Consultative meetings of non-Arctic states on the status of the Arctic

The article, in the context of the contemporary status of the Arctic, examines the legal and political documents adopted by China, Japan and South Korea in regard to their arctic policy, including those agreed upon by these three States. The alarming reaction to such documents in the Arctic coastal states, firstly, in the USA and Canada, is also considered in the article. Relevant western scholars’ arguments are scrutinized, such as the increase of “China’s military power”; China’s “insatiable appetite” for access to natural resources in the Arctic; the argument that “China seeks to dominate” the Arctic and the situation when “the Arctic Council is split”; the notion that China makes other non-Arctic States create separate legal documents concerning the regime of the Arctic Ocean. The article concludes that the western interpretation of such documents is alarming only in relation to China. The research shows that up till now there are no grounds for such estimations of China’s negative role. However, statements by Chinese officials as cited in the article and some provisions stipulated in “China’s Arctic policy” contradict the common will of the Arctic coastal states in regard to the legal regime of the Arctic Ocean as reflected in the Ilulissat Declaration of 2008. In such a dynamic legal environment, new instruments of collaboration are in demand, which might involve China and other non-Arctic states in maintaining the established legal regime of the Arctic. Thus, the new instruments would deter the creation (with unpredictable consequences) by China, Japan and South Korea of new trilateral acts relating to the status of the Arctic.

Dialectical analysis of amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law of China in 2018

The amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law in China in 2018 mainly involves enhancing the system for leniency based on admission of guilt and acceptance of punishment, increasing the procedure of fast-track sentencing, improving the convergence norm between the Criminal Procedure Law and the Supervision Law, and adding the procedure for trial in absentia. These improvements and additions have positive implications for the implementation of a criminal policy of leniency and strictness, for realization of the diversion of complex situations and simple situations in the proceedings, for deepening the reform of the state’s supervisory system, for realizing the people’s procuratorate’s effective performance of legal supervision, and power and for effectively punishing crimes of corruption. However, there are limitations in the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Law in 2018. In the future, the amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law can adopt both the comprehensive amendment of the National People’s Congress and the partial amendment of its Standing Committee, so as to promote the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Law in a timely and comprehensive manner. In terms of the amendment’s content, the judicial reform results and coordination between laws should be fully considered. New regulations for the new law should be clear and enforceable. In regard to law implementation, there should be sufficient time for implementation preparation after the promulgation of the new law.

Compensation for harm resulting from the usage of a building: Comparative analysis of Russian and Chinese law

The article examines the problem of compensation for harm caused in the process of using a building and structure. Attention is paid to the side of the defendant in relation to apartment buildings and non-residential buildings, the distribution of liability in the case of a plurality of tortfeasors, the regulation of third-party liability issues by the contract. A comparative analysis of the legislation of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China regulating the liability of building’s owners (users) and contractors involved in the maintenance of a building as well as court practice is conducted. The choice of the Chinese legal system is due to the presence of special rules in Tort Liability Law of China (2009). According to the results of the study, the authors have formulated a number of proposals, in particular: to unify the legal regime for residential and non-residential buildings for the purposes of compensation for harm caused to third parties; to differentiate the liability for harm caused by the destruction of a building (its structural components) and damage due to items falling out from the building (snow or ice falling from the roof, falling advertising designs, objects being thrown out of the building, etc.), to allow the contractual regulation of owner’s liability provided that the victim is given the right to choose the defendant (the building’s owner or the maintenance company, the contractor involved). The authors also argue in favor of a codified act as a source of tort law, which will ensure consistent regulation of the studied relations.

Exceptional circumstances beyond International Swimming Federation Doping Control Rules: The Sun Yang case of Court of Arbitration for Sport

The authors refer to the exceptional circumstances surrounding Sun Yang’s violation. The athlete intervened in the doping control procedure in several ways. First, he questioned the proper accreditation of the IDTM’s (The company “International Doping Tests and Management”) Samples Collection Personnel, one of which photographed him. This officer was suspended from urine sampling, but there was no longer a male specialist on the IDTM’s Samples Collection Personnel. Therefore, the collection of urine samples did not take place due to the athlete’s actions. A general distrust of IDTM’s Samples Collection Personnel due to inappropriate photographing was the catalyst for follow-up action. Secondly, the athlete required IDTM’s Samples Collection Personnel to confirm his credentials (accreditation) from the anti-doping organization, despite the submission of documents by IDTM’s Samples Collection Personnel following the International Standard for Testing and Investigations. Not having received the additional and, in the opinion of the athlete, necessary documents, he refused to participate in the doping control procedure as a whole, tearing up his previously given written consent. Finally, the athlete took part in the destruction of blood samples with a hammer, but his role in this process was controversial. A prerequisite for the destruction process of the samples was the assistance of the IDTM’s Samples Collection Personnel, who handed them over to the athlete in response to insistent demands. The listed circumstances, which are exceptional, however, could not affect the reduction of Sun Yang’s period of ineligibility, since the FINA (International Swimming Federation) Doping Control Rules, based on WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) Code 2015, do not imply such a basis. The new WADA Code 2021 offers a more flexible concept of liability and takes into account exceptional circumstances that in subsequent disputes about tampering can be established based on the example of the dispute CAS 2019/A/6148.

Nature and classification of special principles of national labour law

Most often, the principles of law in specialized literature are understood as the “initial principles”, “ideas” and “provisions” of law. It seems that such conclusions could only be made from the standpoint of legal positivism, which restricts essentially “all” law only to the norms of labour law contained in national legal acts. The article makes a different conclusion: ontologically homogeneous elements are synthesized from the position of the scientifically substantiated concept of integrative legal understanding, first of all, the principles and norms of labour law contained in a single, developing and multilevel system of forms of national and (or) international labour law implemented in the state. With this theoretical approach, the principles of law can be controversially referred to as quite vague “principles,” “ideas,” and “positions”. In support of their position, the authors of the article present several vivid examples of application of the Ruling No. 21 of the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on June 2, 2015 “On Certain Issues that Arose in the Courts when Applying Legislation Governing the Work of the Head of the Organization and Members of the Collegial Executive Body of the Organization”. The article provides an overview of ideas about the principles of law and their change in the pre-revolutionary, Soviet and modern periods. The authors emphasize that the special principles of national labour law are derived from the fundamental (general) principles of both national and international law which, by their nature, constitute undeniable law (jus cogens) binding on law-making and law-enforcement agencies as well as officials. The article advocates the position that the special principles of national labour law are the fundamental, primary elements of the labour law system that independently regulate labour relations in order to specify the norms of labour law.

Trade liberalization and trade facilitation: Two paths to one goal

The article defines trade liberalization and trade facilitation, highlighting their characteristics, some of which are inherent to both processes, while others differ. The authors analyze the impact of transborder production in a number of South-East Asian states on the development of their economies, as well as the role of trade facilitation in these processes. The article dwells on the economic impact of trade liberalization and facilitation, their synergistic interaction and peculiarities from the point of view of legal regulation. The authors come to the conclusion that trade liberalization and facilitation generally aim to achieve a common goal of promoting world trade, which in the long run will help to address one of the global problems — an immense wealth gap between developed and least developed countries. To achieve this goal, both liberalization and trade facilitation use their own tools, a set of practical measures enshrined in international legal instruments. At the same time, implementation of these measures often involves major risks, especially for developing economies. As a result, a strategy for implementing trade liberalization and facilitation measures needs to be developed, which would define the sequence of steps for each state individually and would take into account all the potential difficulties that a state may have while opening up the market. It is also necessary to create and improve the relevant regulatory and institutional framework for trade relations and implementation of reforms.

The problems of violence against women in international law

The problems of violence against women and domestic violence were reflected in Goal No. 5 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which calls for gender equality and empowerment of women and girls while addressing such challenges as elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls; eradication of violence against women and girls in the public and private sphere, including human trafficking, sexual and other forms of exploitation; liquidation of all harmful practices, in particular forced marriages and female genital mutilation. In this article, the authors examine existing conventional and doctrinal definitions and qualifications of the terms “violence against women” and “domestic violence” in international law, explore international legal aspects of prevention and combatting violence against women and domestic violence, conduct a comprehensive analysis of a conceptual framework related to these offences, and present basic approaches to the concept of domestic violence. The authors also examine the link between two core international universal and regional legal acts in this field — Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence. The authors derive a new understanding of the due diligence principle (a well-known principle/standard in international law) with regard to violence against women and domestic violence issues, clarify its key components while codifying states’ main obligations in this sphere. In conclusion, the authors deduce that the questions of elimination of discrimination against women and eradication of violence against women can only be considered collectively, confirming the validity of the theory of a genderbased approach to the issue, which is adhered to by international human rights bodies.

The “concentration of public elements” theory and the arbitrability of disputes in Russia

This article is devoted to the analysis of the theory of concentration of public elements. The author explains the causes of this theory and its influence on the arbitrability of disputes in Russia. The causes of this jurisdictional theory are illustrated in the development of substantive law. The work emphasizes that the two sectors of civil turnover regulation, which have developed in Russia, largely affect the formation of dispute resolution mechanisms. This also applies to the issue of determining the range of disputes that the arbitral tribunal is entitled to accept for its consideration. The author stresses that there are no norms in the legislation on which the theory of concentration of public elements is based. It is generated exclusively by judicial decisions, which are not always consistent. This is evidenced by the fact that, despite the precedent nature of one of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the arbitrability of procurement disputes for the needs of certain types of legal entities, lower cassation courts refuse to recognize the arbitrability of this category of disputes. At the same time, they refer to the violation of public order when considering procurement disputes by arbitration courts. This is seen as some manipulation in which a conservative approach to the activities of arbitration courts is provided by the arbitrary involvement of various doctrines that have no basis in the law. The author predicts the negative consequences of the development of this doctrine, which will take place in the form of limiting the arbitrability of disputes considered by commercial arbitrations and in relation to other categories of cases in which a public element will be manifested to a greater or lesser extent.

Essay on Application of Byzantine Law in the Modern Bessarabia

The article describes the application of Byzantine law in the region of Bessarabia which formed part of the Russian Empire from the early 19th century until 1917. The empire allowed the local population to apply their local laws for the regulation of their civil law relations. Due to historical reasons, these local laws were identified with the law of the Byzantine Empire which had already disappeared in 1453. The authors of the article provide a general description of the sources of Bessarabian law and then turn to case study research regarding the jurisprudence of courts on the issues of the Law of Succession in Bessarabia. They demonstrate that in interpreting the provisions of the law applicable, Russian lawyers often referred to Roman law as a doctrinal background of Byzantine law. Furthermore, they did not hesitate to identify Roman law with Pandect law. Even though the doctrine of the Law of Pandects had been created in Germany on the basis of Roman law texts, it was far from the content of the original law of the Ancient Roman Empire. The fate of the practical application of Byzantine law in Bessarabia reflects some general problems of the ‘legal transplants’ in the history of law and therefore provides additional materials for the theoretical study of the issues of ‘legal transfer’ in history and nowadays.

Co-regulation as a way to improve the effectiveness of legal regulation in sports

In the article, the authors formulate a definition of co-regulation based on an overview of the approaches available in documents and regulations from the European Union. Co-regulation does not appear to be an intermediate form between state regulation and self-regulation, but rather an independent method of social regulation that can significantly improve legal regulation effectiveness. This is achieved by combining legal principles and norms and state control over their implementation with a broad discretion of professionals in a particular field. Sports is considered a classic case of co-regulation since all Russian sports federations pursue the legally defined goals (development of one or more sports in the Russian Federation, their promotion, organization, sporting events and training of athletes who are members of national sports teams), achieve these goals to realize the legally defined rights and obligations, and undergo evaluation for effectiveness and accreditation by the state. The article thoroughly analyzes the history of adopting a package of amendments to Russian legislation in order to introduce arbitral proceedings for athletes and coaches’ individual labor disputes in 2020. This example demonstrates the weaknesses of exclusive state regulation of legal relations in sports and the shortcomings of self-regulation. Specific problems are identified: their solutions are quite complicated when one has to choose one of the above-mentioned models or their combination, the status of “legionnaires”, duration of labor contracts, conditions for paying salaries and others. The arguments in favor of introducing a national arbitration for athletes and coaches’ labour disputes are considered. The status of Russian and international sports federations is studied in terms of their classification as self-regulatory organizations and the inconsistency of the independent status of sports organizations is demonstrated. In conclusion, the authors propose an amendment to the Federal Law on Physical Culture and Sports in the Russian Federation to legalize co-regulation in this area.