Vol 24, No 3 (2020)

In legal literature there is a big amount of definitions of corruption due to the complexity of this phenomenon. The article considers various legal and theoretical approaches to the definition of corruption. The Author mentions the problem of notional proximity of different definitions of corruption and proposes a method of identification of definitions which are close in meaning. The author also proposes to consider social and psychological aspects in definition of corruption as these aspects are regarded as an integral part of corruption.

The relevance of the problem of choosing the object of study in the theory of law is determined by the need to tackle the debatable issue of pluralism in understanding of law. It is noted that one of the reasons for theoretical and legal pluralism on the concept of law is the lack of uniform criteria for identifying the object of study in the general theory of law. The situation with the concept of law in legal science, including with the pluralism of opinions, is considered largely as a result of the scientists and practitioners’ attitude described as “first understand the law” and then create a “single” concept of law. The fundamental research carried out in legal science and wide discussions on the concept of law are taken as positive; one of the parameters is the principle of separation of the object and subject of legal science. It is shown that when constructing a scientific theory of law, the primary question is the object of study, that is, the question of law itself as a special fragment of the real world, but not a disputable issue of the concept of law. However, in practice, when identifying the object of scientific knowledge in the general theory of law, scholars choose to study the most diverse fragments of the world, although they designate them with the same term law. Since various objects called law are subjected to scientific research, one cannot expect to derive a single concept of law. With regard to the analysis of the concept of law and the data of modern science, the following set of attributes for identifying law as an object of study in law theory is proposed for consideration: “Law is a set of social norms enshrined in written language by the state and designed for people to interact with each other and with public authority such as state and other entities”.

The purpose of the study of this article is a general theoretic analysis of scientific views on the essence of legal regulation and its object for the development and formation of a definition of the object of procedural legal regulation. General scientific and special scientific methods including formal-legal and comparative-legal, as well as logical techniques, have been chosen for the research; they allowed to reveal the essence of the legal regulation and its object, and eventually - to formulate the author 's definition of the object of procedural-legal regulation. A review of scientific publications shows that legal regulation generally implies a streamlining effect on social relations on the part of authorized entities. The essence of legal regulation lies in the legal impact on social relations with a view to their regularization, carried out by authorized entities through legal activities. The object of legal regulation is a set of social relations subject to legal regulation, which is the starting point for understanding the concept of the object of procedural and legal regulation. In turn, social relations, as a stable connection of interacting subjects, meet such criteria as social importance, conscious will, typology, frequency, formal equality of subjects of legal life and others. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the object of procedural and legal regulation should be understood as a scope of certain social relations regulated by the rules of procedural law and procedural activities of specially authorized entities.

The rationale of the study is the uniqueness of the system of the multi-national and multi-confessional Russian state. Peoples' inclusion into a single state legal framework determined the need to develop a relevant ethnic legal policy. In this regard, this paper is aimed at articulating the legal fundamentals of the Russian politics in XVI-XVIII centuries towards aboriginal peoples on the example of the Mordvins. The paper discusses the key aspects of the Mordvins’ life under the Russian law. It looks into 16th-18th centuries regulations regarding non-Russians that determined the specifics of their adaptation within Russia. The study is mainly based on the formal-legal, historical-legal methodology with emphasis on sociocultural and legal-anthropological approaches, which made it possible to historically and legally assess laws and regulations that reflect specifics of Mordvins’ position in the 16th-18th centuries. The paper has a practical value for improving the legislation for inter-ethnic relations and strengthening the foundations of federalism as the key characteristic of the Russian state.

The article is devoted to the evolution of law in a digital society in a semantic approach. The rapid development of digital technologies is characterized by contradictory trends. The new technical and technological reality can be terminal for the development of society if people entrust themselves to a "digit" and will not reasonably and responsibly organize their social relations in terms of legal regulation. A more humane version is to consider digital models as a tool for solving social problems. In this way, law should acquire the quality of the main tool of such transformations and along with new functions; those functions are expert-analytical, forecasting, priority adaptation, standardization of technological control. The problem of meaning of law in a digital society can be attributed to most important problems. It covers a wide range of debatable issues: the relation-ship between the real and the virtual in law, consideration of artificial intelligence as a possible subject of law, distinction between truth and plausibility in law, se-miotic nature and methodology of cognizing the meaning of law in the world of signs, symbols, codes, etc. The purpose of the article is to formulate the author's view on the dynamics of the law’s meaning in a digital society from the point of view of ontology, epistemology, methodology and applied aspect of knowledge. Research methods: formal legal, analysis, interpretation, forecasting, and modeling. The results of the study. In a digital society, law is being transformed into digital semiotic and augmented reality, with technology as an integral part of it. In these conditions, law, according to author, will preserve the regulatory and value potential for human society on condition that software machine codes are integrated into the human environment, and used to the benefit of a human being. There-fore, the traditional procedures of law-making, interpretation, concretization, application of law and dynamic meaning-making will remain relevant; by analogy with them, the software allowing to interact with the machine will be created and developed. The article arrives at the concludion that cognition of the meaning of law in a digital society rests in the search for the truth: law is a human reality and scientific and technological progress is evaluated in compliance with it.

The research is devoted to topical issues of law in the field of neuromarketing. The transition from commodity economy to economy of impressions is largely due to application of modern methods of monitoring brain functioning in order to increase efficiency of production and trading strategies. Due to the potential ability to influence the decision-making process of clients, neuromarketing attracts mixed opinions from lawyers and psychologists. The current legislation does not provide an appropriate level of regulation of neuroscience and their results in the market. At the same time, the precontractual impact on the consumer may contain signs of distorting the principles of freedom of contract, good faith, and reasonableness. The article proposes to consider the rational behavior of an individual - one of the main presumptions of civil law - from a new perspective, given the current results of neuropsychological research and ethical and legal aspects of social relations. The results of the work allow to speak about fundamental possibility of limiting the dynamic form of free will in a contractual obligation (up to the refusal of a transaction) if there are conditions related both directly to the psychophysiological characteristics of the counterparty and the pe-culiarities of neuromarketing effects under a specific contract. The relevance of hierarchical concepts of autonomy of will is noted; these are the situations when an individual choice is subject to legal protection, if it reflects a genuine will, consistent with the essential goals and values of the person. The absence of defects in awareness and voluntariness in such cases is a key aspect of principles of freedom of contract and reasonableness associated with a conscious decision when entering an obligation.

The article is devoted to the analysis of a new concept - the ecosystem of the financial market of the European Union. It is proved that the new ecosystem of the financial market of the European Union, aimed at the priorities of "sustainable financing" has developed and become the objective reality of new public relations. In this regard, a comparative analysis of the above issues is of particular importance. The study showed that the European Union in December 2019 presented its vision of regulating a new ecosystem of the financial market: the cornerstones of this regulation were identified - the regulation on information disclosure, the regulation of low-carbon standards, the draft regulation on taxonomy. Given the fact that the above normative acts apply not only to participants in the EU financial market, but also to third countries, Russia needs to determine its position on this issue. A lag in the legal regulation of these issues can lead to serious losses for Russian legal entities offering financial services. The purpose of the study is to form an understanding of the principles of legal regulation of “sustainable financing” in the European Union based on an analysis of regulatory acts and scientific sources. The article uses General scientific methods of cognition: empirical methods of comparison, description, interpretation; theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic. Private scientific methods were used: legal-dogmatic and the method of interpretation of legal norms.

The article discusses the problems that arise in connection with the crimes against state and public security committed by use of computer and network technologies. This topic is becoming relevant because some states have already experienced the effects of “combat” computer viruses, which can be regarded as waging war using cyber weapons. The most famous example is the attack by the Stuxnet computer virus on an Iranian uranium enrichment plant. The virus was created specifically to disable industrial control systems. The use of unmanned ground and air vehicles to carry out terrorist acts is of particular danger. The Russian military in Syria is constantly confronted with terrorist attacks: the Khmeimim aerospace forces base is regularly attacked with unmanned air vehicles - drones. Terrorist acts with the use of computer and network technologies are no less dangerous. The destructive potential of cyberterrorism is determined by the widespread computerization of state and public life, the implementation of projects to create smart cities, including smart transportation, as well as the intensive development of the Internet of things. The purpose of the article is to analyze new criminal threats to state and public security, as well as to study high-tech ways of committing crimes such as sabotage, terrorist acts, and other crimes of a terrorist nature. The cost of their consequences for society is very high, and criminals do not always need to attack social objects directly - it is enough to spread panic among the population using online media, social networks and websites of authorities of various levels, after obtaining illegal access to them. The article describes some of the techniques already used to commit crimes of sabotage and terrorism. The authors draw attention to the priority of cybersecurity both for engineers of devices with elements of artificial intelligence, and for lawmakers who should pay attention to methods of technical forecasting when developing legal norms aimed at prevention of new ways of committing such crimes. When writing the article, the authors used a wide range of Russian and foreign sources of legal, statistical, sociological and other information. The authors used such research methods as analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, formal legal method as well as comparative legal method.

The article is devoted to the pre-trial procedure for qualifying information, information materials, posted on information and telecommunication networks, including the Internet, as extremist and prohibited for distribution as a condition for applying to court. The object of the study was a complex of public relations aimed at countering extremism. As a result of the study, the author concluded that part of the complex of preventive measures, carried out by the authorized bodies in order to counter extremism, can be assessed by the court as a pre-trial procedure for qualifying information as extremist. The author draws attention to the lack of certainty in the terms “extrajudicial procedure” and “pre-trial procedure”, which requires improvement of the legislation; the need to determine the mechanism of pre-trial procedure of applying to court by establishing criteria, specific and sufficient actions of the authorized bodies to apply to court.

The article focuses on the state of environment protection at global and regional levels. It dwells in detail on the definitions, history, causes of climate change and the efforts made by the international community to address this existential threat in a just and efficient manner, as well as the ongoing efforts to salvage the future of humanity by embarking on the road to sustainable development. The article also focuses on explaining the state of environmental degradation from a human rights perspective and suggests requisite measures that ensure the promotion and protection of human rights of the most disadvantageous persons and segments of every society. The special emphasis is placed on the origin of Islamic ecological thought, the dichotomy between Islamic precepts, which are fully in line with the just and sustainable use of natural resources, and the contradictory practices of Muslim countries. Equally important in this regard are the various initiatives, policies and decisions taken by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to address the challenge of environment protection at the national, regional and international levels, as part of the global community. In dealing with the state of environment protection in the OIC countries, the article also situates the overall debate within the context of the right to a healthy environment and the concept of climate justice. It accordingly makes a number of recommendations to different stakeholders including the primary target of the article i.e. the OIC countries both from a developmental and human rights perspective.

The review of the monograph by the candidate of legal sciences Denis A. Dobryakov “The System and Types of Criminal Punishment in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea” reveals and evaluates content of the study’s key results. In addition to the analysis of the work, the review outlines some provisions that require additional attention of the author. In general, it can be noted that the monograph is of value to legal science and can serve as the basis for subsequent studies in the field of comparative criminal law.

The article contains an overview of the published textbook “Problems of the theory of state and law”. The publication is devoted to topical and controversial issues in the theory of law and state, contains interesting materials for the study of modern problems of the methodology of legal science, approaches to understanding of law, etc. The textbook will familiarize the readers with the points of view of various authors and their arguments on many issues. The educational publication is a complex work of a team of authors and is intended for a wide range of readers.

The article looks at the process of preparing a new nomenclature of scientific specialties in Russia. Special attention is paid to the development of a model of the nomenclatur of scientific specialties in law. The reasons for optimising the current nomenclature of scientific specialities are analysed as well the goals and objectives are set up for developers in regard to this document. A new design of scientific specialties in law is presented. Attention is drawn to its features, including compactness and avoiding excessive differentiation of scientific branches.