Law

A number of recent events in the last decade have renewed interest in Russian discourses on international law. This book evaluates and presents a contemporary analysis of Russian discourses on international law from various perspectives, including sociological, theoretical, political and philosophical. The aim is to identify how Russian interacts with international law, the reasons behind such interactions, and how such interactions compare with the general practice of international law. It also examines whether legal culture and other phenomena can justify Russia's interaction in international law. Russian Discourses on International Law explains Russia's interpretation of international law thrugh the lens of both leading western scholars and contemporary western-based Russian scholars. It will be of value to international law scholars looking for a better understanding of Russia's behaviour in international legal relations, law and society, foreign policy, and domestic application of international law. Further, those in fields such as sociology, politics, pholosophy, or general graduate students, lawyers, think tanks, government departments, and specialised Russian studies programmes will find this book helpful.

Liberalism in Russia is one of the most complex, multifaced and, indeed, controversial phenomena in the history of political thought. Values and practices traditionally associated with Western liberalism—such as individual freedom, property rights, or the rule of law—have often emerged ambiguously in the Russian historical experience through different dimensions and combinations. Economic and political liberalism have often appeared disjointed, and liberal projects have been shaped by local circumstances, evolved in response to secular challenges and developed within often rapidly-changing institutional and international settings. This third volume of the Reset DOC “Russia Workshop” collects a selection of the Dimensions and Challenges of Russian Liberalism conference proceedings, providing a broad set of insights into the Russian liberal experience through a dialogue between past and present, and intellectual and empirical contextualization, involving historians, jurists, political scientists and theorists. The first part focuses on the Imperial period, analyzing the political philosophy and peculiarities of pre-revolutionary Russian liberalism, its relations with the rule of law (Pravovoe Gosudarstvo), and its institutionalization within the Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets). The second part focuses on Soviet times, when liberal undercurrents emerged under the surface of the official Marxist-Leninist ideology. After Stalin’s death, the “thaw intelligentsia” of Soviet dissidents and human rights defenders represented a new liberal dimension in late Soviet history, while the reforms of Gorbachev’s “New Thinking” became a substitute for liberalism in the final decade of the USSR. The third part focuses on the “time of troubles” under the Yeltsin presidency, and assesses the impact of liberal values and ethics, the bureaucratic difficulties in adapting to change, and the paradoxes of liberal reforms during the transition to post-Soviet Russia. Despite Russian liberals having begun to draw lessons from previous failures, their project was severely challenged by the rise of Vladimir Putin. Hence, the fourth part focuses on the 2000s, when the liberal alternative in Russian politics confronted the ascendance of Putin, surviving in parts of Russian culture and in the mindset of technocrats and “system liberals”. Today, however, the Russian liberal project faces the limits of reform cycles of public administration, suffers from a lack of federalist attitude in politics and is externally challenged from an illiberal world order. All this asks us to consider: what is the likelihood of a “reboot” of Russian liberalism?

quarter of a century has passed since the Constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted in 1993, yet the issue of the results and the prospects for constitutional transformation has not disappeared from the political agenda. For some, the Constitution signifies an ultimate break up with the communist past and a legal foundation for the advancement of the Russian society toward democracy and the rule of law; for the others, it is exactly the Constitution that is the culprit for the authoritarian trend that has prevailed, and for the sustained stagnation in Russia’s economic, social and political development. The author of this chapter is in the middle of these extreme viewpoints. He believes that the Constitution has truly played a pivotal role in Russia’s move toward democracy by establishing the basic principles of civil society and the rule of law, and in this respect, it remains of everlasting and paramount importance. Nevertheless, that does not mean that it should be utterly inaccessible for changes, especially given the elapsed time and the negative experience of the authoritarian transformation of the political regime, the amendments that were introduced between2008 and 2014, and the current objectives of the democratic movement. The rationale for changes is to return to the constitutional principles, reaffirm their initial democratic meaning by rejecting the excessive concentration of the Presidential power, the results of counter-reforms and the adulteration through legislative and regulatory compliance practices. Some of the proposed remedies aim to establish a new form of government (Presidential - Parliamentary), which would necessitate Constitutional amendments — adjustments that would regulate the separation of powers and redistribution of authority. Others seek to transform the system without changing the text of the Constitution through legislative reforms, judicial interpretation and the policy of law. Yet, the third approach prioritizes institutional reforms. Not everything in social development depends on the provisions of the law, political improvisation and practice can prove just as critical. In their cumulative entirety such initiatives can help avoid the two extremes: that of constitutional stagnation gravitating toward the bureaucratic asphyxiation, and that of constitutional populism which has a tendency to destabilize the political system. In its practical activities to transform the political regime, the opposition ought to remember the maximum repeatedly confirmed by experience, — the further a party is from power, the more radical tend to be its constitutional proposals. Conversely, empowered groups tend to be more moderate in their initiatives.
Russia has been experiencing the results of an acute economic crisis since 2012. However, the government has not been explicit in its declarations regarding austerity policies. On the contrary, it tends to represent its measures as "normal" and generally justifies cuts to public expenditure and reduced spending as part of a new understanding of the welfare state and socio-economic relations. Nevertheless, there is a clear connection between the crisis and the introduction of conservative discourse and the "traditional values" concept that targets gender equality both in public and private domains.
The Russian case study is exemplary and didactic. As Russia is new to market economics and has never developed a consistent neoliberal agenda, the shift to conservative ideologies came unexpectedly easily. Gender has become a battleground for the government to fight over social problems and austerity measures. Unlike the EU countries, the Russian government does not hesitate to challenge human rights and gender equality, easily shifting the blame to leftist ideologies – primarily feminism – that are held responsible for family instability and the poor state of demography and health. Using the concept of "traditional values" as a cover for increasing austerity measures, the government relies on short-term strategies. However, this shift to conservative public discourse has not been readily accepted by the Russian population, least of all by women. There is clear resistance from various social groups, including women. This resistance is not just taking the familiar form of public protests (although they have been taking place as well), but rather in the form of withdrawal from public space to minimise dealings with the state, a strategy familiar from the Soviet experience of resistance. Therefore, on the surface, Russian public discourse seems to be dominated by officially promoted ideologies, but this does not mean that society just accepts or even implements those ideologies eagerly.
At the same time, there is a clear tendency to follow supranational austerity measures by cutting public spending, amending social security policies, privatising care, and forcing women to return to the double-burden situation in the Soviet-type social contract by openly attacking feminist ideologies, gender equality, and human rights. In this situation, Russian NGOs, especially those with a human rights and gender-sensitive agenda, need more subtle strategies to deal with public policies, starting at the local government level.
The use of data in society has seen an exponential growth in recent years. Data science, the field of research concerned with understanding and analyzing data, aims to find ways to operationalize data so that it can be beneficially used in society, for example in health applications, urban governance or smart household devices. The legal questions that accompany the rise of new, data-driven technologies however are underexplored. This book is the first volume that seeks to map the legal implications of the emergence of data science. It discusses the possibilities and limitations imposed by the current legal framework, considers whether regulation is needed to respond to problems raised by data science, and which ethical problems occur in relation to the use of data. It also considers the emergence of Data Science and Law as a new legal discipline.
While workers movements have been largely phased out and considered out-dated in most parts of the world during the 1990s, the 21st century has seen a surge in new and unprecedented forms of strikes and workers organisations. The collection of essays in this book, spanning countries across global South and North, provides an account of strikes and working class resistance in the 21st century. Through original case studies, the book looks at the various shades of workers’ movements, analysing different forms of popular organisation as responses to new social and economic conditions, such as restructuring of work and new areas of investment.

This book combines the approaches of history and criminology to study parricide and non-fatal violence against parents from across traditional period and geographical boundaries, encompassing research on Asia as well as Europe and North America. Parricide and non-fatal violence against parents are rare but significant forms of family violence. They have been perceived to be a recent phenomenon related to bad parenting and child abuse often in poorer socioeconomic circumstances – yet they have a history, which provides insights for modern-day explanation and intervention. Research on violence against parents has concentrated on child abuse and mental illness but, by using a rich array of primary and secondary documents, such as court cases, criminal statistics, newspaper reports, and legal and medical literature, this book shows that violence against parents is also shaped by conflicts related to parental authority, the rise of children’s rights, conflicting economic and emotional expectations, and other sociohistorical factors.

The efficiency approach, as advocated by the Chicago School in particular, only provides a very narrow approach to competition law analysis that relies on the preferences of consumers. This approach remains especially insufficient for the regulation of firms that provide citizens with politically relevant news and information. In times of digitisation, citizens increasingly rely on news disseminated by Internet intermediaries such as Facebook, Twitter or Google for making political decisions. Such firms design their business models and their algorithms for selecting the news according to a purely economic rationale. Yet recent research indicates that dissemination of news through social platforms in particular has a negative impact on the democratic process by favouring the dissemination of false factual statements, fake news and unverifiable conspiracy theories within closed communities and, ultimately, leads to radicalisation and a division of society along political and ideological lines. Experience based on the Brexit referendum in the UK and the recent presidential elections in the US highlights the ability of populist political movements to abuse the business rationale of Internet intermediaries and the functioning of their algorithms in order to win popular votes with their ‘post-truth politics’. This article relies on competition law principles to discuss future approaches to regulating the market for political ideas at the interface of competition law and media law in the new digital age. Based on constitutional considerations the article rests on the assumption that media markets should not only provide news that responds best to the psychological predispositions and subjective beliefs of the individual citizen, but also provide correct information and diversity of opinion as a basis for making informed democratic decisions.

The fourth edition of this book has been entirely re-written, this time co-authored by Ioannis Lianos with the contribution of Paolo Siciliani. It includes substantially more material on the economics of competition law and integrates, for the first time, UK competition law materials and commentary. An additional new feature is greater introductory and analytical commentary, making this book suitable for use either as a stand-alone text and materials book, or as a book of materials to be used in conjunction with a second text. It will continue to be one of the best books for undergraduate and post-graduate students in competition law, providing them with the necessary critical understanding of the law, its social and economic context, and the necessary depth of analysis in order to provide them with the knowledge and tools they need for practising competition law. The materials have been completely updated to take into account recent developments in EU and UK competition law, including extracts from the leading cases of Cartes Bancaires, Intel, Lundbeck, Streetmap v Google, the most recent versions of the Block Exemption Regulations and the Europan Commission's and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Guidance, recent UK and other National Competition Authorities (NCA) cases in digital markets, the recent European Commission's investigations against Google (Alphabet), recent merger cases and guidance and a detailed analysis of enforcement (including private enforcement, criminal enforcement and Alternative Dispute Resolution) and procedure in both the EU and UK competition law. The book also includes commentary on the implications of Brexit in competition law enforcement in the UK. Economic analysis is presented in a non-technical way so as to enable students without any background in economics to understand the economic content of the law and to be able to critically assess economic evidence often presented in competition law cases. The book is co-authored by an economist and constitutes the only textbook/casebook in the market with a balanced incorporation of both law and economics. Other sources of wisdom for competition law, such as economic sociology and business studies, are also referred to and analyzed. The bulk of the text is made up of analysis supplemented with extracts from Commission Decisions and decisions of NCAs (in particular the UK ones), Opinions of the Advocates General at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and judgments of the CJEU and General Court. These are supplemented by extracts from EU legislation, and comments, notes and questions prepared by the authors for each important judgment or decision so as to enhance students' understanding of the economic and legal context of the specific case.
A complex analysis of the social and economic consequences of China, Ukraine, and Russia’s accession to the WTO was used to identify recommendations for the most successful adaptation of Russia to WTO standards. Russia tries to adapt to the WTO standards. The study focuses on the Chinese experience. China’s membership in the WTO is extremely useful for Russia from due to China’s positive influence on the development of its economy , as there has been expansion in the industrial and production sectors of its economy and promotion of goods in world markets, as well as an opportunity to use the WTO’s legal instruments for national domestic market protection.
China’s positive experience as a WTO member somehow contrasts with the described experience of Ukraine. An assessment of Ukraine’s versatile policy and its association with the EU allowed concluded that it is impossible for Ukraine to follow two ways at once: that of Eurasian integration and that of European integration.
Recently, the aggravated trade, economic and political confrontations between Russia and its American and European partners spurred radical changes in Russia’s economic strategy. Areas of such transformations can be determined by understanding both the positive and negative experiences of Russia’s old trade partners, namely China and Ukraine as they joined the world economic environment.
Why has there been a human rights backlash in Russia despite the country having been part of the European human rights protection system since the late 1990s? To what extent does Russia implement judgments of the Strasbourg Court, and to what extent does it resist the implementation? This fascinating study investigates Russia's turbulent relationship with the European Court of Human Rights and examines whether the Strasbourg court has indeed had the effect of increasing the protection of human rights in Russia. Researchers and scholars of law and political science with a particular interest in human rights and Russia will benefit from this in-depth exploration of the background of this subject.
From 18 to 21 November 2015, in the Vatican, the Congregation for Catholic Education celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration Gravissimum Educationis and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae. As part of these celebrations, the Congregation aimed to re-energise the Catholic Church’s commitment to education by means of a World Congress entitled ‘Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion’. The main aim of the Congress was to re-energise the role of Catholic schools and universities that act in the name of the Universal Church. The Congress urged more than 5,000 participants to step up efforts to promote dialogue in times of spiritual poverty, self-referential exclusiveness, harmful spread of ideological viewpoints, and the lowering of the general level of culture.
In line with the aims of the Congress, and under its hospitable auspices, the European Association for Education Law and Policy (ELA) held a special conference. The ELA sessions within the larger Congress focussed mainly on the re-consideration of the role that religion plays in education in general. The main concern of this legal panel, therefore, was the way religious studies, the rights of believers, and non-believers are accommodated in both secular and confessional schools and universities around the world. Thus, the ELA sessions encompassed the transformation and renewal of religion in education in general (not only Catholic education), across various sectors of society.
This issue is a compilation of papers presented at ELA sessions in the Vatican. The papers presented at the ELA sessions were submitted to double blind peer review processes and only the best accepted and selected. The editors are already in possession of a full draft of the manuscript. This draft has been extensively edited for language and coherency already. The contributions composing this issue provide an all-encompassing analysis of the position of religion in education across the globe and how religious distinctiveness in education can be promoted. This volume deals, first, with overarching concepts of accommodating religious distinctiveness at schools and understanding the place of religion in compulsory instruction. Second, it provides important case studies explaining in much detail the various approaches to reconciliation of law and state, religion and education, secularism and diversity that exist in the world.
Although there are books about education and religion on the market, this volume focuses specifically on renewing a passion for protecting religious distinctiveness in increasingly secular societies. Emphasis is placed on how to achieve equality and religious freedom in democratic societies, while focusing on protecting the human dignity of religious adherents (parents and learners/children) through the protection of their religious distinctiveness. The manuscript also compiles the work of several academic experts in law and education and several expert practitioners in law and education (deans, ministers of education etc). The wide spectrum of countries discussed (USA, Europe, Australia, South Africa, South America) provide a holistic picture of religious distinctiveness across the globe. Practical suggestions towards maintaining religious distinctiveness are also provided. What is even more unique is the fact that the manuscript presents various and competing perspectives on religious distinctiveness.
This book seeks to provide a panorama of the issues arising from pluralism in the education system and of judicial responses to them around the globe. In it, thirty-four authors representing many different legal cultures have selected and commented the most significant judicial decisions in each of the jurisdictions analysed. The topics addressed include religious and cultural symbols; faith-based, religious, and citizenship education; freedom of teaching and scientific freedom; homeschooling; authorization, funding and other matters concerning denominational and private schools, among other legal disputes. The reader will easily sense many different ideological orientations throughout the book’s thirty-seven chapters, which is only the result of pluralism itself and of scientific freedom. Nevertheless, the editors believe that all of the authors have inherently favoured the desire to understand the challenges of pluralism and to convey knowledge that is relevant for a public debate rather than defending their own particular point of view. Indeed, facilitating debate might be considered to be the best achievement of a publication of this kind. The book is divided into six parts. The introductory part features a chapter by the editors concerning the implementation and justiciability of the right to education, and a second chapter by Prof. Charles L. Glenn providing an in-depth historical essay on the importance of debates over religion and education. The five remaining parts reflect a geographical division: Part II includes two chapters on international human rights bodies (the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Committee); parts III to VI group national courts’ decisions by region: Europe, the Americas, Africa, and lastly Asia and Australia.

The building of an increasingly integrated system from an economic point of view in the “Eurasian” space is a phenomenon superficially evaluated by that broad part of the Western literature which simply includes it in the general claim of Russia to win lost territories of the former Trsarist and Soviet Empires. It is therefore considered an almost pretentious project when analyzed from a purely geopolitical perspective rather than economic. Such kind of approach may, however, be short-sighted, in the absence of a detailed study of the complex roots or the historical, cultural and economic conditions justifying the integration on the former Soviet Union space, and in particular on the Eurasian one.
The present volume contains the contributions of experts from different disciplines with different sensitivity and national memberships. The hot confrontation between speakers from Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania on the one hand and Russia on the other seems to be constructive, a positive model of interaction between historically and geographically close worlds even if in a period of tough opposition.
The scientific research focuses on the pressing issue of an implementation of the rule of law and justice accessibility in Russia as a legal state. The core of the research is formed by a comparative study of the issues and objectives of the 1991 Concept of Judicial Reform of Russian Federation and the results of changes in procedural and judicial system legislation during the last 25 years. A comparison is also made between the standards of public services of legal dispute resolution provided by a public legislative authority and the standards of general public services by a public agency and local self-government body and the standards of a fair trial. Comparison is made not only by the level of legal guarantees for public service customers, but also by the dynamics of Russia’s process of becoming a legal state through the implementation of its judicial reform. Procedural legislation is assessed for comprehensiveness of legal provisions of judicial procedures: the order and conditions of a public service; consistency of norms, transparency of the court activities, the provision of safeguards against judicial arbitrariness and red tape, the mechanisms of efficiency enhancement and communication with the court, the compensation for the violation of the fair trial rights in civil, commercial, administrative and criminal proceedings. The court accessibility is assessed for compliance with procedural aspects of the fair trial concept: the conditions of application for the public service, the legal recourse procedures and eligibility terms, terms and size of an official fee, the possibility of fee deferral and exemption, convenience of a public fee calculation, rules of the appeal procedure. Judicial legislation is analyzed in relationship to the principles of transparency and independence of a fair trial concept in the institutional aspect. This scientific study focuses on a transfer of judiciary public services into an electronic sphere, the interaction between the courts and the interaction between courts and the executive bodies: it identifies problems and suggests possible solutions. The work assesses an effectiveness of an implementation of the 1991 Concept of Judicial Reform of Russian Federation and the targeted Federal Programs for the Development of the Judiciary, and their compatibility with the concept of sustainable development in the judicial system. The results of this scientific research have practical value, both for Russian national system and foreign countries seeking to promote the rule of law and court accessibility in the context of the UN sustainable development concept.
The concept of ‘employee’ is arguably the most important one in labour law, defi ning, as it does, the scope of the discipline as a whole. This important new publication aims to develop a restatement of the concept of the employee in European labour law. The study identifi es both problems and solutions that have emerged, clearly setting out comparisons between the different member states’ approaches. The country reports explore both statutes and case law, tracking their contribution to legal doctrine. The objective of the restatement is to increase knowledge and gain a better understanding of one of the most crucial aspects of European labour law.

The volume presents a selection of contributions mostly from the fourteenth annual conference in commemoration of Prof Marco Biagi on Wellbeing at and through work held in Modena (Italy) on 17–18 March 2016. The papers, which form the chapters in this volume, cover a number of countries and a wide range of issues in relation to quality of work and employee well-being including discrimination, harassment, disability, and work-life balance addressing them in an interdisciplinary perspective. Moreover, a number of regulatory approaches ranging from legislative interventions to voluntary measures are analysed in an attempt to cast light on the problem of well-being at work.
This paper explores, mainly from a legal perspective, the extent to which the Russian regulations of traditional TV and online audiovisual media policies have been consistent with the Council of Europe (hereinafter CoE) standards. The study compares between the CoE and Russian approaches to specific aspects of audiovisual regulation including licensing, media ownership, public service media, digitalization, and national production. The paper first studies the CoE perspective through examining its conventional provisions related to audiovisual media, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights as well as the CoE non-binding documents. The paper then considers Russian national legislation governing audiovisual media and the Russian general jurisdiction courts’ practice on broadcast licensing. The paper suggests that the Russian audiovisual regulations are insufficiently compatible with the CoE standards and more in line with the Soviet regulatory traditions.
Article reviews some organisational and legal problems of development and institutionalisation of Restorative Justice in Russia. It is the RJ paradigm character referring to changing lenses and the basic justice concept that predetermines the complexities involved in both the implementation and institutionalisation of RJ in Russia today. The authors make a conclusion about the perception of these problems as the action plan on the elaboration and realisation of the Restorative Justice model in Russia.
The article examines the phenomenon of politicization of constitutional relations. In particular, three of its aspects are identified and investigated: the impact of social revolutions on the rule of law; the problem of lustration of state employees; and the deepening of the politicization of the judiciary. Social revolutions, including the Ukrainian 2013–2014 social revolution, are viewed as aconcept that can have adecisive influence on the reform of the state mechanism and, in many ways, determine its future destiny. The lustration procedure, which is considered in the context of transitional justice– ascientific discipline that studies the functioning of justice in transitional democracies, undergoes special research herein. The classification of lustration according to various criteria is given. The article also shows the practice of a number of states whose judicial systems fall under the concept of political justice. Ashocking conclusion is drawn that the percentage of acquittals in Nazi Germany for non-political crimes was higher than in modern Russia or Ukraine.
This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the concept of “state immunity” as reflectedin the legislation and judicial practice of the Russian Federation. A study in decisions ofRussian courts prior to the adoption of the Federal Law on Immunities of 2016 leads to theconclusion that, even during the juridical consolidation of the theory of absolute immunity inRussia, on a number of questions Russia in fact adhered to a theory of functional immunity.The concept of absolute immunity which the USSR followed (and which Russia as itslegal successor subsequently also followed) gradually began to conflict with the RussianFederation’s foreign economic activity and contract practices, and instances of Russia’srenunciation of absolute immunity increased in frequency. This tendency clearly shows that inthe 21st century the state cannot have absolute immunity because that version of sovereigntyconflicts with the global practice of state participation in private international relations. Inother words, the Russian Federation with the adoption of its Federal Law on Immunities hasmoved away from a theory of absolute immunity to acknowledge and employ a theory of thefunctional immunity of the state. At the same time, the Law on Immunities of 2016 alreadyrequires more elaboration and corrections even though it was only recently passed andimplemented. The methodology of study is based on the application of formal, logicaland comparative research methods together with general systematic methods of analysisand synthesis, deduction and induction. Questions touched upon in this article are widelydiscussed in establishing doctrines of private international law in both foreign and in Russianstudies. Issues connected with state immunity are raised by the authors and suggestions fortheir resolution are formulated based on the legal experience of contemporary Russia.
To understand decision making processes in the field of public ethics, legal policy and e-government regulation it is important to understand the factors that promote, restrict, and distort the processes. This in turn requires an analysis of the failure to establish in the behaviour of institutions and individuals such values as ethics in the public IT-policy as factors for sociocultural changes, the respect for e-government legal regulation and procedures standards, and an acknowledgement of the decisions of courts as dispute resolution mechanisms. This strategy presumably provides the possibility to offer a prognostic approach, involving an analysis of the correlation between the beliefs, norms and reality, and based on previous experience of e-government regulation in national and comparative perspective.
INTRODUCTION. This paper is devoted to interpretation of so-called WTO “Security Exception Articles”, namely Article XXI of the GATT, XIV bis of the GATS and 73 of the TRIPS Agreement with respect to their possible applicability to trade restrictive measures adopted against Russia, and Russian countermeasures, based on the assumption that these trade restrictive measures violate WTO disciplines.
MATERIALS AND METHODS. The materials for the article were norms of general international law and norms of WTO law, containing so-called security exception provisions and their respective interpretation by international tribunals, international organizations and scholars. The methodological basis of the research consists of general scientific and special methods.
RESEARCH RESULTS. Taking into account that there is a lack of WTO jurisprudence and no common view of WTO members regarding the issue at hand, the analysis is based on the scope of Security Exception Articles and on the Panel’s jurisdiction to resolve disputes arising from them. In particular, the paper addresses whether security exceptions are of a self-declaratory nature; and, as it was stated by the GATT Council in 1985 in relation to the US trade embargo against Nicaragua, “the Panel cannot examine or judge the validity or motivation for the invocation of article XXI (b) (iii) by the United States” or whether it is possible to apply an objective test to Security Exception Articles.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. With respect to the objective test, the interpretation of the following notions should be analyzed: “essential security interests”, “emergency in international relations” and “necessary to protect”. The analysis should be based on rules of general international law and the Appellate Body’s approach according to which previously established interpretations of certain provisions of one WTO Agreement can be used to inform the content of the same ‘words’ in another WTO Agreement. With respect to the subjective approach we may face a tendency to interpret “self-judging clause”, in the light of “a good faith” principle and therefore the issue at hand can be subject to the Dispute Settlement Body's analysis.
Research objectives: An analysis of the evolution of the land-law institution of soyurghal which was applied during the 15th–19th centuries in the Chinggisid and non-Chinggisid states that arose after the disintegration of the Mongol Empire and its uluses. This work is an attempt to clarify the reasons behind the preservation of this imperial legal institution during the post-imperial period, along with the points of commonality and differences which emerged during its evolution in the different states and regions of Asia. Research materials: This research is based on wide range of historical and legal sources with information on soyurghal and its evolution. There are yarliks (or firmans) of monarchs (patents and letters), historical chronicles, along with treatises on the political and administrative structure of post-imperial states. The author analyses the documents of the Kazan, Crimean, Bukharan, and Khivan khanates, as well as Kashgharia, the states of Aq- Koyunlu and Qara-Kouynlu, Savafid Iran, and Mogul India. This research is also based on results of scholars who have already discussed soyurghal of the imperial and post-imperial period: M. Abduraimov, K.A. Antonova, A.M. Belenitskiy, P.P. Ivanov, A.K.S. Lambton, V.F. Minorskiy, Sh.F. Mukhamed’yarov, I.P. Petrushevskiy, M.A. Usmanov, etc. The novelty of the study: The presented article is the first attempt to compare the evolution of institution of soyurghal based on a wide range of sources from different states and epochs to clarify basic trends of this evolution and find the reasons for using different categories of soyurghal in different states to a greater or lesser extent. Research results: The author finds that during the 15th–19th centuries the institution of soyurghal had three meanings: land investiture for vassals (state and military officers), land investiture for state officers and clergy, and lastly a grant from the monarch to his subject in general. These different kinds of soyurghal were used in all states which were analyzed in the article. The conclusion is that this land-law institution was used in fact throughout the whole area of the former Mongol Empire and that this imperial legal tradition was preserved during the period after the disintegration of the empire itself.
This article explores and compares the changes in the criminal legislation of Russia
and China. The author will first examine the history of the development of the criminal
legislation of the two countries, identifying their common and distinguishing features
in the process. The author will then compare the basic provisions and structure of
the criminal codes of Russia and China as objects of comparative legal research. This
article further analyzes the scale, direction and dynamics of changes in the provisions
contained in the General and Special parts of the criminal codes of the two countries,
in detail. It is concluded that the scale and speed of changes in the Criminal Code of
the Russian Federation, is far greater compared to the changes in the Criminal Code of
the People’s Republic of China, based on various indicators. The author gives general
recommendations to the Russian legislator as far as the consideration of scientific
developments goes.
It has been widely acknowledged that current international intellectual property (IP) standard setting is carried through bilateral and plurilateral negotiations, and that the EU is very much involved in this process. It is notably the case of standards pertaining to the rights protecting designs, which received a particularly flexible set of minimum standards under the TRIPS WTO agreement. Building on the growing research both in IP rights in preferential trade agreements and design law, this paper looks at the IP chapters of EU agreements with third countries, assessing their deepness and the flexibility they maintain to uncover the trends of such design law internationalization. It evaluates how design rights, which have been seen in the past as less instrumental for business expansion abroad compared to trademark right and copyright, start to be elevated as strategic tools for business internationalization.