ESG Principles in International Business and Sustainable Contracts

The concept of sustainable development has captured the world. It is altering society, generating new social patterns, reorganizing business and management models, testifying to the ultimate connectedness of the world and, as a result, encourages rethinking the legal superstructure, adapting supernova normative arrays to the current legal taxonomy, which is not always possible with taking into account the positivist approach to law. ESG principles have today become a kind of model for sustainable business development, due to which the goals of companies’ involvement in solving environmental, social and management problems are achieved. They have not only a vector effect, but also a regulatory, reputational; they have also an increasing impact on international business in a variety of industries. In addition, they are updating relatively new rating mechanisms that form the basis of investment, financial, credit, trade, corporate, management and other policies of companies. At the same time, ESG principles are segmented, fragmented and, as a rule, objectified externally in the form of norms of nonstate, often industry regulation. Without legally binding force, ESG principles are quite comparable with law in terms of the degree of impact on public relations and in terms of the resulting legal and economic consequences. Cross-border contracting practices are also changing, leading to the incorporation of “sustainability” clauses into contracts, as well as the emergence of the concept of a sustainable contract. The pre-contractual stage becomes more complicated, it requires human due diligence procedures, the formation and assessment of supply chains, the development of strategies for the disclosure of non-financial information, the study of legal risks taking into account the global law enforcement practice, as well as the establishment of methods and a jurisdictional forum for the resolution of disputes. International Commercial Arbitration claims to be attractive in resolving ESG disputes. These and other issues, taking into account their relevance, are studied in this paper.

Climate Change: International Legal Regulation Development

The paper is devoted to the development of international legal regulation in the field of combating climate change. Over the years, states, in the face of scientific uncertainty, have been trying to find ways to keep global warming at 1.5 °C by establishing international commitments of various configurations.When cooperating in the fight against climate change, additional substantive discussions arise, related, for example, to the implementation of international trade measures or the provision of human rights. However, the main direction remains the one covered by the context of sustainable development, ESG principles for business, government and society, strategies for energy policies of states, cooperation in adaptation and assistance to developing countries.Approaches to the international legal regulation of cooperation in the field of combating climate change began to form when the international community started to pay much attention to the international legal protection of atmospheric air and the protection of the ozone layer. As early as the preamble to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the emphasis was placed on the potential climate impact of ozone-depleting substance emissions.The international legal regime established by the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in fact, outlined guidelines for finding optimal forms of cooperation, taking into account changes not only in the state of the environment, but also in the economic agenda. The Conference of the Parties has been identified as the key institutional platform for cooperation. Currently in conjunction with the 1992 Framework Convention and the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement the Conference of the Parties provides the conditions for their implementation.

Legal and Technical Defects of Constitutional Amendments of 2020

The quality of legal and technical elaboration of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, approved by the all-Russian vote on July 1, 2020, does not correspond to the level of the Basic Law. Oddly enough, the constitutional legislator ignored a number of basic technical means, rules and methods of legal technique. Thus, the constitutional amendments were drafted without taking into account the requirements of the structural organization of the legal act, namely: many new norms were included in inappropriate articles, the transitional provision on "resetting the deadlines" was duplicated in the main text of the Constitution. The authors of the amendments abandoned criteria of efficiency and compactness of legislative norms, having included an identical set of restrictions in nine articles of the Constitution in relation to various categories of officials. The text does not meet the requirement for uniformity of legal regulation, legal structures, the unity, simplicity and brevity of terminology: the scope of constitutional restrictions for various categories of officials differs somewhat without any objective reasons; there is no uniformity in the issue of the possibility of establishing additional requirements for officials by laws, “bifurcation” of the titles for senators (who in Chapter 9 of the Constitution are still referred to as members of the Federation Council). Insufficient attention to the requirement of consistency of legal norms has led to the creation of a new contradiction between Art. 71 and 72 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Amendments also have a number of other legal and technical defects. Such serious and numerous defects in the legal technique of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation became a natural result of a steady decline in the quality of federal legislation that has lasted for a long time. Constitutional amendments clearly demonstrate an insufficient level of legal culture in our country, which sharply raises the question of a radical improvement in the quality of legal technology, and legislative technology in particular.

The Right to Repair Goods in the Era of Digitalization and Globalization

Today, large companies are increasingly using controversial strategies related to the violation of the buyer’s rights to repair the goods both during and after the expiration of the warranty period. This is primarily manifested in the restriction of access to the necessary information on the product repairing, hindering the work of independent service organizations, intentional complication of parts during their design, unreasonably high degree of integration of units, lack of a sufficient number of spare parts on the market, etc. As a rule, such actions distort the principles of integrity and transparency, which, in turn, entails risks to consumer and environmental safety. This issue is of particular relevance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, when sellers of medical equipment restrict the possibility of its restoration by independent specialists, and also prevent the distribution of the necessary software. Based on the results of the work, it is concluded that it is advisable to establish boundaries for the conduct of market participants to stimulate the production of durable and maintainable goods in order to transit to a circular economy.

An Issue of Alternative Forms of Termination of a Public Dispute

Prospects for the introduction of the idea of reconciliation in public disputes are considered by analyzing the features of a substantive public relation, the specifics of a dispute arising in it, the possibility of its "settlement" or "resolution". The authors highlight the problems of determining the objective of ending the dispute, the order and alternative forms of implementation, the possibility of combining and transitioning from one order to another. It is concluded that the use of conciliation procedures in public disputes is possible both at the pre-trial and at the judicial stage. It is proposed to develop and create mechanisms that determine the main conditions for the introduction of conciliation procedures, which would be an alternative to the judicial procedure for resolving the dispute. The proposed amendments will reduce the judicial burden on the consideration and resolution of cases arising from administrative and other public legal relations. The authors analyze the forms of termination of a public dispute both from the position of its settlement on the terms agreed by the parties, and its alternative resolution, while maintaining a balance of private and public interests.

Rules for Tax Re-Qualification of Income of Controlled Foreign Companies in BRICS Countries on the Example of Russian and Brazil Approaches

Rules on taxation of controlled foreign companies in developed and developing countries are characterized by an anti-evasive regulatory function, which is implemented by means of re-qualifying the profits of such companies. Such relations require coordination not only at the national but also at the international level (actions of the BEPS Plan, recommendations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The Russian Federation and the Federative Republic of Brazil, being the BRICS member states, are actively improving their national legislation, while comparative legal studies on the topic of tax retraining of these jurisdictions at an integrated level have not yet been carried out. Using Russian and Brazil approaches as an example, the author explores the problems of improving tax re-characterisation mechanisms, taking into account the general standards of countering tax evasion and erosion of tax bases (BEPS Plan).

Theoretical and Practical Features of the Compensation for Harm Consideration by Filing a Civil Claim in Criminal Proceedings

The paper examines the types of harm provided for by domestic legislation, their procedural features in a criminal case by filing a civil claim. The author argues that there is a need to amend the existing normative legal acts regulating the issues of compensation for harm caused by a crime, in particular, presents some arguments about the disclosure and legislative consolidation of the concept of “harm” in the framework of criminal proceedings. The author analyzes the gaps associated with compensation for property damage, in terms of the difficult simultaneous compensation for property and moral damage, as well as the lack of opportunity in the criminal procedure to recover lost profits. Some features of compensation for moral damage in relation to individuals and legal entities are investigated, for example, the issue of applying the rules for compensation for moral damage when a civil claim is filed by a legal entity. The process of proving the damage caused and the gaps in the issues of awarding compensation amounts in civil claims for compensation for damage, taking into account judicial practice, are considered. The author expresses her opinion on the matter of interim measures application in relation to the property of tortfeasor and imposing on the judge the obligation to render a decision in case of such a need, and not the right. Some differences between a civil claim for damages in criminal proceedings and civil proceedings are given, for example, the possibility of indexing the amounts subject to compensation has been analyzed. The analysis of some regulatory acts and the study of the procedure for compensation for harm caused by a crime in the UK. The author presents an argument about the development of scientifically grounded methodological recommendations that would fully reveal the existing gaps and problems in compensation for various kinds of harm caused by a crime.

The Problem of the Right to Trial: The Theory and Practice of Dualism and Interaction between Substantive and Procedural Law

Continuing the study of specialization of Russian civil procedural law, the author, based on the invariable perspective of its action, namely: a standardized court procedure of civil proceedings in administration of justice in a certain civil case and protection of the right, dwells on certain issues of its structural and functional characteristics — classification of procedural norms, mechanism of procedural regulation, mechanism of procedural legal relationship, etc. Through the context of the principle of dispositiveness, when clarifying the scope of its action and content as the legal beginning of legal proceedings (its leading element is the right to trial leading to the interaction of substantive and procedural law in the course of judicial protection of the right), the author analyzes and reveals the content, substantiates connections and relations between various interdisciplinary phenomena of law (a claim, the right to claim, etc.). The latest jurisprudence illustrates the importance of the conceptual legal apparatus for the development of legal science, law and improvement of its implementation in the Russian legal order.

On Interaction between Prosecutors and Specialists when Exercising Supervisory Powers outside the Criminal Law Sphere

Prosecutors outside the criminal law sphere have the power to identify violations of the law, such as the right to demand that the heads and other officials “supervised” by the prosecutor’s office assign specialists to clarify the issues that have arisen. The conclusions of knowledgeable persons, clothed in material form, are in demand among law enforcement officers in various spheres of public life. At the same time, scientists and practicing lawyers have accumulated a number of issues concerning the legal status of a specialist in the Russian legislation, which also affect prosecutorial activities. In the paper, the author attempts to call interested researchers to a scientific discussion about the need for improvement of the legal regulation of the relevant legal relationship. Thus, the author outlines the results of the analysis of the legal regulation of the mechanism of cooperation between specialists and prosecutors in the course of the latter’s supervision over the implementation of laws, the observance of human and civil rights and freedoms, existing theoretical developments, personal experience of work in the prosecutor’s office.

Extremist Crimes Committed Using the Sphere of Telecommunications and Computer Information

To successfully counter extremist and terrorist crime in the virtual space, it is important to implement measures for improving legislation (clarification of extremism features, the introduction of a list of extremist crimes into the law, etc.), as well as measures to improve the training of law enforcement officials, wider involvement of specialists and experts in the investigation of cases, establishing cooperation with providers in order to timely identify extremist and terrorist crimes, a deeper study of the personality of criminals who specialize in committing extremist crimes using the field of telecommunications and computer information. The use of telecommunications and computer information in the commission of extremist crimes indicates a high intellectual level of the criminal, which helps him not only to commit high-tech crimes, but also to hinder the investigation of his actions using the same knowledge and experience. In this regard, the social danger of both the criminal and the offence committed by him increases, which should be taken into account when solving and investigating crimes. In addition, the professionalism of criminals makes increased demands on law enforcement officers investigating crimes of this type, which means that it is necessary to constantly improve their training in the field of computer information and telecommunication technologies. The paper discusses some issues of classification of extremism using computer and telecommunication networks, gives a definition of extremism, and suggests ways to solve problems in the qualification and organization of the investigation of the crimes in question.