The role of legal responsibility in the implementation of the principle of the unity of public authority in Russia

The subject. The article presents a comprehensive general theoretical analysis of the institution of legal responsibility and its role, taking into account the consolidation of the new constitutional and legal principle of the unity of the system of public power.The purpose of the research is to confirm or disprove hypothesis that it is necessary to legislate a full-fledged mechanism of legal responsibility of state bodies and local self-government bodies in order to implement the constitutional principle of the unity of public power.Methodology. The formal legal method, the method of comparative legal analysis, dialectical method and systemic approach were used.The main results, scope of application. The authors found the manifestation of dualism in the work of the institution of legal responsibility. It consists in the ability to bear responsibility both to the state, in connection with various offenses, and to the population itself. A brief description of the loss of trust as a basis for the responsibility of officials is given, taking into account contemporary legislation. Directions for the further development of this legal institution are highlighted. The article examines the opinion of the Russian Constitutional Court on the legitimacy of using the loss of trust as a basis for the responsibility of public authorities. The article examines the normative legal acts, which fix the mechanism for the implementation of the principle of maintaining trust in the activities of the authorities on the part of society. For example, in relation to state civil and municipal employees, a prohibition has been established on statements about the activities of authorities and their assessment, if such actions are not included in the list of their official duties. Such a mechanism for maintaining public confidence in the work of government bodies should contribute to strengthening the unity of the public power system. At the same time we can talk about the existing trend towards a decrease in the level of public confidence in the work of authorized bodies exercising public authority. The corruption and bureaucratization of the activities of officials, the expansion of the powers of law enforcement agencies, a decrease in the independence of the political opposition are pointed to among the possible reasons most often. In this regard, the paper proposes expanding the grounds for responsibility when implementing the procedure for recalling an official.Conclusions. It is necessary to consolidate a full-fledged legislative mechanism of legal responsibility of state bodies and local self-government bodies, which will contribute to the implementation and strengthening of the new principle of the unity of public authority.

PRINCIPLE OF (NON) CUMULATION, THAT IS, ABOUT THE CONFLUENCE OF THE RIGHT TO A RETIREMENT PENSION FROM THE GENERAL AND MILITARY SYSTEMS

Professional soldiers have their own social security system, separate from the general social insurance system, which provides social protection in the event of long service, total incapacity to serve and the death of the breadwinner (pension benefits). At the same time, a professional soldier can accumulate and receive two pensions from different systems, ie universal and reserve. However, the principle of accumulation of benefits based on the applicable provision is dedicated to a narrow group of entitled persons. The principle of non-cumulation is considered to be the basic and dominant one. It is an expression of the principle of risk solidarity in force in social insurance law and is not inconsistent with the constitutional principle of equality expressed in Art. 32 of the Polish Constitution. In the event of the overlapping of the right to several benefits specified in the Act, the pension authority is obliged to pay only one (higher) benefit, even if this right results from various acts, and the possibility of combining benefits must be clearly indicated in the provisions of law. Separation of the insurance and supply system allows each of these systems to fulfill separate obligations towards professional soldiers, not related to the general system. Maintaining the principle that for the same period of retirement pension insurance, two retirement benefits cannot be awarded simultaneously (Article 5 (2a) (2a) of the Pension Act). The exception to the principle of non-accumulation (ie the principle of collecting one benefit) in the case of a professional soldier remaining in service before January 2, 1999 is not determined by the date of admission to service, but the lack of the possibility to calculate the military pension taking into account the “civil” retirement age. The convergence of the right to benefits (from the general and military pension) with the parallel occurrence of these events is contrary to the constitutional principle of social justice. It is not socially just to deprive an insured person who has met the statutory requirements of the right to benefits solely on the basis of social solidarity. In such situations, a significant part of the retiree’s professional life is not reflected in the amount of received retirement benefits.

Land and mortgage registers as a cornerstone of real estate transactions in Polish law — a historical and legal outline (On the 40th anniversary of the enactment of the Land and Mortgage Registers and Mortgage Act)

With its core purpose of establishing the legal status of immovable property, the system of land and mortgage registers (perpetual books) operating in Poland plays a paramount social and economic role in ensuring legal security of real estate conveyancing, and thereby contributes to implementing the constitutional principle of democratic state ruled by law. The foundations for a uniform land and mortgage register law were laid down in the 1930s by the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland, appointed after the Polish State regained independence in 1918, following the period of partitions. The works of the Commission were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. In the early years of the post-war communist regime, the Commission’s draft provisions on land and mortgage registers served as the basis of the unified legislation that entered into force. Shortly thereafter, however, the very usefulness of the institution of land and mortgage register was contested by communist authorities, as it was considered contrary to the ideological assumptions underlying the socialist system. As a consequence, although not abolished, the land and mortgage register law’s relevance was diminished substantially for several decades, as manifested by the fact that it was not incorporated into the Civil Code of 1964. The significance of land and mortgage registers was restored to a certain degree only upon adopting the Land and Mortgage Registers and Mortgage Act of 1982, which, after being appropriately amended, is still in force. Subsequently, land and mortgage registers were subject to systemic reforms as part of the democratic transition process in Poland, and in recent years, advanced computerisation and informatisation actions have been undertaken bringing about noteworthy modernisation effects. In view of the forthcoming 40th anniversary of the enactment of the Land and Mortgage Registers and Mortgage Act, it is worth providing deeper insights into contemporary Polish land and mortgage register law against the historical background. The article is aimed at outlining the evolution of legislative and doctrinal approaches to the position of land and mortgage registers in the legal system in Poland — from the period of the interwar Codification Commission’s activity, through the decades of the totalitarian domination of the communist system, until the present time. In this respect, particular reference will be made to basic rules underpinning the organisation of land and mortgage registers. Based on the overview of the development of land and mortgage register law, with special consideration of its legislative marginalisation in the People’s Republic of Poland, conclusions will be drawn as to the current legal position of land and mortgage registers in the context of recognising the vital importance thereof for property law relations.

CONSTRUCTION OF ADDITIONAL WORKING PLACES FOR ACADEMIC TEACHERS

Employment of an academic teacher at a basic and additional working place in one of the essential normative constructions regulated under the higher education act. Control of additional employment of academic teachers is one of exceptions from the constitutional principle of the freedom of work. This mechanism in the employment relationship of academic teachers is justified first of all by the role and tasks of the higher education system in the activities of the state. Additionally there should also be mentioned the protection of interests of an employer and the specific character of hiring academic teachers. Such criteria should also be used by a vice-chancellor when giving his/her consent to their employment at an additional working place.

THE IDEA OF PROCEDURAL JUSTICE BEFORE THE PENSION AUTHORITY

The concept of justice, crystallizing over the centuries, is very important in creation of material law and shaping the procedures necessary for their implementation. The importance of ideas and principles of procedural justice for social insurance is essential not only because of the demand of law itself. Procedural justice is also important, because it influences the society. Analysis of the procedure before the pension authority on application for pension or retirement through the prism of the constitutional principle of the rule of law, concept of procedural justice and principle procedural due process indicates that justice is indispensable to realize the principle of the democratic rule of law. Robert S. Summers, recognizing other values of the process, taken from social life, sees the necessity to apply them not so much to the procedure as a means to achieve a specific goal, but to the procedure itself. In this context the procedure before the pension authority should be seen through the prism of the error risk, good result of the procedure, procedure evaluation and participatory management.

SHAPING THE SYSTEM OF JUDICIAL CONTROL OF DISCIPLINARY DECISIONS IN SERVICE RELATIONSHIPS

Initially, disciplinary liability was not subject to judicial control. The shaping of the judicial control of disciplinary decisions was a long-standing process which was finally established with the entry into force of the constitutional principle right of access to court. A systemic analysis of the provisions in question indicates that the system and functioning of this institution are not based on clear and rational assumptions that meet the postulated criteria of a satisfactory (decent) regulation. Existing provisions often regulate institutional, material and procedural aspects of this control in a different way. This approach to the control system puts the litigant parties (especially the accused) in unjustifiably different procedural situations resulting from different rules of procedure in force in common courts of law and administrative courts.

The doctrine of the margin of appreciation as a tool of relativisation of freedom of religion.

The objective of the paper is to determine the implications for the interpretation of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights resulting from the Court’s affording to national authorities the wide margin of appreciation when deciding whether in a given case there is a need to limit the exercise of freedom of religion. The use of the doctrine of margin of appreciation in such cases is justified both by the lack of an all-European consensus as to the proper model of relations between the state and religious communities and by divergences of views and traditions concerning the importance and impact of religion in the society. In consequence, the Court holds that restrictions on freedom of religion on grounds of the principle of secularism, which in some countries has a rank of a constitutional principle of the political system, are compatible with the Convention. This is the case eve where establishing a link between the restriction of this kind with any of the legitimate aims outlined in Article 9.2 of the Convention is highly disputable, if not impossible. Moreover, the excessive use of the doctrine of margin of appreciation in this context makes the protection level of freedom of religion contingent on prevailing ( not always rational and free from prejudice )views and attitudes towards some forms of manifestation of religious beliefs. This outcome, however, is difficult to reconcile with values underlying the Convention and the need for minority protection

Constitutional Principle of Social Solidarity as a Basis for the Consolidation of the Russian Society and States

The current circumstances related to the Covid-19 pandemic, which the entire world community had to face, raised sharply the question of mutual responsibility of the society and the state. At the same time, restrictions imposed at the state level are most often assessed by citizens as excessive. As a result, the number of studies devoted to establishing the legitimacy of restricting human rights and freedoms in the conditions of the epidemic is growing, however, such a phenomenon as social solidarity remains practically ignored. It is social solidarity, understood as the cohesion of the society (not only in the face of common threats and challenges), that can become the basis for constructive interaction between the society and the state. The aim of the study was the legal understanding of social solidarity as a new constitutional principle of the Russian state, which presupposes the possibility of establishing permissible restrictions on individual rights and freedoms in the conditions of protecting the foundations of the constitutional state from the modern threats. The absence of a normative definition of social solidarity in the current legislation of Russia, despite the constitutional reform carried out in 2020, entails difficulties in the correct interpretation of this phenomenon. The use of both general scientific and special methods of cognition of socio-legal phenomena — the formal legal method and the method of legal modeling — made it possible to see in social solidarity not only the legal structure, but also the leading moral and ethical principle of interaction between the society and the state. The analysis of the domestic legal acts made it possible to conclude that the constitutional principle of social cohesion of the society and the state in the face of various threats with the observance of such elements as the rule of law, the constitutional provision of individual rights and freedoms and the conditions for their permissible restriction is the basis for the inviolability of the state and its constitutional system.

Economic solidarity as a constitutional principle of the Russian economic system

The constitutional regulation of the economic system of modern Russia has undergone changes in connection with the amendments to the Constitution of Russia in 2020 aimed at establishing the ideological and value component of interaction within the system business - society - state. One of the new constitutional principles was the movement towards economic solidarity. However, the content of this category to date does not have a complete understanding and unambiguous interpretation, while the category has received a wide understanding within the framework of sociology, philosophy, economics. It has been established that economic solidarity is a category of legal, has features of constitutional value and constitutional principle.