Vol 26, No 2 (2022)

In today’s world a considerable number of people for one reason or another live outside their (or their ancestors’) States of origin. In most cases they retain a sense of belonging to their Homeland and an interest in maintaining ties with it. In turn, States also seek to develop relations with compatriots living abroad. This direction of State activity in many countries is enshrined at the constitutional level; special laws determining the legal status of compatriots, directions and forms of interaction with them have been adopted; special State programs to support diasporas are being developed and implemented. In general, the policy of States toward compatriots living abroad aims to preserve their national (linguistic, cultural, and religious) identity and to involve them in their social, cultural, economic, and political life. For these purposes, States help compatriots living abroad to study their native language, introduce them to national culture and traditions, support diaspora organizations, develop their cooperation with public authorities, scientific and educational institutions, business communities, and non-profit organizations, encourage investment activity, and, if necessary, provide compatriots with social assistance. Foreign countries have accumulated a lot of positive experience in this regard, and its analysis and generalization is the subject of this article.

The purpose of the study is to generalize the practice of legislative regulation of green public procurement in the countries of the European Union with the prospect of its application in the legal conditions of Russia. The article formulates the legal content of “green” (sustainable) public procurement. It is substantiated that green public procurement will contribute to solving environmental problems, stimulating the subjects of innovative and environmental entrepreneurship to actively support the climate agenda. The study reveals the obstacles that hinder broader engagement of the Russian contract law to raise efficiency of green public procurement in Russia. Conclusions concern normative regulation considering environmental criteria for identifying green public procurement and developing regulations for this type of procurement based on the experience of the world leaders. Normative and legal regulation of “green” procurement is necessary not only for companies, but also for the state, as it reflects national strategic priorities in the field of environmental protection, which is in line with the UN global goals of sustainable development.

The article concerns the issues related to the determination of local self-government bodies' role in the unified system of public power, which is being formed due to the implementation of the constitutional reform on effective interaction between state and municipal bodies. The author examines the concept of the “unified system of public authority”, identifying the key semantic meanings that influence its formation, and analyzes the prospects of local self-government bodies either to preserve or loose independence as a result of their inclusion in the unified system of public authority (Federal Law No. 394-FZ of December 8, 2020, On the State Council of the Russian Federation).

This article is devoted to the processes caused by the systemic and institutional crisis of the Anglo-Saxon model of the political regime, which affected various areas of public relations clearly observed in the countries of the “collective West” and for a long historical period personified the statehood of the bourgeois-liberal type, functioning on the basis of relevant principles, values and proce-dures, and positioning itself as a stronghold of democracy to be followed. Based on a critical comparative legal analysis, it is concluded that many of the problems faced by postmodern society whose regression and degradation is already visible to the naked eye, stem directly from the era of formation and development of those relations which are traditionally associated, regardless of gender, skin color or ethnicity, with the constitutional and legal status of a person and citizen. Taking into account the circumstances of this kind, the authors consider the specifics and peculiarities of how the racial and female “issue” were resolved at the time, the discriminatory nature of which does not cause any doubt. Neverthe-less, their relapses have manifested themselves in the context of new stereotypes and rules of behavior, actualized by apologists of tolerance and multiculturalism, obtaining a totalitarian nature in the European Union and the United States. Ex-ploring the trends of recent years, the article emphasizes that in many states, called democratic, ruling elites initiated a process associated with politicization, falsification and perversion of national and global history. The process is primari-ly aimed at transforming the collective and individual consciousness of genera-tions that directly or indirectly did not feel the negative effects of the war, and perceived information mythologems as genuine and an objective view of things. As a result, events, facts and sources that previously did not cause any doubts among the academic community and the general public are being reviewed. The definitions of “liberalism” and “democracy”, introduced into political and collo-quial vocabulary long ago, have lost their original meaning and connotation. Based on that the authors conclude that it is necessary to form a fundamentally different scientific and theoretical foundation than before, since the existing def-initions and terms no longer meet the realities and requirements of today.

The development of society and dominant ideas about humanism and human rights require actualization of the legal regulation of various areas of social relations. It also involves the issues of criminal punishment, process and conditions of its execution, and the prison labor of convicts. This article is devoted to the analysis of the Northern Europe states’ experience of penal systems organization and especially conditions of the imprisoned persons’ labor. The issues of convicts’ recruitment goals, mandatory nature of their labor and alternative types of activities, grounds and procedure for remuneration of the work they perform are in the focus. In addition to the “traditional” Scandinavian states (Sweden, Denmark, and Norway), attention is also paid to the experience of Finland, which is close to the above states in many ways. The analysis of foreign practices is carried out in the context of problems existing in the penitentiary system of the Russian Federation. The results and formulated conclusions may be useful for subsequent scientific research, as well as revising Russian legislation and law enforcement practice connected with prison sentences execution and labor administering.

The article examines the views of the outstanding Italian criminologist Enrico Ferri on various issues of criminal justice, expressed in “Criminal Sociology”. It analyzes his arguments concerning the goals of justice, stability of the criminal code, the need for unity of civil and military justice. The article offers counterarguments against Enrico Ferri’s list of exceptions to the principle of the presumption of innocence. At the same time the views of the thinker concerning the expediency of abandoning the principle of collegiality and the jury trial are of certain interest. His ideas on three types of sentences (acquittal, indictment and under suspicion) and on the need to reason the final act of justice have been considered. Enrico Ferri’s thoughts on the amnesty and pardon, rehabilitation, revision of acquittals, possibility of stricter sentence in verification proceedings, etc. are obviously enriching the science of the criminal process. This article may be of interest to anyone who is engaged in the issues of criminal procedure, criminal law, and criminology, as well as the history of these legal sciences.

A number of international legal instruments is highly recommended to upgrade the national system of conflict resolution in the sphere of criminal law with the view of the importance of not only traditional prohibitive, punitive and preventive, but, first of all, restorative tasks. Such modernization, which implies a tran-sition from the strategy of “combating crime” to strategies of “reducing the harm from crime”, requires a combination of methods of “punitive” and “restorative justice” in order to most effectively solve the problems of compensation for the harm caused to the victim and restoring his normal life and disturbed public order, as well as correcting and re-socializing the person who committed the crime in order to avoid repetition of criminal activity. But in order for such a transformation of the paradigm of criminal law policy to be organic and natural rather than artificially implanted, it is necessary that certain socio-political and legal factors that determine the formation and development of mediation and other restorative justice programs in the field of criminal law should develop in the Russian reality. For the first time in Russian science, the article, poses and investigates the problem of socio-legal laws of the concept of restorative justice. The conducted research contributes to identifying and formulating a set of laws characterizing the formation and development of the restorative approach; this allows on the basis of identified patterns to assess the current state of its socio-legal prerequisites in Russia.

The escalating environmental problems need scientific understanding, which is facilitated by the theoretical and educational works of Professor I.A. Ignatieva. They analyze the concept, objects, sources, and development of legal institutions of modern environmental law and legislation, considering previously published monographs of well-known scholars. Of great interest are her reflections concerning the initial formation of natural resources law, fundamental for environmental relations, as well as growing importance and development of environmental law. Among other issues the author emphasizes the place of a person in the environment, which is protected for the benefit of his life and health. The traditional for Russian and foreign law issue of the relationship between “environmental protection” and “ensuring environmental safety”, provided for in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and in strategic planning documents is also in the focus.

The article-review reveals the main provisions of the monograph, assesses its content and contribution of the authors to solving topical issues of modern envi-ronmental law. The importance of theoretical-methodological and institutional-legal characteristics of environmental law in the XXI century and the conceptual positions of the authors regarding the emergence of new concepts, sub-sectors and institutions of environmental law, as well as importance of the greening of the constitution in international and national dimensions are emphasized.