Experimental legal regimes of mobilization type as a method of legal regulation in the context of COVID-19 spread

Experimental legal regime; COVID19; legal regime; legal experiment; “regulatory sandboxes”; legal technique; classification of legal experiments; legality; experimental legal regimes of mobilization type on legal forecasting and legal interpretation methods. The theoretical basis of the research includes well-known legal science categories, i.e. legal regime and legal experiment that get a new interpretation with the appearance of experimental legal regime institute. The main results of the research, scope of application. Experimental legal regime is a broader legal phenomenon than regulatory sandboxes, which includes not only regulation of the digital innovation sphere, but also other rules that are limited in time and space. There are legal regimes with signs of experimentation that are not officially identified by the state as experimental legal regimes. The work studied the experience which arose due to modern changes in state and legal regulation caused by the global epidemic of COVID-19. It is suggested to divide the legal experiments according to the purpose of experimental legislation into the following groups: optimizing, progressive and mobilization ones. The aim of the first group named “Optimizing legal experiments” is to test using of new regulation applied to a large and complex object. The second group named “Progressive legal experiments” is intended to check whether the abandonment of old laws is beneficial in the innovation field. The result is creation of a smart regulation for economic and technological development. The third group named “Mobilization legal experiments” is aimed at maintaining of the existing level of resources, security, and infrastructure in the event of critical situations. It is being proved that the legal restrictions aimed at preventing of COVID-19 viral infection spreading can be classified as experimental legal regimes of mobilization type. The criterion for distinguishing of mobilization experimental legal regimes from others is the voluntary participation in the legal experiment and the goal of the experimental legal regime.Conclusions. The development of mobilization experimental legal regimes implies raising of their legality. It can be achieved by the provision of legal guarantees such as the goals of the legal experiment and the evaluation of their consequences. This will allow identify whether the consequences of the experiment correspond to the goals of the new legal regulation. There must be grounds for limitations to legal certainty caused by legal experimentation. Their manifestation is the goal and evaluation criteria, with the help of which it is possible to determine whether the consequences of the establishment of the experiment correspond to the goals of the new legal regulation. Otherwise, there is a risk of unjustified infringement of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens.

Modeling of a CO2-Based Integrated Refrigeration System for Supermarkets

An integrated energy system that consists of a centralized refrigeration unit can deliver the entire HVAC&R (heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration) demand for a supermarket. CO2 (R744) is a natural refrigerant that is becoming increasingly popular for these centralized units due to significant energy and cost savings, while also being sustainable, safe, and non-toxic. This study focuses on the fully integrated CO2 refrigeration system configuration for a supermarket in Porto de Mos, Portugal, which was equipped and fully monitored through the EU-funded project MultiPACK. A dynamic system model was developed in Modelica and validated against measurement data from the site recorded for one week. The model is used to provide additional ejector performance data supporting the obtained measurement data and to evaluate the system configuration at equivalent boundary conditions. The simulation results show that the installation of a vapor ejector (high-pressure lift) is sufficient to improve the efficiency of the unit compared to an ejector-less (high-pressure valve) system. However, more notable enhancements are achieved by including additional flooded evaporation with liquid ejectors and smart regulation of the receiver pressure, adding up to a global efficiency increase of 15% if compared to the high-pressure valve system during the validation week.

Prohibitions As Means of “Smart Regulation” of Compensation for Harm to the Environment

Introduction: an important vector of development of modern society is the formation of an ecological and economic paradigm, in whose context the legal regulation of public relations is carried out with the emphasis on the environmental component. The problems of compensation for environmental damage, without losing their independent relevance, become the leitmotif of the modernization of the legal implementation processes. Given that the specifics of compensation for environmental damage are multi-faceted, reflecting cross-industry trends, this area requires the development of “smart regulation”, whose effective means are legal prohibitions. Purpose: to conduct a theoretical and legal study of prohibitions as means of “smart regulation” of compensation for environmental damage. Methods: the research is carried out using a set of methods of scientific cognition, namely, analysis (the analysis of concepts, identification of their features, traits) and synthesis (the generalization of debatable conclusions, contrasted definitions), the method of analogies, with the help of which the characteristics of the studied theses, definitions were projected on legal relations. The preparation of the paper required the use of special legal research methods, such as formal-legal and comparative law. Results: the study focuses on the analysis of the concepts of “environmental harm”, “environmental communications”, “environmental information”, “mechanism of legal regulation”, “smart regulation”, “prohibitions”, presents their author’s interpretations, reflects that prohibitions as instructions to refrain from certain negative actions under the threat of liability in the matters of compensation for environmental damage are effective means of the legal regulation that ensures the satisfaction of the interests of society and nature. Prohibitions, as criteria for distinguishing between the legality and illegality of behavior in the interests of environmental protection, as means of the legal regulation, form the basis for bringing to justice those who violate them. The paper presents the ways of applying and modernizing prohibitions for “smart regulation” of compensation for environmental damage. Conclusions: prohibitions as means of “smart regulation” serve to ensure transparency and efficiency of compensation for the environmental damage, provide innovative communications of decision-makers and citizens in the implementation of their rights to a favorable environment, to compensation for damage caused to the environment in full, provide suspension, restriction, termination of the activities that cause harm from the creation of a regulatory act to its implementation. The analysis of legal prohibitions demonstrates that in the matters of compensation for environmental harm, the problem of legal prohibitions is effective.

“Smart Regulation” Means that Influence Consumer Choice of Healthy Products

Introduction: choosing healthy foods is vital for every person. The means of legal regulation can be used to ensure healthy choices. The purpose of the study is to identify the main means of “smart regulation”, acceptable and effective in the field of relations with the participation of consumers. The paper uses the methods of description and interpretation; the theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic. Results: taking into account the achievements of behavioral economics, it is necessary to recognize that a person is prone to irrational behavior, misjudging information, and possible risks. “Smart regulation” involves achieving the desired result in the simplest possible way, including the so-called “nudge”, which makes it easier to choose the desired behavior. Nudge tools in government regulation can be used to make choices in favor of healthy foods. The consumer protection legislation uses the methods to determine the architecture of consumer choice in favor of healthy, high-quality, safe food. The state can establish rules that require manufacturers to indicate a certain set of information on the product, and sellers – to lay out the products in such a way that the consumer’s attention is focused on healthy products. Conclusions: in relationships involving consumers, it is necessary to use “smart regulation” means to influence the choice of healthy foods. The basis for the use of such means is to bring to the attention of consumers proper and reliable information about the principles of a healthy diet, as well as about the product, its ingredients, and features. Such information can be placed in the form of product labels, which should be clear and understandable.

Factors for Establishing the Limits of Legal Regulation

Introduction: the knowledge of the legal regulation sphere and its limits is impossible without the analysis of the factors under the influence of which it is formed. Despite the obvious significance, the factors of establishing the limits of legal regulation did not become an independent subject of research but were only indirectly affected in the context of the analysis of the legal education factors. Meanwhile, these factors are of independent importance and need additional reflection. Their identification and clarification contribute to the introduction of the concept of “smart regulation” in the law-making policy of the modern state. Purpose: to identify the factors of setting the limits of legal regulation. Methods: the methodological framework for the study was made up of the general scientific and specific scientific methods of cognition. Results: the analysis of the factors of the establishment of the legal regulation sphere and its limits with the aim of its most adequate reflection as a subject of legal regulation is a necessary condition for improving the effectiveness of the law-making policy of the modern state. Conclusions: the factors that determine the limits of legal regulation can be objective and subjective. The objective factors determine the limits of the sphere of legal regulation; as such, it is necessary to consider the properties of public relations that have a legal nature, which in turn are under the influence of the objective factors of a natural and social nature, traditionally referred to as lawforming. The main natural factors should include biological, geographical, climatic, and physiological factors. The main objective social factors are scientific and technological, axiological, economic, and psychological. The identification of the sphere of legal regulation and its consolidation as a subject of legal regulation are caused not only by the influence of the objective factors but also by the subjective ones, which should include political-legal, scientific-cognitive, and technical-legal. All these factors interact with each other and “work” in the system. Depending on the specifics of the public attitude that is in the sphere of legal regulation and is fixed as its subject, the influence of various factors will be unequal.

“Renaissance” of the “Smart Regulation” Category in the Domestic Law-Making Theory and Practice: Prerequisites and Factors of Influence

The main subject of the current issue of the journal “Legal Concept = Pravovaya paradigma” – “ ‘Smart Regulation’ As an Intersectoral Category of Modern Law” - was not chosen by the editorial board by chance. This annotation is a justification of the choice made. The author considers an objective need to popularize the intersectoral category of “smart regulation” in the Russian legal space as a significant argumentative factor, which has long been of key importance in foreign law-making theory and practice and has only recently begun to attract the attention of domestic researchers. The author announces the project supported by the Russian Scientific Foundation in 2021 which is offered by the scientists of the Department of Constitutional and Municipal Law of Volgograd State University, aimed at the comprehensive development of a system of smart regulation tools, the study of their legal nature, interrelation and correlation with the classical categories of jurisprudence, the justification of the criteria for the assessment of their efficiency and features of the application in the branches of private and public law. It is noted that the concept of “smart regulation” does not have an absolute novelty. On the one hand, according to the author, it is organically growing out of the ideas that have long been developed in detail in the world political and legal studies. On the other hand, the complex of tools used in the framework of smart regulation includes, along with the new ones, the entire system of classical legal instruments. Some of them acquire a different sound in the conditions of information technology development, including digitalization; for others, the limits and methods of their application are specified. The papers presented in the main topic of the issue and the rest of its headings illustrate numerous options for using modern and classical means of legal regulation in various spheres of public relations, taking into account new information technology opportunities. It is noted that the term “smart regulation”, taking into account the great challenges of modern realities, is often transformed into the term “smart technologies of legal regulation” and is also used in various combinations with different industry and disciplinary concepts. The paper substantiates the inexpediency of using the term “smart technologies” concerning legal regulation in such a narrow sense, limiting it to the context of total informatization of society and technological development. It is argued that we should be talking about the totality of literally all modern legal technologies. It is recommended to interpret “technologies” in a broad sense as a certain method of human activity. And these methods, according to the author, are made smart by the fact that they are chosen, created, and proposed by the representatives of law-making theory and practice as determined by the state of modern scientific knowledge and society. It is also recommended to take into account the subordination of the proposed legal methods and means to the value dominants which are characteristic of modern culture, as well as their ability to act as the organizing core of a particular sphere of the legal regulation of public life.

The Standard Charter of a Municipality As a Means of Legal Technique

Introduction: the constitutional changes open a new round of scientific discussion about the place of municipal power in the system of separation of powers. Municipalities are experiencing a shortage of resources. Despite this, they are responsible for the development and adoption of statutes. The work is based on the hypothesis that the use of standard charters allows for more efficient use of the resources of municipalities and the improvement of the quality of the legal text. Purpose: to determine the possibility and necessity of using standard charters of municipalities. Tasks: to establish a link between the resources of a municipality and the effectiveness of its lawmaking; to analyze the examples of standard charters of municipalities; to predict the effect of the application of standard charters; to develop a roadmap for the implementation of standard charters. Methods: analysis, comparative law, predictive, statistical. Results: law-making is very burdensome for small municipalities, and the existing easing is insufficient. In foreign legislation, Russian and foreign practice, standard charters are used to save the resources of municipalities. The mechanism of standard charters has signs of smart regulation. There are two types of standard documents: template documents and model documents (actually standard documents). Conclusions: a comparison of the resources of the municipality with the scope of its rights and obligations revealed an imbalance in the legal regulation of municipal law-making. The model charters of municipalities allow us to solve this problem to some extent. We have proposed concrete steps for the legislative implementation of the legal mechanism of model charters in the digital economy. The analysis of the results of this project may confirm or refute the nature of the model statutes as a manifestation of smart regulation. In the course of the research, the author concluded that the topic of standard documents is not sufficiently studied in the science of legal technology. To eliminate this gap, it is necessary to define the concept and features of standard documents, their place among the tools of legal technology. The study of model documents is particularly important in the light of the upcoming spread of machinereadable law.

The Theory of “Smart Regulation”: The Ideological and Historical Context of Formation

Introduction: the scientific interest in studying the specifics of the formation of the “smart regulation” theory is due to both its controversial nature, novelty, practical orientation, and a certain fragmentary coverage of relevant issues in Russian jurisprudence. Methods: the methodological framework for the study is a set of methods of scientific cognition, among which the main ones are the general scientific dialectical, comparative law, logicalsyntactic methods, the semantic methods of cognition, as well as the methods of cause-and-effect analysis, forecasting, synthesis, and analysis. Results: the study reveals the theoretical background and socio-historical context of the emergence of the ideas of “smart regulation”, shows the features of their conceptualization and differences from previous scientific views on the phenomenon of legal regulation. The paper substantiates the conclusions about the need for an expanded interpretation of the ideological and theoretical foundations of “smart regulation”, whose specifics are due to the long tradition of the development of previous political and legal thought.

Evolution of Tariff Government Regulation in Energy and Communal Markets on the Basis of Smart Regulation System

The Aim. Analysis of effects according to digital pricing system advent in energy and communal sphere in Russia as a part of new industrial revolution.Purpose of a research. Review of a current world trends on energy markets, determination of ways and instruments for tariff regulation digital development on the energy and communal markets, definition of possible results from complex digitalization of tariff regulation system.Methodology of a research. During research of this article were widely applied instruments of complex theoretical analysis, cause-effect relations were tested between theoretical hypothesis and practical realization of digital tariff regulation models.Result of a research. By the author were written and systematic defined concept of pricing digitalization system on the Russian energy and communal markets according to analysis of main world trends in this economic sphere. The term of digital platform of tariff regulation was developed.Output. Digitalization of tariff regulation could develop premises for deregulation of energy and communal spheres in Russia enable the competence development and lower the entrance barriers for new market players what can lead to higher innovation and investment level recruited in these important markets.

The concept of integrating artificial intelligence into the legal system

The article is devoted to the issue of artificial intelligence integration into the legal system. The human life is inextricably linked with digital technologies in the digital age. Legal regulation of developing and applying artificial intelligence has a complex influence on the legal system of Russian society. In this regard, the issue is characterized by high scientific and practical significance and meets the strategic needs of the legal policy of the Russian Federation. The purpose of the article is to formulate the main elements of the concept of integrating artificial intelligence into the legal system. Research methods contributing to reaching the aim are formal-legal, analogy, extrapolation, cultural-historical, modeling and forecasting. The results of the study can be outlined as follows. We think that humanistic approach to domestic legal system is the most optimal; within this approach artificial intelligence is naturally and imperceptibly integrated into the human environment as a smart intelligence that performs the functions of smart regulation. The legal regulation of embodied (robotic) and swarm (collective) artificial intelligence should be introduced with reasonable caution and predictability with regard to technical standards and controlled legal experiments after conducting the widest possible ethical expertise. When forming the concept of artificial intelligence integration into the legal system a number of fundamental factors must be taken into consideration: legal continuity of doctrinal legal knowledge, differentiation of legal regimes and consideration of the cultural and civilizational code and psychology and mentality of the society where such legal regulation is being developed and implemented.