The humanities and social science

In this article, the author examines the actual issue of applying provisions of an extreme necessity to actions containing signs of a crime under Article 199.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on such a circumstance that excludes the criminality of the act. The author analyses a variety of views on the problem under consideration. Methodologically, the study relies on general scientific methods, as well as the method of formal legal analysis. The purpose is to identify existing gaps of a theoretical and practical nature and to propose possible ways to bridge them. The article notes the importance of making amendments to the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 48 dated 26.11.2019 "On the practice of applying Legislation on Liability for Tax crimes by courts".

The article discusses some problems related to the legal personality of artificial intelligence. The concept of artificial intelligence and its legally significant features, the ratio of artificial intelligence and robot are investigated. The purpose of the study is to analyze the main models of granting legal personality to artificial intelligence. The following research methods are used: comparative, analytical and historical. Results: The first model denies the possibility of granting artificial intelligence legal personality, within its framework artificial intelligence is not considered as a subject, but is considered as an object of law, which does not take into account the essential features of artificial intelligence. The second model boils down to creating a legal fiction by analogy with legal entities. The use of this model looks the most reasonable, since artificial intelligence and legal entities largely have economically significant characteristics, in addition, this model is most often used for atypical subjects. Within the framework of the third model, the identification of the legal personality of artificial intelligence with human is carried out. However, this position rests on significant ideological problems. The fourth model proposes to endow artificial intelligence with its own special legal personality, but there is no precise description of this model in the doctrine.

The process of testimony verification at the crime scene is often challenging due to its complex and dynamic nature. Moreover, there are certain peculiarities when performing this work during the investigation with the participation of a minor. The purpose of this study is to highlight the main features that arise during the testimony verification at the crime scene with the participation of a minor and to develop the most practical implementation recommendations. The study confirms the value and urgency of the investigation recording. The author also comes up with some recommendations on how to correct mistakes made in the descriptive part of the testimony verification protocols. The examined materials revealed malpractice of not registering the questions the answers posed to the minor in the protocol. The information provided to minors, must be recorded in the language clear to them. Additional means of fixation are shown to be effective, while the use of video recording is recommended. The basic rules for the use of additional fixation means are noted.

Preparation for the World War I at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries challenged various national financial systems. The German Empire faced this challenge, so its finances bad to be regularly strengthened in order to cover all the mass military needs. After O. v. Bismarck’s resignation, the positions of the chancellor were held by politicians who did not have any background in economics and finance: L. v. Caprivi, H. Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuerst. The problem was passed then to new Head of the German Government – Bernhard von Buelow, who was the Reichschancellor from 1900 till 1909. By this time a large-scale project, dedicated to creation of powerful navy (since 1897), was already – in progress. New Reichschancellor’s Government tries to stimulate the financial system of the country, however, without much progress. Reforms of the German financiers of that time have been the issue to study by Russian or foreign scientists. This article is concerned with the task of examination of these reforms taking place in 1904 and 1906.

This article is devoted to so-called “small portraits” (“petits portraits”) of the famous French painter Louis-Léopold Boilly. We based it on published and archive French sources to show the importance of "small portraits" as the sources to explore the period of the Premier Empire and Restoration. Identification of these portraits with the help of historical and comparison method provides the possibility to explore specific social group of this epoch. The author made analysis of the portrait from Marmottan Monet museum and in accordance with the documents of Gray Musketeers 1814-1815 from S.H.D. discovered the name on the portrait.

On the basis of previously unexplored archival documents and materials of the regional press, the author considers the history of the creation of the “novel about Kaliningrad” by S. А. Snegova “Wind from the Ocean”, as well as the historical plots of the work. By analyzing the minutes of the meetings of the Kaliningrad branch of the Writers' Union, the editorial councils of the Kaliningrad book publishing house and reviews of writers on several versions of the manuscript, the mechanism of using fiction as a tool for the politics of memory is revealed. Comparison of several versions of the manuscript with each other, as well as with the published text of the work, made it possible to reconstruct the original concept of the novel and its changes in the course of editorial changes, comments and self-censorship over the course of eleven years. Having ordered the famous writer S. A. Snegova, a novel on contemporary topics, the regional publishing house and the leadership of the local writers' organization carefully monitored and adjusted the character of the author's presentation of the pre-war history of the city and the images of Soviet Kaliningrad. In the absence of an approved regional historical narrative and fears of making political mistakes, the oversight authorities forced the author to abandon several storylines devoted to the history of the edge. As a result, the work, originally conceived as a story about the fate of the city and its inhabitants in the past and present, turned into a production novel, traditional for Soviet literature, telling about the achievements and problems of ocean fishing and the daily life of Kaliningrad fishermen.

The relevance of the article is connected with the evolution of the racial issue, which includes a large amount of different social problems. These problematic developed after the Second World War and still stay a very important. This article provides an analysis of the evolution of special lobbies in British political system, and their influence on the creation of political decisions in this sphere of migration in 1965. The research was created in the functional paradigm, which provides to explore relationships between government structures and political currents of Tories. Based on unexplored proclamations of lobbying groups there was created an assumption, that the structural design of these pressure groups and the formation of their internal committees were the keys factors that allowed lobbyists to achieve their goals. In their work, this club and another right wing lobbies used «migration and racial map» as a tool of political struggle.

The article analyzes the role of a group of factors related to the determination of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian position in relation to each other, as well as to the international processes of European politics of the historical period of 1991–2014 in the formation of their foreign policy. The author establishes that the factor of European integration started to determine the policy of Baltic states towards their neighbours yet in times of their preparartion for the EU accession. The factor of Baltic positioning as “small states” contributed to the securitization of the western vectors of their foreign policy. And the factor of "Baltic unity" was largely based on stereotypes formed during the struggle for Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian independence and gradually lost its significance as they were integrating into the EU and the NATO.

The aim of the study is to define the role of organized crime in Russia over a major period in the 20th century, and analyze transformation that this criminal activity underwent. The article opens with the analysis of the development processes of the organized crime typical for the Soviet society. It is shown that in the Soviet period of history, organized crime, inheriting the previous organizational forms, acquired new features that reflected particular features of the new social and economic structure. The author identifies certain features of organized crime at different stages of the Soviet society. In particular, it is shown that the new economic policy witnessed new forms of organized criminal activity, identical to the Soviet type. It is also noted that this very period registered a certain interaction between individual representatives of the authorities, in particular, control bodies, and so-called new bourgeoisie. Such relations were supported with certain remuneration which became the factor for specific Soviet corruption to emerge. It is noted that even a fairly tough political and legal regime, which is associated with the Stalinism, did not overcome organized forms of criminal activity, though that period didn’t encourage any interaction between criminals and representatives of the authorities. A new stage in the organized crime is associated with the thaw that came in the 1950s, when many forms of organized crime revealed themselves.