection law has thus not influenced the resurrection of “destroyed Nature.” The essential reasons for the current excessiveness (intemperance) of man’s interaction with Nature (the reasons for the “destruction of Nature”) and/or reasons for the inefficiency of the modern environmental law should be sought for in the dominant anthropocentric cultural paradigm of the western cultures oriented towards an un-limited material progress. If anthropocentrism (exploitativeness) as the basis of human utilitarian interaction with nature has led to the “destruction of nature,” there is no doubt that the ecological reason remaining within the anthropocentric construction of Nature can not lead to its “resurrection.” Only the setting-up of the ecocentric construction of Nature may lead to the “resurrection” of Nature. This orientation must be followed by the nomos of the western cultures. A new law of nature on the basis of the new, ecocentric ontology and ethics is therefore necessary. This article thus alalyzes the foundations of new ecocentric legal philospohy. This approach is original at the global level and is important at both the theoretical and applied levels. The new ecocentric legal philosophy should become the foundation of modern environmental law. Keywords: inefficiency of modern environmental law

The Legal Positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the Execution of Decisions Made by the European Court of Human Rights

Amendments to the Russian Constitution take effect on 4 July2020. In Chapter 3, "Federal Structure," of the Constitution of the Russian Federation there is a provision for a set of amendments specifying the status of constitutional law in the Russian Federation regarding domestic and international/interstate relations as well as relating to questions of Russian national/state identity and guarantees of its preservation and protection. On 15 January 2020 in the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly a number of constitutional amendments were proposed for discussion, including the introduction of certain changes to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. These changes will be guaranteed priority in Russia's legal framework. President Vladimir Putin noted that, "requirements of international law and treaties as well as decisions of international bodies can be valid on Russian territory only to the point that they do not restrict the rights and freedoms of our people and citizens and do not contradict our Constitution"" The topicality of considering the relationship between national and international court jurisdictions is predetermined by the fact that Russia has ratified Protocol No. 15. On 1 May 2017 a federal law-ratifying protocol establishing a subsidiary role of the European Court of Human Rights was signed. Such a role, in addition to the national mechanism of the judicial protection of human rights, is necessary to implement judicial protection, primarily in Russian courts including the Supreme Court (which is the highest court for civil, economic, criminal and administrative cases and which also protects human rights and freedoms by considering cassation and supervisory complaints against final and binding court rulings) and the Constitutional Court (which, as the highest court body of constitutional control, considers cases of citizens' complaints about the violation of constitutional rights and freedoms by a law applied by state bodies). At the current level of legal development, there are both a necessity and practical possibility of altering approaches to the implementation of international rules. This paper considers the correlation of national and international law. On the basis of decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the so-called request for the applicability of decisions of the European Court of Human Righ ts, legal views are given on the applicability of international rules by Russian courts, including their interpretation by international court institutions. The revised version of Article 101 of the Federal Constitutional Law on the Constitutional Court, which makes it possible to apply to the Constitutional Court contrary to an official ECHR decision, has been in effect since 2014

Law in the Age of the 4th Industrial Revolution: Between the Impersonal Technology and Shadow Orders

The time in which we live is not easy. On the one hand, the latest technological advances create an illusion of unprecedented progress. On the other hand, it appears that millions of people in the world are deprived from the opportunity to use these advances in their everyday lives. Moreover, it appears that these technological advances can cause more problems than they help to solve. This situation also applies to the legal sphere where the law is gradually turning into a neutral, depersonalized technique. Mostly restrictive, repressive and estranged from the will of individual social associations, such law (law as a mere technique) generates rather radical responses in the form of different "shadow" (unofficial) norms, institutions and practices. In this paper the problem of a possible clash of the official positive law with shadow social orders is analyzed. Trying to find the way out of the false dichotomy between the technologized official law and fundamentalist rules of some narrow communities, the author discusses the origins and weak spots of the contemporary legal order

Historical Comparison of Sovereignty in International Law

The current article aims to study on the concept of sovereignty in international law. To this end, sovereignty is historically examined and compared in different legal doctrines. In fact, there is a verity of legal theories on the formulation and conceptualization of sovereignty. The dominant perspective of the contemporary legal doctrines sees sovereignty as wornout and outdated concept which belongs to classical legal doctrines. This article argues such accounts and shows how the concept of sovereignty survived through historically legal developments and has still been influential in the sphere of international law. Although the main legal events comprising Westphalian truce, world wars, the foundation of United Nation organization and so on have changed the nature and content of sovereignty in the history of international law, it has remained as a fundamental principle of international law. The lack of correct understanding of this concept can reinforce the obstacles for legal modeling and doctrines. So, through such a historical comparison, the research elaborates the reconceptualization process in the concept of sovereignty and elucidates how sovereignty means in the contemporary international law and how this concept defined by the modern legal doctrine influences international law and globally affects the legal order among states. Discussing the different legal doctrines on the concept of sovereignty in different historical periods, the article reveals the present considerations on sovereignty in contemporary international law

Low-Tax Jurisdictions in International Tax Planning

Until recently low-tax jurisdictions have played an important role in the formulation of tax planning schemes by multinational enterprises. However with the onset of global trends towards deoffshorization, existing methods of tax optimization have seen significant changes. As there is currently no one single approach when creating the definition of, or defining a “low-tax jurisdiction”, in this article the definition and the main features of lowtax jurisdictions are proposed and the main stages in the formation and development of low-tax jurisdictions are detailed. On the basis of research carried out on the national legislation of low-tax jurisdictions, the main company types which meet the special legal formulae that can be incorporated into low-tax jurisdictions have been analyzed. In order to highlight similar characteristics and to simplify the analysis of the national legislation of low-tax jurisdictions so that general recommendations covering the nature of measures which can be used to counter illegal tax avoidance, tax evasion, money laundering and other illegal financial machinations, different classifications of low-tax jurisdictions have been analyzed. The unfair and perhaps even illegal use of low-tax jurisdictions often leads to violations of core tax principles which may have an impact on the overall size of budget revenues available to high-tax countries. Therefore, deoffshorization measures are being proposed at the international level. Currently the main global trend has been to increase the transparency of tax information and of financial transactions which are carried out by international exchanges. This is supported by the strengthening and expansion of cooperation between tax authorities which serves to counter the abuse of provisions in international tax treaties on the avoidance of double taxation

Russian Compulsory Financial Ombudsman and Civil Procedure

In international law, there is no directly prescribed duty of states to create the institution of financial ombudsman. However, in practice this institution is in real terms very popular for effectiveness in various forms. This paper analyzes the models of financial ombudsman in some of the leading European jurisdictions as well as the Russian model and its distinction from all these models. The successful introduction of compulsory financial ombudsmen according to a new Russian law is impossible without deep integration of this institution with the general civil procedure legislation. The Russian financial ombudsman is authorized by law to partially create for himself the rules for resolving disputes, which in essence gives him the right to create rules of civil procedural law. Since pre-trial settlement of certain categories of civil disputes in the financial markets through the financial ombudsman system is mandatory, providing him with unlimited discretion to determine the amount of the fee for considering a case, this can create a conflict of interest in his or her activities. The new Russian law is criticized for numerous inconsistencies with civil procedure legislation, without the elimination of which the practical work of the financial ombudsmen will be ineffective. I offer some legal approaches for the development of this institution. The competence of the further alternative dispute resolution (ADR) Russian institutions depends on the success or failure of the financial ombudsman

The Legacy of Socialist Constitutionalism in Slovakia: The Right of the Slovak Nation to Self-Determination

Albeit in 1918 the Slovak nation voluntarily became a “branch” of the single Czechoslovak nation and of the unitary Czechoslovak state, the connection with the Czechs was rather perceived as a strategic move until the Slovak nation develops its capacity for the execution of its own right to self-determination. In the context of Czechoslovakia being under pressure of Hitler’s Germany in 1938, Slovak autonomists managed to exploit the situation and Slovakia was granted autonomy within Czechoslovakia. Soon thereafter, in March 1939, an “independent” Slovak State was created, in fact being under direct control of Nazi Germany. The authoritarian political regime of the War-Time Slovakia was soon rejected by Slovaks themselves and the Slovak nation was rather willing to sacrifice its independence in order to return to the democratic regime of Czechoslovakia in 1945. Still, there were attempts to change the position of Slovaks and Slovakia within Czechoslovakia, which eventually materialized in the form of the federalization of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in 1968/69, giving Slovaks for the first time (apart from the Hitler-sponsored statehood in 1939–1945) their formal republican statehood, albeit only within a system of limited socialist federalism. Still, this allowed for a relatively simple change of this formal statehood into an internationally recognized independent Slovak Republic in 1993. The socialist constitutional recognition of self-determination of the Slovak nation in the form of a Socialist Republic thus paved the way to the currently existing Slovakia, hence making it the most important legacy of the (Czecho-)Slovak socialist history

Digitization of Civil Legal Proceedings in the Russian Federation

This work is an analysis of legal trends in the administration of justice and the judicial system of the Russian Federation. Among the main trends, the authors observe an increase in the number of civil cases considered on the merits by both commercial courts and general jurisdiction courts. The authors also analyze some opportunities for increasing the level of integration of digital technologies in the legal environment of the Russian Federation. One of the triggers capable of catalyzing this process is the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the transformations in the administration of justice that require online court trials using the Internet are analyzed, and some foreign experience in implementing such a format of court trials is considered. The authors also assess in this article the impact of judicial reforms in 2019 on the dynamics of the administration of justice

Socialist Constitutional Legacies

With the end of the Cold War, many assumed that socialism, together with the specific constitutional values and political structures was dead (or dying). This article will challenge these assumptions. Post-Cold War reality did not, however, follow these assumptions. Some countries, especially in Asia, continue to adhere to socialist constitutional approaches. Some cannot fully overcome their socialist legacy. And still others include socialist values in their constitutions and practice. These values and ideas warrant study. Most notably, socialism carries with it a certain set of values and, consequently, a corresponding pressure on legal institutions. The authors, guest editors of this special issue of the Russian Law Journal on the socialist legacies in the world constitutions, outline a general approach for the study of socialist constitutional legacies. The article therefore addresses (a) the methodology of socialist constitutional legacies analysis, (b) the core values of the socialist constitutions and (c) ways in which socialist constitutional ideas and concepts can be combined with the principles of constitutionalism. This analysis raises a number of important – but under-researched questions. One is the extent to which these socialist ideas or concepts are actually socialist. Another is the extent to which these ideas can be included in constitutional discourse

Legal Mechanisms to Regulate Civil Liability for Actions of Artificial Intelligence in the Russian Federation and European Union Law

In this article authors discuss existing ideas about liability of artificial intelligence based on guilty and strict approaches to defining the elements of civil liability in the Russian Federation and European Union. These approaches have drawbacks, which are, first of all, in the excessive limitation of the development of innovations, and with low efficiency in achieving the goals of civil legal responsibility and the implementation of its functions. The risk-based approach proposed by the author to the determination of the elements of civil liability for the actions of artificial intelligence is intended to neutralize the named drawbacks. Based on the analysis of the spheres of application and artificial intelligence technology, the risk-based approach allows a more efficient and flexible approach to the definition of the subject of responsibility, its types and limits, ensuring a balance between the development of innovation and the goals of civil liability. As a result of the study, the author’s definition of a risk-based approach to civil liability for the actions of artificial intelligence has been given, its features, elements have been disclosed, and its advantages over existing approaches to civil liability have been demonstrated