Reinventing “Magic Circle” in the Age of Internet Government Control: the Lessons of Videogame Law for Modern Practices of Legal Interpretation

The restrictions for disseminating certain kinds of information that is considered publicly offensive and (or) dangerous has made topical a fundamental problem of the limits of reasonable interpretation and application of law to the contexts that could be characterized as virtual, playful or otherwise non-serious. From the standpoint of interdisciplinary approach including mostly philosophy of law and game studies, the underlying problem reflected in therepresentative examples above, has substantial similarities with the “magic circle” concept studied in the research direction that is conventionally called “videogame law”. However, existing theories of magic circle, both in game studies and law, are not satisfactory to resolve this problem. The article suggests that the solution can be found in theoretical sociology concept of “generalized symbolic media”. If an object of social relationship is an “external referent of value” of such media and has convertible “socio-currency value”, this means that such object is significant enough to be included into the scope of legal regulation. However, for the application of law to be appropriate without doubt, such an object should also share functional similarity with the core meaning of the relevant legal norm. Together, these two criteria, conventionally designated as “the criterion of seriousness” and “the criterion of reality”, are necessary and sufficient to assert that interpretation and application of law is not absurd, but reasonable in cases related to virtual reality that is characterized by possibility to include simulation that is out of scope of law

Computer Games vs Law: Virtualization and Transformation of Political and Legal Institutions

The paper provides an analysis of virtual reality as a subject of regulation while underlining the similarity of principles in gaming and regulatory activities as the elements of virtual reality. A deeper insight into the relationships between regulatory and gaming activities allows to make a statement that gaming provides a tool for situational analysis to identify the most rational action among the available alternatives thus offering a way to construct a legal reality. Assuming that people will make decisions by weighing costs and benefits to maximize the “utility”, and will interact with others by balancing preferences and constraints, the immersion into the gaming environment and observation of the process of rational decision-making will allow to construct predictive and explanatory models for pubic authorities to organize a relatively efficient law-making process. Moreover, the reciprocal influence of the gaming and legal environment has been persistently ignored by the law enforcement practices, only to result in legal gaps. A careful and comprehensive study of gaming as a legal phenomenon is thus a prerequisite of balanced and adequate lawmaking as well as enforcement. Therefore, this study purports to examine the points of contact between the gaming and the legal reality, and assess the existing legal gaps and prospects of creating and eventually applying “virtual” law. The methodology of the study includes general philosophic and scholar methods (analysis, synthesis, logical and systemic methods), specific research and legal methods (including formal legal analysis). The authors propose to make a definition of virtual law and to identify the levels of virtual environment. In analyzing the virtual environment, the authors conclude that it needs to be viewed through the lens of legal regulation since the virtual nature of computer games gives rise to socially important and potentially controversial interactions between players, platforms and developers that need to be mediated. The authors finally conclude that superficial and skeptical attitude of jurisprudence towards the gaming industry is unacceptable while regulatory problems have to be addressed both in science and law. Internationally, the legal systems are already developing a set of provisions — virtual law, Internet law — designed to regulate socially important aspects of computer game

La judicatura en el sistema constitucional ruso

El presente artículo se detiene a analizar el papel de la judicatura en el sistema constitucional ruso a partir de la Constitución de 1993, aquella que sustituyó a la Constitución de 1978 de la República Socialista Federativa de la Unión Soviética que estaba basada en la ideología comunista. Así, con la finalidad de dar cuenta del nuevo orden constitucional, enfatiza en importantes aristas como el principio de separación de poderes, los derechos humanos y libertades reconocidos constitucionalmente, la interrelación entre la jurisprudencia de los órganos internacionales de derechos humanos y la Corte Constitucional de Rusia, entre otros.This article is about new constitutional order in Russia emphasizing fundamental areas as the role of judiciary in the Russian Constitutional System from 1993 Constitution, the one which replaced the 1978 Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Constitution based on communist ideology. Therefore, it is intended to examine the principle of separation of powers, constitutionally recognized human rights and liberties, relationship between international bodies’ case law of human rights and the Russian Constitutional Court, among others issues

Low-Field Electron Emission Capability of Thin Films on Flat Silicon Substrates: Experiments with Mo and General Model for Refractory Metals and Carbon

Herein, we describe a study of the phenomenon of field-induced electron emission from thin films deposited on flat Si substrates. Films of Mo with an effective thickness of 6-10 nm showed room-temperature low-field emissivity; a 100 nA current was extracted at macroscopic field magnitudes as low as 1.4-3.7 V/mu m. This result was achieved after formation treatment of the samples by combined action of elevated temperatures (100-600 degrees C) and the electric field. Morphology of the films was assessed by AFM, SEM, and STM/STS methods before and after the emission tests. The images showed that forming treatment and emission experiments resulted in the appearance of numerous defects at the initially continuous and smooth films; in some regions, the Mo layer was found to consist of separate nanosized islets. Film structure reconstruction (dewetting) was apparently induced by emission-related factors, such as local heating and/or ion irradiation. These results were compared with our previous data obtained in experiments with carbon islet films of similar average thickness deposited onto identical substrates. On this basis, we suggest a novel model of emission mechanism that might be common for thin films of carbon and refractory metals. The model combines elements of the well-known patch field, multiple barriers, and thermoelectric models of low-macroscopic-field electron emission from electrically nanostructured heterogeneous materials