The humanities and social science

This article examines legal conscience in view of its little-studied generating function. The author considers the ideas affecting legal consciousness in different types of cultures – humanocentric and sociocentric ones. The idea of power underlies legal consciousness in sociocentric cultures, and the idea of freedom that of person-oriented cultures. The deformations of legal consciousness characteristic of modern Russia are explained by an incomplete transition from socio- to himanocentrism.

This article analyses the emergence of canon law as a science and academic discipline in the Baltic area in the second half of 19th/early 20th centuries. The author emphasizes the role of the Tartu University in the organizational development of ecclesiastical law in legal education system of the Russian Empire. The article describes the general religious situation in the Baltic area and explores the role of the personality of a scientist in the development of a research area.

This article examines changes in the federal laws governing the institution of citizenship in the Russian Federation. Proposals on improving the existing legislation are made based on the analysis conducted.

This article analyses the socio-psychological determinants of corruption and the features of this phenomenon in the 19th century and today. It is concluded that, in the current condition, a more sever criminal penalty can have a greater effect than continuing and costly efforts to reduce poverty and wealth inequality in population. Of significance is the application of the principles of legality and inevitability of punishment for corruption-related crimes.

This article discusses the interpretation of legal norms by courts, which consist primarily in understanding the law. The interpretation of the law is often conducted alongside the interpretation of the statute, which requires serious professional and academic training, especially, if it involves the use of constitutional norms, analogy of law, and the principles of law. The authors stress that the courts of the Russian Federation do not create sources of law, but merely interpret them in the framework of their powers with the exception of the Constitutional Court, which has consistently emphasized over the years that the legal positions contained in its decisions are not only normative, but also have legal force equal to that of the Constitution.

This article considers the main problems of improving the legal regime of the Special Economic Zone through the prism of efficiency increase. The author stresses the imperfection of some provisions contained in the Law on the Special economic Zone. Certain proposals on the legal regulation and law enforcement are formulated.

This article addresses the interpretation of social entrepreneurship in the Russian legislation, as well as the introduction of various forms of social entrepreneurship in the Kaliningrad region. The author analyses the cases of social entrepreneurship development in the Kaliningrad region and identifies the problems of interpreting the term “social entrepreneurship” in the Russian commercial law.

This article sets out to define the legal foundations of the notion of “family” and formulates proposals on the need for its statutory recognition to eliminate the uncertainty of legal regulation in the conditions of international integration.

This article addresses the topical issues of notarization of a will and the prospects of its development. The author makes proposals on improving the legislation relating to establishing the legal capacity of a citizen.

This article addresses certain issues of the legal regulation of collaterals in view of the civil law reforms. The author considers the problem of establishing the legal nature of the collateral, as well as the possibilities of using certain types of collaterals.

This article discusses certain features of the enforcement mechanism in the legal regulation of public authorities’ responsibility. The author conducts a critical analysis of the possibilities of using laws as enforcement acts of the legal responsibility of public authorities. The shortcomings of certain legal constructions associated with public enforcement measures against public authorities are identified. The article addresses the issues for improving the related legislation of the Russian Federation.

This article analyses the basic norms of international law on the protection of marine environment from vessel-source pollution. The universal and regional levels of legal regulation of preventing marine environment pollution are identified. Special attention is paid to the status of the Baltic Sea as a “special area” and as a “particularly sensitive sea area”.

This article examines the connection between establishing the investigation objective and investigative situations at the initial stage of investigation. The author describes the role of investigative situation in establishing the objective of investigation.

This article analyses certain provisions of the draft rule of the Plenary Session and attempts at answering certain questions arising at courts when considering cases of this category.

This article explores issues relating to qualifying actions of performed by an authorized representative in collusion with the taxpayer or by those conducting entrepreneurial activities through a figurehead. It is stressed that the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court should clarify these issues through introducing amendments to the existing Resolution No. 64 of December 28, 2006 "On the practice of court application of criminal legislation concerning liability for tax crimes".

This article considers specific features of the situational approach to simulating criminal activities relating to human trafficking. The author describes the structure and content of certain elements of a typical information model of human-trafficking crimes.

This article addresses the problem of discretionary powers of judges and considers the correlation between the notions of judicial discretions and discretionary powers. Based on an analysis of scientific literature, the author identifies the features of discretion powers of judges, as well as the possibilities for their efficient application in the administration of justice.

This article analyses the canonical sources on church property law regulation that are recognized by the state. The author stresses the need to take into account not only the legal but also canonical component in handling property of religious nature.

This article discusses the application of tactics in the examination of witness. The author addresses the admissibility of tactics depending on the type of witness and investigatory situation. Special attention is paid to the admissibility of using methods of emotional and psychological pressure.

This article considers the tactics of examining the victim, suspect, and witnesses and the on-site verification of testimony in cases related to crimes against public officers based on the criminal cases studied by the author.

This article examines the main trends in the development of customer loyalty programmes and describes companies’ approaches to creating and implementing them. The authors identify the challenges facing companies that modify customer loyalty programmes in accordance with the features of the Russian institutional environment.

This article discusses the problem of organizing the movement of secondary resource flows in the system of reverse logistics flows. Traditionally, Consumption is considered the point of origin for all types of reverse flows, however, the question remains unanswered as to whether the secondary resource flows should be distinguished within them. This problem requires solution for the proper organisation of recycling processes.

This article justifies the use of economic dynamics principles in the process of modelling the existing system of household waste accumulation. The authors identify a number of factors relating to the tendency of various organisational manifestations to stable equilibrium of the process of accumulating household waste in containers. The model is based on the linear proportion of changes in parameters describing the quantity of household waste accumulated within one cycle.

This article describes the conditions, resources, and prerequisites necessary for the efficient functioning of small businesses. Based on the theoretical propositions and practical results of productive forces distribution, the authors identify groups of factors of spatial organization of small businesses: national and supranational level, regional level, location, and the entrepreneur. A sequential analysis of the main factors of the small business deployment showed that taking into account all the factors contributes to the efficient functioning of small firms and better spatial organization of the national and regional economies. The authors define the concept of “location” necessary of the organization of a small enterprise and emphasize the psychological aspect of the object under consideration, namely, the moral and ethical constraints and moral values of entrepreneurs.