Russian Journal of Comparative Law

73-94

Authors: Roberto Rosas

This article takes a snapshot of some of the most controversial topics in American society today and the juridical response to these topics by individual states, the United States Congress, and the United States Supreme Court. Although there are numerous legal topics that deserve mention and analysis, this article is limited to the discussion of nine fairly new rights created by state and federal laws. The rights discussed in this article include the following: 1) The right to open carry a firearm; 2) The right to consume marijuana; 3) The right to marry or to civil unions between same-sex couples; 4) The right to sexual offender residential information; 5) The right to the protection of victims of human trafficking; 6) The right to the protection of the environment; 7) The right to privacy in relation to unsolicited telemarketing telephones calls; 8) The right to determining what medical treatment to receive and the right to organ donation; and 9) The right to euthanasia or death with dignity. This article briefly addresses the topics of sexual and racial discrimination. Finally, the most far-reaching decisions handed down by the United States Supreme Court between 2013 and the present are discussed.

102-106

Authors: Elisabetta Silvestri

This essay describes some among the most recent reforms that have affected Italian civil procedure. These reforms rely heavily on the use of ADR, and particularly on mediation, arbitration and assisted negotiation, in an attempt to reduce the heavy backlog of civil cases and to speed up the resolution of disputes. In Italy, an attempt at out-of-court mediation is mandatory in a wide variety of civil and commercial cases: mediation had some ups and down, since it was made mandatory in 2010, repealed by the Constitutional Court at the end of 2012, and eventually reinstated in 2013. In 2014 two new ADR procedures were established, that is, assisted negotiation and the ‘transfer’ of cases already pending before courts of first instance or appellate courts to a panel of arbitrators. While assisted negotiation is mandatory for cases whose value is above a certain threshold (provided that the claim is for payment of sums of money), the ‘transfer’ of cases to arbitration is strictly voluntary and, as a matter of fact, it is possible only when both parties agree on diverting their case from the court system to arbitration. This essay expands on the many controversial issues raised by the ‘transfer’ of cases to arbitrators and, more generally, on the dangers of the ‘outsourcing’ of dispute resolution.

11-19

Authors: David Álvarez

The article examines the Spanish legal system that has been originated in the previous autocratic regime, related to the Common Administrative Procedure. The Government has been reducing until the body top in which ends the State Administration, consequently, conceiving it as a mere appendage or extension of it, which would share their administrative nature. The article 97 of the Constitution definitely discards this conception and retrieves the political scope of the function of governing, inspired by the principle of democratic legitimacy. These traits define the Government and the Administration as constitutionally different public institutions and establishing the subordination of the Administration to the political direction of the precise Government. It must be noted now that the framework governing the legal regime of public administrations is the subject of an express policy adaptation, which configures with consistency and harmony constitutional principles. The Constitution guarantees the subjection of Public Administrations to the principle of legality, both with regard to the rules governing its organization and the legal regime, the administrative procedure and the accountability system. On the other hand, the Local Administration has a legal regime is established in the same article 149.1.18. The Constitution has a specific regulation in the current “Ley de Bases” that does not offer any difficulty of adaptation to the objectives of this Act and which does not require specific modifications.

29-37

Authors: Viacheslav Liubashenko

The article seeks to examine the approaches of states, namely the UK, Germany, France, the USA, South Africa, to the domestic implementation of the responsibility to protect, particularly the responsibility of the state as a member of the international community to protect. It contains an analysis of the position of states on the legal nature of the responsibility to protect concept, foreign policy of states and their activities in international organizations towards the implementation of the responsibility to protect, as well as the position on the military intervention. Author argues that there are two approaches to the implementation of the responsibility to protect: formalistic and institutional. The formalistic approach can be described as the implementation of the responsibility to protect in the foreign policy of the state without a corresponding reinforcement of the mechanisms on its implementation. The institutional approach stipulates the implementation of the responsibility to protect both in the foreign policy doctrine of the state and in the internal state structure, which allows to coordinate policies and to identify an integrated approach of the state to the implementation of the responsibility to protect.

48-55

Authors: Pekka Riekkinen

Departing from the principle of municipal autonomy the article overviews the history and the competence of modern municipalities in Finland. It moves to the issues of welfare functions of municipalities regarding implementing economic, social, and cultural rights. The main constitutional problem which arises when one focuses on the welfare functions of Finnish municipalities is the on-going social services reform in Finland, known as “SOTE”. This reform aims at creating new social and health service production districts replacing the existing municipalities currently carrying out such welfare functions. In the present constitutional settings of Finland several important public law dilemmas stem from the “SOTE” project. We analyze these problems and come to a conclusion that direct local elections to the social district management board would allow one to avoid decisive constitutional problems deriving from the constitutional right to local democracy.

134-139

Authors: Tetiana V. Melnychuk

The article is devoted to contemporary theory and practice of preventive effect on illegal use of insider information through the lens of the concept of criminological security. In recognition of the achievements of doctrine and legislation the concepts of the topic is analyzed. Criminological evaluation of some security risks of investment activity is presented. The assessment of risks and threats to the criminological security of stock market is recognized as quite complicated due to the fact that the stock market in Ukraine is not completely formed; the development of its legal component is accompanied with an active shadow activities. The estimation of costs and harms caused to corporations by insider information trading is also a challenge for criminological science as the main harm is not of economic nature. It creates predominantly reputational risks with unknown continuance.

147-160

Authors: Vladimir M. Shumilov

In the article it’s given the analysis of the Italian doctrine of International Law and of the famous universities’ manuals on International Law which reflect this doctrine. Special attention is dedicated to the notion “International Law”, to its role in international relations, to the international customs, accords, principles, system of International Law, to the some branches of International Law and to the practice of its application, as always as to the structure and content of the manuals on International Law. The study of the Italian doctrine of International Law is made on the background of the Russian doctrine of International Law and the views and opinion of Russian lawyers, professors.

169-175

Authors: Maxim V. Vorobiev

The paper deals with analysis of ways of definition in the national legislation of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan on administrative responsibility of territorial limits of its action. Besides in work the question of a choice of the applicable national legislation in case of identification of an offense outside territories of the states, but within the customs territory of the Customs union is considered. As a result of comparative analysis of national legislation of Russian Federation, Belarus and Kazakhstan the author proves need of modification of the national legislation of Russian Federation for setting the administrative responsibility for the offenses which are committed on the Russian continental shelf and in the exclusive economic zone.

44-53

Authors: Pavel N. Biriukov

The article deals with the legal status of political parties of Switzerland. A number of national norms of Switzerland, which measured legal status and liability of political subjects is given. In particular, it analyzes the provisions of the Civil Code, the Act on Political Parties and others Switzerland's normative acts. The main attention is paid to the description of the existing types of political financing, and the liability of political parties. Switzerland is one of the rare European countries to have no specific regulations on political parties and their financing, or on the federal funding of election campaigns. Political parties and election, referendum and initiative campaigns do not receive any public funding at federal level or in almost any of the cantons. In certain cases parties have internal financial rules. In the absence of specific rules on the transparency of political financing in Switzerland, including ones on accounting, there is no mechanism or body at federal level to monitor this financing. The author proposes measures to improve the legislation of Switzerland.

61-66

Authors: Ekaterina A. Khalapyan

This paper deals with the executive jurisdiction of the Customs Service of the Czech Republic. The author analyzes administrative actions and non-fiscal competence of the Czech Customs Service. The main attention is given to the implementation of EU documents in Czech legal system. The author gives an overview of the structure of executive function of the Czech Customs Service. It is shown that status of Customs Service is formed not only by acts and regulations, but also by documents adopted by international organisations. The practice of the Customs Service, counteracting the illegal activities of different subjects, is investigated. Much attention is paid to the analysis of practical measures of preclusive character, which play an important role in reducing offences committed by individuals and legal persons in customs sphere. It is emphasized that only joint activities of state bodies can reduce the damage caused by illegal activities of subjects.

72-78

Authors: Alexander F. Rekhovskiy

This article is devoted to the history of trial by jury in Japan. The author analyses the procedural peculiarities of functioning of the initial jury trial in the mid-20th century. The stages are allocated consistent introduction of civic participation in the administration of Justice in criminal cases in Japan. The influence of the American model of Justice to reform the judicial system of Japan after the second world war. Examines two forms of public participation in addressing legal issues. The first form is used to limit the power of the Prosecutor to issue waiver of prosecution. This form is based on the American model of a grand jury. The second form, called "Saiban-in", was developed by scientists-Jurists Japan and approved, through the adoption of a special law in 2004 year. This form is unique because it uses elements of traditional court jurors the Anglo-Saxon system and Court šeffenov, created in Germany in the 19th century. The creation of a mixed system allowed not only to increase participation in the administration of Justice in criminal cases in Japan, but also become the main instrument for the reform of the judicial system with a view to democratization and public confidence in the judicial and political authorities. The author concludes that in Japan hybrid system of popular participation in criminal matters will be improved and could be extended to the realm of civil proceedings. In addition, this system can get distribution in the countries of the Asian-Pacific region, in particular in the Republic of Korea.

8-13

Authors: Pham Thi Thanh Huyen

The article deals with questions of the relationship between international and national law in the legal doctrine of Vietnam. In particular, it analyzes a large number of the law norms of Vietnam, which regulate issues of interaction norms of various legal systems. The main attention is paid to the description of application of international norms in Vietnam.

19-23

Authors: Aleksandr A. Sizov

This article brings to light the activity of the courts of the Czech Republic. The author provides a number of norms which regulate criminal proceedings of the Czech courts. The author analyzes the operation of the judges and others subjects to act in sphere of criminal verdicts.

29-32

Authors: Ilia N. Zhdanov

The paper considers the reform of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland in recent years, the change of its competence in the field of participation in the affairs of the European Union. The author describes in detail the new structure of the Ministry, its departments and divisions involved in EU affairs.