The humanities and social science

Historically, the magistrates’ court — being a public institute in its nature — has co-existed with community (communal) authorities, including judiciary institutions. As a result, under certain conditions, community courts are subject to the magistrates’ court or even included in its structure, absorbed by it. This article investigates the background and course of this process in the history of the Russian Empire of the 19th/early 20th centuries. The author explains how volost courts gradually became part of the Justice of the Peace.

This article considers the formation of ethical codes in modern Russia. The authors investigate legal acts regulating the creation, implementation, and preservation of ethical standards. The article offers a system of ethical codes and identifies certain problems of their application.

This paper analyses the legal capacity in the election legislation, including the differentiation between individual and collective rightsholders. The author considers the issue of inclusion of the power of citizens to participate in establishing the election results into the core of voting rights. The thesis about the peremptory nature of right to the judicial protection of voters is proved and the one about the influence of the electoral system type on the deprivation of voters’ rights is disproved.

This article considers the improvement of the federal legislation on elections of the highest official of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation. The author analyses the legislation of the Kaliningrad region regulating the election of the governor of the Kaliningrad region. An analysis performed helps formulate certain recommendations on the improvement of the current federal and regional legislation on the election of principal officers of constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

This article analyzes the provisions of the recently adopted federal law on the contract system and identifies its shortcomings. The author stresses that new rules are not capable of solving the problem of legal regulation aimed to satisfy state requirements and will create additional complications in the use of terminology, application of legislation, identification of the scope of different regulations, and the correlation of private and public law regulation.

This article considers the introduced and planned changes to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation relating to the construction of a system of legal entities. It is concluded that there is a deviation from earlier doctrinal statements about the directions of system development. The changes do not take into account the existing interconnections and may have a negative impact on law enforcement practices.

This article considers the features of regulating civil liability of institutions in view of the recent changes to the legislation and investigates the key issues regarding the application of civil liability to private, public, budgetary, and autonomous institutions. Special attention is paid to the general and specific features of civil liability relating to the use of civil and fiscal legislation. It is concluded that there is a need to unify the rules of civil liability of institutions.

This article emphasizes the lacunae in the legal regulation of termination of powers and employment agreement of executive officers in connection with the replacement of the exclusive executive body.

This article discusses the features of application of the free customs zone procedure in the Kaliningrad region, draws attention to the problems arising in the judicial practice relating to the application of the said customs procedure, and proposes measures to improve the mechanism of the customs zone procedure applied in the Kaliningrad region in the conditions of the Customs Union.

This article considers the cession or transfer of rights of claim under a credit agreement and the cases of cession restriction established by law. The author analyses the judicial practice of commercial courts and courts of general jurisdiction. It is stressed that the current legislation does not contain provisions that forbid a bank to cede rights under a credit agreement. The conclusion is made that the law provides an opportunity for alienating the bank’s rights (claims) in respect of borrowers (natural persons). The author considers the position of public authorities on the inadmissibility of cession of a bank’s rights by non-bank organizations.

This article considers the problems of analysing will and will expression of citizens when performing legally significant actions. The author stresses the importance of analysing citizens’ will in view of the changes to the provisions of the law on the limitation of legal capacity of natural persons. The article stresses the need to extend the role of notaries in documenting the will and will expression of civil circulation participants.

This article considers the topical issues of modern Russian notary system and the prospects of its development. The author formulates certain recommendations on the improvement of legislation pertaining to the legal status of the notary. The draft federal law ‘On the Notary System and Activities in the Russian Federation’ is analysed.

This article considers the current problems of fight against corruption in Russia. The author analyzes the capacity of the state and society to combat corruption. It is concluded that the scale of criminal factors affecting corruption is not proportional to the means of combating this phenomenon. In the current conditions, the most effective anti-corruption measures are the upgrading of criminal penalties.

This article examines the origin of the term ‘investigative mindset’ and different opinions on the term’s meaning. In particular, the article focuses on the scientific approaches to the investigative mindset in Russia and the United States of America. The authors analyse the prospects for the development of an investigative mindset theory.

This article describes the procedural features of the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in case of Romokhov vs Russia. The author describes the sophisticated and inhomogeneous structure of this case as well as its and precedent features.

The notion of ‘official’ and their functional and structural features help carry out a legal assessment of the administrative activities of persons working at non-state (commercial and other) organisations. The author analyses the functions (powers) of an official and thus suggest supplementing the criminal legislation with a scope of persons, whose powers are delegated by the state.

This article explores some of the issues associated with the adoption of the Federal Law № 420-FZ of December 7, 2011 ‘On the Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation’. It is noted that the effectiveness of rules pertaining to the exemption from criminal liability for tax offenses largely depends on the phrasing of the relevant articles of the Criminal Code.

This article considers the basic approaches to the use of Internet resources in the detection and investigation of crimes. It is stressed that the Internet affects ways the crime is committed, the features of criminal traces, and the choice of means and methods used in the process of detection and investigation of crimes.

In view of the situational nature of investigative errors, the authors identify the most typical errors made in the course of interrogating women suspected (accused) of violent crimes. The article formulates a number of tactical recommendations on their avoidance and describes the ways to increase the efficiency of such interrogations.

This article is devoted to the investigation of forensic and psychological features of persons sentenced to restriction of liberty on the basis of a psychological and sociological analysis of persons sentenced to restriction of freedom registered at penal institutions of the Kaliningrad region. An analysis of the results of the study suggest that, during the sentence period, those sentenced to restriction of freedom either do not reject the commonly accepted norms, values, and behavior patterns or demonstrate the medium degree of rejection. This category of convicted persons shows either low or medium degree of readiness for delinquent behavior and aggression. In most cases, those sentenced to restriction of liberty are able to control the behavioral manifestations of emotional reactions.

This article considers the application of witness personality doctrine when investigating crimes against public officials. The cases of crimes against employees of correctional facilities help describe the features of different categories of witnesses and propose tactics of interrogating witnesses of each type.

This article analyses an efficient method of interacting with customer, which is aimed at the successful adaptation of innovations. It is noted that, in hi-tech markets, such interaction with all groups of customers can be carried out through a strong brand, whereas special importance is attached to the creation of the brand’s ecosystem, which would make it possible to offer the customer package solutions and include them into the value added chain.

This article considers the problems of studying the strategic potential of organisations in the modern conditions. The authors analyse the methods of allowing for the uncertainty factor within the programming solution development procedures.

The development of the tourism industry in the Kaliningrad region is identified as one of the priority areas of economic development. The existing tourism and recreational potential, favorable climatic conditions, and a large number of cultural and historical sites should contribute to the effective development of the region. The cluster approach should become a catalyst for the development of tourism and hospitality industry, which makes it possible to employ a comprehensive approach to the territorial development.

This article proposes a practical method for estimating the regional asymmetry of small and medium business development and presents the results of its approbation in the Northwestern Federal District of Russia. The author makes a conclusion that small and medium business is developing unevenly. The author's method can be used in studying other aspects of the asymmetry of economic development as well as in drawing up small and medium enterprise stimulations programs.

This article presents recommendations on the modelling of a functional and object development of coastal regional systems that would ensure the system adaptation and manageability in the conditions of environment uncertainty. To this end, the author employs the method of system definition, which makes it possible to identify the connection between the basic elements of the regional system ensuring its integrity and stability. Such approach to the system modelling ensures continuity and flexibility in managerial decision-making.

The relatively rapid – however slower than forecasted — development o retail chains is characteristic of Russia in general, nevertheless it exhibits significant territorial differences. An attempt to identify the factors behind these differences through calculating the correlation coefficient made it possible to detect only one factor, whose value is close to essential: the geographical remoteness from Moscow. However, many regions of central Russia have a low share of retail chains. One cannot exclude that a significant role in the development of interregional differences is played by institutional factors, which can become a focal point of further research.