The article discusses the problems associated with providing public access to court decisions. The author analyzes the existed until 2010 and existing at the moment ways to access to the court acts. Particular attention is paid to issues relating to the list of published court decisions, ways to protect confidential information, contained in judicial decisions, as well as moment of the publication of these documents. Based on this analysis the author formulates proposals for changing the order of access to judicial decisions.

This article analyses the issue of compatibility of the Eurasian Economic Union law and WTO agreements, where the author points out two sub issues. How does EAEU law and WTO agreements relate to each other? How is EAEU law treated by DSB of WTO? Answering the first question basing on the analysis of the Treaty on EAEU, Report of the Working Party on the Accession of the Russian Federation to the WTO and case law of the EurAsEC Court the author comes to the conclusion that rules of the WTO agreements should be treated as lex superior, and law of the EAEU as legi inferiori. At the same time rules of the EAEU law are lex specialis, and rules of WTO agreements are lex generalis. However analysis of the provisions of the Treaty on EAEU and case law of the EAEU Court shows that WTO agreements couldn’t be regarded as one of the sources of law applicable by the EAEU Court in dispute settlement and the issue of applicability of the WTO agreements by the EAEU Court stays open. Answering the second question author comes to the conclusion that norms of the EAEU law are regarded by all the applicants as measures taken only by one of the EUEU member-states, namely the Russian Federation. Such situation may cause difficulties in the process of executing DSB recommendations taking into account that EAEU norms are adopted by all EAEU member-states and EAEU as such is not the member of WTO.

Updating the procedural law and the impact of the legal positions of the European Court of Human Rights on the Russian legal system necessitated the awareness of the universality of the requirement to provide the same level of legal guarantees that form the basis of the concept of a fair trial. Embodiment of the requirements of the concept of a fair trial in the procedural legislation is a guarantee of compliance with the Russian Federation's international obligations in the field of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The requirements called concepts apply to all stages of the process and all of its forms (the civil law, administrative, criminal, constitutional), and they are related to the criteria of the right to good governance, it can be stated that the level of legal guarantees one in European legal family. However, it is not the same in the Russian legislation: in judicial and non-judicial process. This is a big problem requiring speedy resolution. Is an issue with high-level legal safeguards in the procedures of inspections of judicial decisions in the courts of general jurisdiction. Compare the rules of judicial review with the rules of extrajudicial inspection led to the conclusion: legal guarantees are reduced as one moves up the affairs of the court, and at the level of the supervisory authorities are practically no. It is necessary to set the same high level of legal safeguards in procedural law as a prerequisite for genuine justice to ensure the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of man and citizen, as well as the organization in a state of law. The constant growth of legal safeguards in national law is an essential aspect of sustainable development.

The relevance of personal data protection in telemedicine is predetermined by rapid development of information technologies in different spheres, including health care. The key issue is that current legal framework for personal data protection does not adequately meet the needs of telemedicine. Rather than facilitating technological development the law creates unreasonable barriers for introducing innovations in health care. Modern information and communication technologies require a free, secure and legitimate information exchange among all actors of telemedicine relationships.

The article contains recommendations on improving legislation on personal data for facilitating telemedicine development. The paper mainly focuses on the principles of personal data protection in telemedicine (requirements for informed consent, purposes of processing, special rules for data controllers and data processors, obligations to ensure confidentiality and security, etc.).

In particular, it is proposed to eliminate the mandatory requirement of written consent for processing special categories of personal data; to establish special grounds for personal data processing in telemedicine purposes; to differentiate the processing of personal data in telemedicine depending on the consent requirement ("without consent" "without consent, but with option to refuse processing", "with consent"). It is necessary to set the legal status of telemedicine entities and possibly impose special obligations for personal data processing performed by these entities. In addition, it is important to establish industry standards for security of health information systems taking into account specific threats typical to telemedicine technologies.

The article also focuses on the Russian legislative approach to health information systems that are crucial for telemedicine. The thesis is supported that legislation in this area should facilitate integration and interoperability of health information systems, expand applicability of these systems and increase the role of patients in management of personal electronic health records.

Methodological basis of research includes analysis of legislation and draft laws on corresponding issues, comparative legal method (in some aspects Russian experience is considered in comparison with experience of the EU and USA) and method of legal modeling (amendments to Russian legislation are proposed).

The article tackles the issues of protecting rights of minors and real estate transactions. Civil Code of the Russian Federation and provisions of the Federal law on guardianship and trusteeship are being analyzed. Specific attention is focused on the institution of Children Rights Ombudsman.

 

The article is devoted to the anasisys of Russian center and its regions relation development dynamics. This development is cyclic: from general decentralization (up to the “sovereignties parade”) to absolute centralization. Russia has finished this cycle for the period from 1989 to 2014, and now it faces the threat of the next wave of decentralization. The author states, that there is a neutral position of the system, “the golden mean”, at which the relationships between the center and the regions are stable and not subjected to neither cenrifugal, nor centripetal forces. In order to determine this “golden mean” the author proposes to use the historical experience of dealing with the state structure issue in the Russian Empire, the RSFSR and the USSR. The analisys shows that despite the rather complex state system structure in the Russian Empire it remained a unitary state. The status of various areas, including those with elements of political autonomy, had not been unified, and the power of the center was based on the national and local traditions. The analysis of the RSFSR Constitution of 1918, that proclaimed Russia as a federation, and the practice of its application also indicates a unitary model of state. The emergence of the term "federation" itself was not associated with the concept of national-territorial structure, but with the need to preserve the state integrity: to find a compromise between unitarianism and separation. This same tactic was used to preserve the state integrity in 1990-1993. However, by the end of 2000’s the region’s independence, presented in the federation, was actually nullified. The current Russian region’s status can be defined as a public (political) national-territorial autonomy in a unitary state. Thus, the federation in Russia is notional or symbolic. In fact, Russia is the unitary-regionalist state in which the federal rhetoric is used as a tool for tactical political maneuvering. This means that the center’s policy toward the regions must be flexible and not based on absolute dictatorship. The "strength" of the center must be based on its ability to maintain peace and prosperity throughout the country by non-violent means, as well as on the building of relationships with the regions on the basis of respect and consideration for their interests, including the formation of the budget.  

This article focuses on the American experience of guaranteeing decisional independence of judges. Historically the United States turned to be the pioneer in the area of legislative regulation of the status of judiciary power. With forming the normative base of both functioning of judiciary and the status of judges the following factor (which was repeatedly emphasized by the Founding Fathers) was taken into consideration: actual separation of powers is impossible without independent judiciary, and thus institutional independence of judiciary is impossible without decisional independence of individual judges. The article includes some comments of American judges regarding the essence generating prestige and institutional independence of the American judiciary and the qualities necessary for a good judge. The article also describes the doctrine of judicial activism.

 

The article analyzes the history of such institution as electoral blocs in the Russian Federation; the examples of agreements of political parties founding the electoral blocs are examined in the context of current reform of political parties and elections legislation.

The subject matter of the study is the issue of overcriminalization and strict punishment in the USA.The paper features the reasons for this phenomenon, attitude in society to criminal law as a tool to tackle social and economic issues and financial crisis. The study is supported with cases showing the excessive use of criminal liability including the RICO Act. The author points to an inadequate attitude tothe subjective aspect of the elements of crime (mens rea) in the bills submitted o the US Congress anda wide interpretation of federal laws by courts. The paper explores the consequences of this situation including the impossibility to know the bulk of laws and acts and the violation of procedural guarantees.A special problem is seen in overcrowded prisons causing the violation of basic human rights and failureto meet basic material needs. A special attention is given to the Criminal Responsibility of Juveniles,the decisions of the US Supreme Court related to the application of milder punishments as to minors.To overcome criminalization regarding the specified group, American researchers propose restorativejustice. The latter promotes to decreasing recidivism among minors. A proposition is made to set the possibility to apply the clauses related to the criminal responsibility of minors to the people older than 18 but not achieving 25 years of age. The paper studies the origin of the campaign against overcriminalization,which started developing after approving The Model Penal Code, and is not politically motivated. Recommendations from American legal academics are given regarding federal legislation and courtsin particular the proposition on admitting innocent misrepresentation (mistake) as an immunity fromcriminal prosecution. The aim of the paper is to arrange the situation in the US to study and counteract similar phenomena in Russia as the issue remains acute.