RUSSIAN LAW OF OBLIGATIONS REFORMED: THE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE INSTITUTE OF DAMAGES (LOSSES)

Introduction: of all the instruments of protection of subjective property rights, the fundamental role belongs to the institute of indemnification, whose regulatory framework needs to be clarified. The purpose of this paper is comparative description of the important legal aspects of the main type of property liability. In accordance with the purpose, the following objectives were set: to determine the extent to which legal provisions of general regulations on obligations laid down in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation should or can be applied to claims for damages; to formulate the proposals for improving the indemnification court practice. Methods: the methodological framework of the study consists of specific scholarly (special legal, comparative legal) and general scholarly (problem-theory, teleological, and system) methods of analysis. The main trends in the development of the institute of liability and the debatable aspects reflected in the Russian and foreign documents were studied with the use of the problem-theory and system analysis methods. Results: being a summary overview of the available knowledge and comparative regulatory material, this paper allowed us to articulate the ideas aimed at improving the fundamental principles of legal regulation of relations in the sphere of protection of subjective rights, in particular indemnification. Discussion: indemnification is a developing major institute of civil law, invariably attracting the attention of scholars around the world. Lately it has taken on special significance and some of its aspects have become a focus of a separate field of scholarly discussion. Many Russian scholars have written about indemnification in a comparative aspect: О. N. Sadikov, V. V. Baibak and others [2, 15]; this paper focuses on the reform of Russian law of obligations and the new provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation of March 8, 2015 and reveals the consequences of the reform for the institute of damages, discussing this topic in detail as a separate standalone issue. Conclusion: we hope that this paper will contribute to further discussion in the civil law doctrine of the ideas and conclusions presented.

MODELING IN LAW

Introduction: the paper discusses the significance and relevance of the modeling method in law and legal activity, the concept and ontological features of modeling in law. We consider legal modeling to be not only a research method but also an activity involved in the transformation of legal systems, landscapes, and spaces. Being such an activity, it is applied in the design and assessment in rule making, in the ‘architecture’ of regulatory spaces being designed, is associated with such a technology, belonging to the ‘ecosystem’ of the latest regulatory technologies (LegalTech), as legal experiment. Purpose: on the basis of the general theory of modeling and a number of our own scientific hypotheses about the significance of applying the modeling method for ensuring the implementation of legislative activity (including as part of the processes of designing and implementing a legislative experiment), to explore the possibilities and tools of legal modeling, the essence and advantages of this instrumental-methodological approach, the types of modeling that are relevantly applicable as part of lawmaking activity and legal activity in general, the features and logic of modeling in lawmaking. Methods: analysis and synthesis, deduction, induction and abduction, classification and modeling, comparison and analogy, generalization, formalization and idealization, observation. Results: we have described and explained the nature, essence, ontological features, and instrumental support of the application of the modeling method in law and legal activity, the advantages and scope of its use, the variety of approaches and tools within this method, its relationship with the method of regulatory experiment. Conclusions: the method of legal modeling is related to the method of regulatory experiment, it is one of the promising relevant approaches to ensuring the preparation and implementation of a regulatory experiment and, at the same time, one of its supporting mechanisms. When applying modeling, it is possible to make the process of a regulatory experiment more predictable and adequate (due to the opportunity to choose the most correct ways of implementing such an experiment from the very beginning), to make it more initially calculated. Although modeling has long been known as a method applied in law and legal activity, so far it has demonstrated too few empirically valuable results and relevant theoretical generalizations at a serious level. It needs further development and support, especially with regard to the application of this method in combination with the method of regulatory experiment.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE OF PROPORTIONALITY: A LEGAL-DOGMATIC METHOD

Introduction: the paper develops a thesis about the interdependence between the interdisciplinary approach and the method of legal-dogmatic research on proportionality. The dogmatic method makes it possible to define the essence of this principle provided that research relies on judicial practice. Methods: the paper applies the technique of conceptual jurisprudence as one of the most common forms of dogmatic methodology. The purpose of the research was to provide systematic and coherent analysis of the principle of proportionality with the application of the legal-dogmatic method. With this purpose in view, the paper is divided into three sections. The first section starts with the comparison of two concepts most commonly used in Russian legal science –sorazmernost’ (which translates into English as proportionality, but linguistically closer to the word ‘commensurability’) and proportsional’nost’ (proportionality). The second section discusses the concepts of legislative reconciliation and judicial balancing of conflicting interests. Finally, the third section analyzes two opposite but interacting forms of the principle of commensurability/proportionality – the prohibition of excessiveness and the prohibition of insufficiency. Results: the paper provides arguments for the use of the term commensurability (sorazmernost’) in Russian national jurisprudence as a generic concept. The term proportionality (proportsional’nost’) is of a foreign origin. It could be used as a synonym of the term commensurability as applied to the English-language or international model of this principle. The concept of reconciliation can be considered to cover the sphere of lawmaking, while the term balancing can be applied in relation to judicial weighing of private and public interests. These two conceptual models predetermine the difference in legitimacy of the parliamentary and judicial application of commensurability. The paper also argues that two functions of commensurability are complementary. One of them is reflected in the classic liberal prohibition of excessiveness, which aims to prevent government interference in the individual freedoms. According to the other function, which emerged later, commensurability prohibits the passivity of public authorities in the protection of constitutional rights (prohibition of insufficiency). The difference between the two functions of commensurability is expressed in the distinction between the corresponding negative and positive obligations of the government. We come to a conclusion that legal dogmatics should not become an end in itself, turning into formalism and scholastic disputes about concepts. Of more significance are the social consequences to which the application of certain concepts in constitutional adjudication leads.

Usufruct Law: Origins, Comparative Legal Analysis and Prospects of the Development in Russia

Introduction: the reform of modern civil legislation cannot be completed without the adoption of a package of amendments to the section of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation devoted to real rights. Moreover, the lack of a developed and consistent concept of real rights has a negative impact on the development of all related areas. Real rights are designed to solve strategic problems of state development, among which social issues are currently coming to the fore. In this regard, it is important to study individual real rights proposed for introduction into civil legislation in terms of their potential to promote not only the economic but also the social development of the country. This paper focuses on usufruct in the aspect of its historical identity, powerful functional message, and internationality. Purpose: the research aims to clarify the significance of real law[1] regulation in solving nationally significant problems. Based on the achievements of foreign doctrine and legislation, we attempt to show the prospects of the introduction of usufruct in the Russian system of real rights. Methods: general (philosophical), general scientific, special scientific (including special legal) methods of cognition: dialectical, logical, historical, sociological, comparative-legal and formal-legal. Results: we have studied civil legislation of thirty countries of the world. The study has shown that the introduction of usufruct can have a positive social and economic effect, but only provided that the legislator does not deviate from the historically established concept of usufruct embodied in foreign law. Conclusions:the Draft of Section II of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation ‘Real Rights’ needs revision, with the initial social function of usufruct taken into consideration. It is necessary to work out a system of grounds for the emergence and termination of usufructuary rights, to introduce a mandatory notarial form of a contract for the establishment of usufruct, to provide for the possibility of establishing usufruct by virtue of law in relation to socially significant objects and on the basis of a court decision, to enshrine non-use of the right among the grounds for termination; to allow the establishment of usufruct in relation to citizens and legal entities, and not only non-profit organizations; to allow multiple usufructuaries; to describe in detail the rights and obligations of the owner and the usufructuary, including the duties of treating the property with care, and to indicate the possible limits of the disposal of the property by the usufructuary, including via transactions; to work out the rules for the exercise of the right of usufruct in relation to certain categories of objects, for example: property of minors, inheritance, agricultural land, forests, minerals, etc.

Influence of the Yalta Conference on the Development of Modern International Law

Introduction: the article analyzes the contribution of the Yalta conference of 1945 to the formation of the modern international legal system. We believe that the role the decisions taken at this conference played in the formation of current international law is significantly underestimated these days. The purpose of this article was to identify the elements of modern international law the formation and development of which were influenced by the Yalta Conference. For this, the following objectives were set and consistently accomplished in the course of research: to determine the role of international conferences as mechanisms for the development of international law; to identify the features of the Yalta conference; to study international legal decisions that were made during the Yalta conference. Methods: we applied general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, interpretation, formal logic. In connection with the study of historical aspects of international legal science, the method of historical and legal analysis played a significant role. Of the specialized legal methodological tools used in the preparation of the article, we note the methods of formal legal analysis and legal modeling. Results: the article proves that the Yalta conference laid the legal foundations for new significant international legal regulations. We consider the following to be the main international legal achievements of Yalta-1945: final agreement on the creation of the UN; the creation of a completely new mechanism of international legal governance – the UN Security Council; participation in the formation of a new system of sources of international law; participation in the development of the basis of new international law; participation in the formation of a number of new branches of international law. Conclusions: the Yalta Conference marks the end of one era and the beginning of a new one, in which the UN will occupy the most important place in the system of management of international legal relations. Many decisions made in Yalta concerned the future of the international legal order, and not just the resolution of the geopolitical issues of the Second World War at its last stage.

Corporations and Corporate Financial Instruments in Russian and Foreign Law

Introduction: the paper investigates the legal regime of corporate financial instruments in the context of the convergence of the world legal systems taking into account historically determined national differentiation. We study the legal regime of corporate financial instruments with respect to the status peculiarities of a corporation as a subject of legal relations and the regime characteristics of a financial instrument as a legal object. The purpose of the study is to analyze and generalize the legal experience of economically developed countries and to explain the modern legal content of the concept ‘corporate financial instrument’ against the related legal terms ‘securities’, ‘financial instrument’, ‘corporation’; to reveal major problems in the doctrine and positive legal regulation. Methods: comparative-legal, formal-logical, historical, analytical, empirical methods, and legal modeling. Results: the analysis of Russian and foreign experience made it possible for us to explain the specific nature of the legal status of corporation as the main component of modern economic systems, which determines special legal regimes of financial instruments that provide certain corporate rights. Conclusions: in terms of comparative analysis, of special interest is legal experience of such countries as Germany, France, Great Britain, and the USA since these countries show a higher level in the development of corporate legal forms and financial markets. Since early 1990s, Russia has been demonstrating high rates in the formation of the system of financial instruments circulation, which, with respect to the legal development of the corporate legal entity doctrine, brings Russian legal system closer to the world major legal systems. In the light of the focus on the sustainable economic development and defense of state interests with the use of modern digitalization methods, this also objectifies and makes currently relevant the development of the national legal regime of the corporate financial instrument based on the international legal experience.

The Civil Law Principle of Cooperation in the Continental Law Doctrine: Extension Beyond Contractual Legal Relations

Introduction: the article analyzes the possibility of the civil law principle of cooperation being implemented in various types of relations under civil law. Traditionally, the cooperation principle is considered in both Russian and foreign literature as the principle of fulfillment of a contractual obligation or as a group of additional obligations imposed on the parties to the contract and arising from the good faith principle. A more detailed consideration of the idea if cooperation allows us to draw a conclusion about the feasibility of this principle in other types of relations under civil law. Purpose: to justify the possibility of the cooperation principle being implemented in civil law relations other than contractual relations, namely in property legal relations, pre-contractual legal relations, and obligations from causing harm (protective legal relations). Methods: general scientific dialectical method; special scientific methods such as the method of comparative law, the technical method, the legal-dogmatic method, the historical-legal method. Results: analysis of legal regulation of such relative legal relations as contractual, pre-contractual, and protective, as well as property legal relations as a form of absolute legal relations, has shown that the cooperation principle is successfully implemented in these types of legal relations. Therefore, it is possible to consider this principle to pertain to the branch of civil law as a whole. Conclusions: the cooperation principle performs two functions: first, based on this principle, it is possible to achieve the purpose of civil law relations in a more effective way; second, this principle serves as a mechanism to overcome unforeseen circumstances that prevent the purpose of legal relations from being achieved. These functions are carried out in all the types of legal relations considered: in contractual relations – when there arise obstacles to the performance of a contract not specified in the contractual provisions; in pre-contractual relations – when there arise obstacles to achieving the purpose of negotiations (i.e. conclusion of a civil law contract); in protective relations – when there is a risk of an increase in harm or a risk of inability to fully reimburse damage in a timely manner; in property relations – when there occurs an accidental loss of a thing by the rightsholder.

Court Judgement as a Jural Fact in Civil Law: Doctrinal Discourse and the Problem of Legal Formulations

Introduction: the role of the court judgement that determines civil rights and obligations remains not completely perceived in civil law. In the modern science of civil law, no definite theoretical views on this subject have yet been formed, except for those that were formulated in the period when the science was actively discussing the very fact of referring court judgements to jural facts of civil law. In the article, we address this issue through reviewing, analyzing and generalizing the existing scientific views, with inter-disciplinary aspects also involved. The scope of study includes the disputable issues of the legislative definition of the court judgement seen as the basis for the commencement of civil rights and obligations and also the analysis of methodological positions significant for the research. Purpose: while taking the theory of modificatory claims as what is recognized in the modern doctrine of civil procedural law, to investigate the right-establishing force of the court judgement defined by the legislator as a jural fact of civil law. Methods: the methodological framework of the research is based on the general scientific method of scientific cognition, which reflects the relationship between the doctrine and law enforcement, as well as methods of dialectics, analysis, synthesis, analogy, functional, interdisciplinary, and system approaches. Results: the article proposes a system of concepts with the court judgment in its civil law meaning of a jural fact of substantive law lying at the core. Based on this system, we can state that the relationship between such concepts as the ‘court judgement’ and the ‘jural fact of substantive law’ is to a greater extent speculative. It is not sufficient to explain a court judgement as the basis for the commencement of civil law relations only based on the theory of procedural law, which divides all claims into declarative and constitutive ones. We argue that the concept ‘court judgement’ in its substantive meaning has a dual civil law function: (1) in the meaning of its right-restorative function – as a result of the protection of a violated civil right, and (2) as one of the grounds for the establishment of civil rights and obligations resulting from a private person’s initiative and the court authority. The right of the court to deliver right-establishing judgements that become one of the legal regulation elements within civil law, is an exception to the general civil law rule implying the discretionary method of regulation, according to which the parties determine their rights and obligations by mutual agreement. Following the analysis of the doctrinal views on the concept of the court judgement in its substantive meaning, which many authors consider to be the one not corresponding to its broader procedural meaning, we justify the position that there are no obvious grounds for diagnosticating the alleged contradiction between substantive and procedural legislation in terms of the logical scope of the ‘court judgement’ concept. It is more important to see the real legal meaning of this concept in the civil law reality, which involves a combination of the substantive law significance of a court judgement for establishing civil rights and obligations and the public law essence of this act, which is manifested not in private actions of the interested persons themselves but in unilateral actions of the court as a public law subject. We also formulated some methodological positions that could serve as theoretical guidelines for further research into the problem of the court judgement as one of the jural facts of civil law.

PROTECTION AGAINST VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT IN THE WORLD OF WORK: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR RUSSIA AND KAZAKHSTAN

Introduction: the article deals with the problem of violence in the workplace or in another place where the employee performs their labor duties. Statistics show that a significant number of people suffer from violence at work in both Russia and Kazakhstan. The problem of sexual harassment, if considered as a narrower part of the phenomenon of violence in the world of work, is becoming ‘visible’ in the countries of the post-Soviet space, especially in connection with the numerous statements of women who have reported harassment at work. The purpose of our study is to find legal solutions for those who have been subjected to violence and harassment at work since the greatest difficulties for them are: fear of stigmatization, the difficulty of recognizing violence and harassment on the part of colleagues and managers as ‘inappropriate’ behavior, the choice of the form of behavior for both the victim and the employer in a situation where violence has occurred, as well as the process of proving the fact of psychological or physical violence in conjunction with the necessity to expose the specified facts of private life for general discussion. Methods: empirical methods of comparison, description; theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic; special scientific methods such as the comparative legal method and the method of interpretation of legal norms. Results: we have shown that the legislation and practice of Russia and Kazakhstan in the field of protection from violence and harassment at work are not in complete conformity with international labor standards; formulated some proposals concerning available legal mechanisms to be used for the development of legislation aiming to ensure the protection of workers from violence and harassment. Conclusions: the labor legislation of Russia and Kazakhstan does not protect workers from violence and harassment at work, however, there are attempts made at the level of the executive branch to regulate the problem in a recommendatory manner. Practice shows that employers and employees seek dialogue on this sensitive issue. Judicial practice in Russia and Kazakhstan testifies to the low awareness among judges of the issues concerning protection of workers from such forms of violence as oppression, victimization, mobbing, and harassment

A PROPOSAL ON REFORMATION OF THE ELECTION SYSTEM OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Introduction: the article analyzes the extent to which electoral systems meet different (mathematical and judicial) evaluation criteria. Purpose: to identify the fairest algorithm for mandate distribution when electing deputies and officials. Methods: apart from general scientific methods, we extensively used special scientific methods including comparative legal and systematic ones. Results: we have defined the range of mathematical criteria (the absolute majority rule, the Condorcet paradox, the principle of proportional representation of the parties, etc.) and legal criteria (the provisions of the principles of equal, free, and fair election). Preferential voting systems have been found to meet mathematical and judicial criteria most of all. A number of preferential voting systems meet the Condorcet paradox and ensure proportional representation of the parties. During such an election, free and equal participation of independent and party candidates is ensured. Many other systems of majoritarian, proportional, and mixed types do not meet the abovementioned criteria. Unfortunately, in particular cases the Condorcet paradox does not allow determining the candidate to be elected. Consequently, we suggest combining the algorithms developed by Tideman, Kemeny, Young, and Schulze in order to find the ‘strongest path’, or the most reliable way of determining the candidates’ positions in the election. Conclusions: the preferential voting system developed by us is universal and can be used while electing both officers (the president, the governor) and deputies. If it was implemented, electoral legislation would be standardized, as well as the operation of election committees. Such a unification would allow improving the level of citizens' electoral rights protection.