The humanities and social science

The article develops the concept of «morality» and establishes its content as an object of constitutional and legal protection. The author analyzes some legal provisions related to the protection of public morality. Another issue which is considered in this publication is the views of researchers who stud­ied the content of morality as a matter of legal protection in various legal spaces.

The article reveals the concept and features of writ and simplified pro­ceedings in the civil process. A comparative analysis is carried out in the his­torical aspect of the development of institutions; in legal regulation; in proce­dural matters of production; in the prospects and benefits of development. The research focuses on the provisions of the Civil procedure code of the Russian Federation related to the implementation of simplified production and some is­sues of improving legislation as well as different views of experts on this issue.

The author explores separate aspects of the genesis of testimony. Obtain­ing reliable testimony from witnesses is the main objecting of this research. The author reflects on the latest developments in science, which expand a range of methods used for studying human psyche and personality as a source of information about the crime event. Based on the analysis of the current methods for obtaining reliable testimony, the author draws a conclusion on the need to develop the theoretical basis for a forensic study of the witness's personality in order to improve the effectiveness of criminal proceedings.

The quality of a defense lawyer’s work depends on the skills, knowledge, profes­sional experience and some other factors, but still the most efficient tool is the range of lawyer’s mandate, and more specifically, the access to collecting the evidence. The article considers the challenges of a lawyer’s work in collect­ing evidence, specific proposals to improve the process of collecting evidence in a criminal process are made. The area of criminal procedural law governing the power to gather evidence by a lawyer is the most sensitive and vulnerable point for criticism from analysts. The process of evidence gathering in the framework of the criminal process should be ultimately regulated so that to exercise several principles of criminal justice, includ­ing the presumption of innocence, ensuring the suspect the right to defense, adver­sary parties who should not act only in trial, but also at the preliminary investiga­tion stage.

The modern stage of education development is characterized by new ap­proaches to the departmental activities in the leading universities of Russia, changes in the evaluation of the activities’ outcomes, the functions of depart­mental heads. The pur­pose of the research was to focus on some certain activi­ty features of the research departments at the University (the study was con­ducted using the materials of the Criminal Procedure, Criminalistics and Law Informational Science Department of Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal Universi­ty): providing direct educational and educa­tional impact on students (bache­lors, masters, postgraduates); managing research and extending methodologi­cal support; interacting with other departments of lead­ing universities of Rus­sia and the region, as well as cooperating with foreign col­leagues from the universities of Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Germany, England, USA; cooper­ating with practical departments of the region; managing the Criminal­istics Situology research group under the leadership of T. S. Volchetskaya; under­graduate research activity; keeping traditions of the academic department. The arti­cle concludes that the modern academic department should be the center of training for researchers, academic and pedagogical staff. It is the head of the department who is the center to everything, a key element in the management system, which forms a cohesive team of professionally trained people able to solve a variety of tasks.

The article develops an ‘ideal city’ theme and focuses on the relationships of its statics and dynamics in a mobile local-global context. The author offers the defini­tions of these two notions under historical and modern conditions, and determines the specificity of the ‘ideal city’ as a complex socio-biotechnical system both dependent on the scale of it (local, na­tional, global) and its posi­tion within the dynamic global whole. Then, the ideal city notion is analyzed in two aspects: as a channel of presentation of a model of future living envi­ronment, and as a form of its application to the goal of making (constructing) of quality model of Russian megalopolises safe and comfortable for its inhabit­ants and visitors. In any case, the harm produced by their social systems to the biosphere has to be minimal. It means that the meg­alopolises should simul­taneously be well supplied with their own renewable resources and to be well supplied with resources coming from the outside. The megalopolis inhabitants have to be well informed about the inside and outside metabolic processes. In conclusion the author claims the necessity of an inter­disci­plinary approach to designing and constructing an ‘ideal city’ model in Russia and everywhere. Such interdisciplinary research and development teams of the research­ers, tu­tors, students, journalists, grassroots activists and municipal workers have to be formed. It is stated that a practical realization of any ‘ideal city’ project is neither a ‘social project’ in a traditional sense, nor a set of indices that have to be followed. An ‘ideal city’ project is a model of un­interrupted process of transformation of so­cial, material, informational and other interrelated com­ponents of such city mobile whole.

This paper analyzes the key elements of fuzzy logic and showes that through ra­tional, behavioral economics and neo-classical economics it is possible to develop models using the Q. E. methodology. Therefore, it is plausible to apply contempora­neous Q. E. methodology in combination with the rationali­ty and the behavioral approach. The fuzzy logic and the generator is the source of this mechanism for the production of the appropriate models.

The article analyzes of the creation of a computer database on the pogrom movement history. In the research, systematization methods enabled to pre­pare sev­eral maps with a breakdown of the pogroms' speeches by time inter­vals in accord­ance with the main stages of the revolutionary process of 1917—1918 and the com­position of participants. One of the objectives of this work is to demonstrate the need to optimize the databases and offer the most illustra­tive thematic maps. The study resulted in the analysis of practical experience gained in the “adaptation” of ready-made databases to the formation of geo­graphic information systems.

The migration processes on the so-called Recovered territories, trans­ferred from Germany to Poland after the Second World War, are analyzed in documents and recent research. The author identifies the main migration waves that came in the first post-war years, gives a social description of the main groups of migrants and local Polish-speaking residents, shows the con­tradictions and conflicts between them and analyzes the difficulties encoun­tered in the process of their integration. The article concludes that the migra­tion policy for the authorities of the Polish People's Republic became the main instrument for confirming their historical rights on the Recovered territories, as well as their rapid repolonization and integration of these lands into Po­land.

The author analyses the process of the formation of Lithuania’s territory during the Soviet period of its history. Facts and factors influencing decisions on the territorial issues of Lithuanian statehood are considered through the prism of relations between the Soviet republics and the central authorities of the USSR. The economic development of Soviet Lithuania was a decisive fac­tor in the republic’s territorial organization and management. By accepting the existing borders in the post-Soviet period Russia showed its aspiration to establish and develop genuinely good neighbourly relations with the truly sovereign Republic of Lithuania.

The challenges of regional strategic development planning for contempo­rary Russia are of major socio-economic and political importance. With regard to the Kaliningrad region since when it was established, the problem of choos­ing a devel­opment strategy has always been and remained an urgent issue. Especially sharply, it arose with a change in the geopolitical position of the re­gion after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Baltic economic area. Ex­clavity is the most important geopolitical factor in the life of the region. The dialectic of exclave is in the discretion of not only the obstacles, but also of the development possibilities of the region. An­other major factor is the immediate proximity of the European Union. Through understanding the geopolitical po­tential of development, by comparing various theo­retical and practical solu­tions, the authors search for mechanisms that would allow a regional society to develop an adaptive strategy that can ensure the absolute priority of all-Russian civic identity and effective social, economic and humanitarian cooper­ation with its Baltic neighbors. Such a mechanism could be the expansion of cross-border cooperation in non-political scope.

In February 2007 Russia’s President Vladimir Putin made a speech at the Munich conference on security. In his speech, Vladimir Putin criticized the dominance policy pursued by the USA and its allies and spoke about the need to form a new system of world order based on partnership and good neighbourly relations between countries. Only these relations can ensure security and prosperity for the whole world. Unfortunately, Western leaders failed to respond to Vladimir Putin’s proposal and continued to support the dominance policy pursued by their main ally, the US, towards other countries. The article identifies the reasons for the deterioration of relations between Russia and Western countries, which influenced the development of political processes in the world recently.

The book review analyses the institutional project research methodology. The proposed methodology is based on the use of systemic analysis and deci­sion-making theory. A modern approach to the study of an institutional pro­ject and an invest­ment project as complex systems under uncertainty condi­tions has been used. Their comprehensive assessment is considered in many aspects: political, economic, social, military-strategic and generalizing institu­tional.