No 2 (2016)

The author formulates a post-classical approach to the determination of freedom and its measures. Law as universal measure of freedom is the ultimate abstraction. The specific content of legal measures of freedom is contextual. The meaning of the concept of «freedom» is determined by historical and socio-cultural frameworks and legal policy. The concept of «freedom» fills with concrete meaning through the definition of its measures, including the law, in each particular situation. Measuring of freedom is always «arbitrary» to the previous norm adopted another measure of freedom. In the act of legal innovation the measure of freedom will obtain social recognition. The universal exists in law as formal abstraction. The universal in law is the functional significance of law - ensuring the survival of the society. Formal abstraction as the essence or goal of law fills with specific content in the context of time and place. The universality of law as a measure of freedom is its social purpose. Among all nations and peoples and at all times, the constitutive norms always existed and exist for the appropriate society. They should be called law. The universality of law as a measure of freedom is a priori condition of the possibility of human, social and legal existence. It can be filled with particular content only in appropriate historical and social cultural context. Legal policy determines legal measure of freedom in post-industrial society. Legal policy is the activity of the ruling elites and reference groups to form the system of law, organization of social (legal) control and operation of the population on the reproduction of legal reality. Subjects of legal policy are: 1) the ruling elite and reference group who produce the new legally relevant maxim of law; 2) the masses who legitimize legal innovation or refuse to accept it.

This article discusses and describes the role of the legally relevant social interests in the process of formation of the elements of law matter. The connection between social media and the procedure of legal regulation is stated. It has been determined that social nature of law starts its immediate performance in the amount of those social interests which demand for the necessity of their regulation via statutory power. On the basis of the analysis of national works in the field of juristic doctrine, the term “law matter” is introduced as the most distinctively revealing the inner structure of the right, the accumulation of the means of the right which have a regulating impact on social interactions. The significant role of interests in social and law development is highlighted as these are the interests that predetermine the social and law dynamic pattern (a dialectic of the form and content of the right). Interests are considered as the intermedium between the subjective stage of the regulating right formation process and an objective one, since the interests are connected with the subjective knowledge of objective factors which are at the forefront of the right formation process. Various interpretations of the notion of interests are presented. The description of interests in the context of social interaction is emphasized. The socio-interactive nature of the legal interests arising in the course of continuous social interaction is justified. Basing on the etymology of the term but not exclusively, it has been asserted that the interest is initially a socio-interactive phenomenon which recurs in the processes of social interaction and presents the initial ontological (life) base for the right (the right regulation). The appearance of economic interests which are needed to be legally regulated in the process of interaction among corresponding bearers of economic interests is given as an example. The similar example of law significant interests reproducing is found amid the political interaction (the interaction of authorities and society).The dependence of the nature of the social and legal interests and legal expressing their type forms is established. Thus, it is proved that the relation of the conflict type influence the formation of negative legal means (prohibitions, abeyance, sanctions) the aim of which is the demarcation of conflicting parties, lowing the level of tension in social systems. On the other hand, it can be noticed that the situations of social cooperation (where social interests are mostly in agreement) stipulate the system of positive legal means (permission, incentives, encouragement) which contribute to the united relations in the society. The significance of timely revelation of legally important social interests resumed being one of the problems of modern legal policy.

The article considers the correlation of general principles of law, the principles of international law and the principles of aw of international organizations. It is shown that the system of principles of law of international organizations are quite ambivalent, therefore, specialists interprets them in different ways. The principle of formal equality is extremely significant in this regard. Some researchers consider formal equality as essential characteristic of law in general, while others disagree. In the article the principle of formal equality is considered as a basis for the development of the law of international organizations. Such principle as sovereign equality of the states and respect of the rights inherent of sovereignty is analyzed as derivative of the principle of formal equality. In article it’s shown that only from the XX century it’s possible to speak about the principle of formal equality as the principle of the law of the international organizations. Since that time the violation of this principle practically always led to armed conflicts and refusal of the purpose for the sake of which the international organization was created. As an example, the author is illustrated the activity of League of the Nations. The violation of the principle of formal equality led to the fact that the main task of this organization - the prevention of the Second World War - was not solved. It is also considered the acceptable of legal limits of the principle of formal equality in international organizations. It can be the use of informed decision as a result of voting in some international organizations, i.e. the specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN) as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the International Maritime Satellite Organization Inmarsat. The second acceptable legal limit of the principle of formal equality is the preferred position of the Russian Federation, the USA, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the United Nations Security Council. These are the states that played the key role in the defeat of fascism during the Second World War.

In the article, the author focuses primarily on the general rules of EU antimonopoly regulation, inter alia: the dominant position, the anti-competitive agreements and the State assistance. The author also specifies of special features of the regulation, as well as its practical regulation. In the second part of the article, the researcher analyses the specific antitrust norms, applicable to gas industry in the sectors of gas transport, distribution, storage and commerce. The author points that today the antitrust law became the basic instrument of the gas industry development. The application of the common rules became habitual and gets the gradual character. At the same time, the doubts on the necessity of the antitrust law existence still exist. The application of the specific antitrust norms give rise to more doubts. Possibly because of the lack of the practice of the realization of the EU legislation, may be it is too early to make the conclusions about the effectiveness of the antitrust legal regulation. Already, there are propositions of the elaboration of the new directives. However, while implementing future reforms concurrence should not be achieved through the establishment of the new barriers on the market. The measures like unbundling, the regulatory access to the infrastructure themselves present the restrictions of the freedom of the entrepreneurship. Consequently, more actual is not the adoption of the new directives but the deregulation. The diminution of the States interference will allow to retain the incitements for the monopolist and to eliminate the barriers of the entrance on the market. The author comes to the conclusion that if the adoption of the new acts is inevitable for the legislator, the institutions should, first of all, proportion the goals and measures of their achievement and, secondly, secure the balance between the importance of the concurrence developpement and the energy efficiency, keeping in mind the deficit of this resource.

In the article analyzes conceptual approaches to the study the content of the term «information resource», undefined in current Russian legislation but, however, used in some regulations. The authors pay attention to the specific content of information law basic terms basing on the evolutionary stages of formation of the appropriate categories. They note that research of «information resource» concept specificity should be founded on analysis of its legal nature, and supposes constructing the conceptual line based on «information» category. Analysis of the definitions given in various sources enables to state that structure of information resources includes any arbitrary information, or its subset, and different authors sometimes use incommensurable criteria to highlight it. The article justifies the necessity to improve state policy concerning information resources as well as facilities and processes related to the latter. It is argued that clear legal regulation in sphere of information law and inclusion of the notion of «information resource» to the current information law will ensure stability of Russian information complex government. It is caused by the fact that the rapid development of the global information network currently enables data transmission to almost unlimited distances in large enough volumes and in the shortest possible time, which is followed by the necessity to improve public policy concerning information resources as well as facilities and processes related to the latter. The authors note the need to minimize the cross-use of information and legal definitions in the system of legal regulation of public relations at the present stage and the further improvement of the conceptual and theoretical basis of informatization in Russia.

On 25-26th of March 2016 all-Russian scientific-practical conference «Interests in law» took place in People’s Friendship University of Russia. It was initiated by the Department of theory and history of state and law and co-organized by Institute of State and Law of the RAS, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Gerzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Association of Law Schools of Russia. During the conference different aspects of problem of interests in law were discussed, e.g. influence of the interests on the evolution of law and society in different periods of their history and development, communication of legal contact subjects as carriers of subjective rights and obligations, interdependence of and interaction of public and private interests in lawmaking, law enforcement and law schools’ educational process. Present review includes general conception of the conference, participants’ main ideas and fragments of their speeches mirrored to certain extent the level of comprehending the conference’ main problem by scientific society of Russia and neighboring states.