Autors

The dilemma what is the essence of post-communist religious changes in Central and Eastern Europe, and in what way these changes give rise to social, political and cultural development of the region is discussed. The article reveals that post-communist societies are returning to the natural patterns of their own religious culture – patterns shaped through the centuries by their historical development, cultural heritage, distinctive socio-psychological features, and sense of belonging to a certain culture and civilization. The author argues that the sphere, in which religious changes in post-communist countries take place, is more at the institutional level than at the individual conversion’s realm. These changes are more evident in the field where religion turns into a serious factor of political and ethnical mobilization. This phenomenon has distinctly manifested itself in some episodes of the post-communist decade. 

Keywords: socio-religious changes, cultural heritage, post-communism, religiosity.

The article describes the stages of development of Russian philosophy of law and makes distinction between “Russian Philosophy of Law” and “Philosophy of Law in Russia”. The authors demonstrate the value of those concepts for the rise of legal consciousness in Russian society.

Keywords: history of philosophy, history of Russian social thought, Russian philosophy, philosophy of law, legal consciousness, law and morality.

The author examines the influence of Kant and Shelling philosophy on the development of Russian philosophy of the 1st part of the XIX century, on its deistic-materialistic and religious-academic schools.

Keywords: Shelling, borrowing, influence, critique, deistic-materialistic school, academic philosophy.

The subject of the article is the reconstruction of the death event of Socrates, as well as the hermeneutics of his last words spoken shortly before his death. Based on ancient Greek texts and a subsequent tradition, the author identifies three key interpretations of these words. According to the first interpretation, the death of Socrates is a kind of a cure for life (Plato, Xenophon, F. Nietzsche). Within the framework of the second one it is understood as an act of parrhesias or a form of philosophical verdict of the truth (J. Dumézil, M. Foucault). The third interpretation aims to deconstruct the “heroic” pathos of this event. Based on historical sources, a hypothesis is put forward according to which Socrates is considered as a political criminal, an enemy of Athenian democracy. Based on this thesis, his death is revealed as a religious practice of the scapegoat ritual. From this perspective this expression of Socrates (“We owe a rooster to Asclepius”) is perceived as irony and grotesque and does not, in fact, seriously affect the general context of his philosophical practice. In our opinion, each of three interpretations presented forms its original horizon in understanding philosophy as the therapy of a soul. So in the first case we are talking about a comforting conversation format as caring about ourselves. In the second case, we are talking about the consideration of the figure of a philosopher as a “philosopher on barricades” (caring for others) – about a tradition that finds its continuation in Plato's “trips” to Syracuse to visit Dionysius as well as in the revolutionary actions of May 1968. Finally, the third format of philosophical therapy reconstructs the mechanism of ancient social practice in front of us during which the image of the sage and his philosophical practice are considered by society as poison which threatens with its fundamental foundations. The latter problematizes the figure of a philosopher and his role in the context of a political, religious and social life of a community. If the first two forms of understanding philosophy as a social therapy represent its discourse as the means of “healing”, which arises in order to cure society from internal ailments, then the latter, on the contrary, symbolically depicts a philosopher's public condemnation and his death itself as the only medicine that can save society from a disease called philosophy.

Keywords: Socrates; last words of Socrates; parrhesia; scapegoat ritual; pharmacon; social therapy

The author considers the origin of civil legal capacity of state in Roman law and defines the characteristics of legal personality of the Roman state in private-law sphere.

Keywords: civil legal capacity, state, Roman civil law.

The article summarizes world experience on exercising the ombudsman’ conception towards social relations with the involvement of entrepreneurs. The author analyses legal status of business ombudsmen (using the example of USA and Australia), taxpayers' ombudsmen (using the example of Georgia, Canada, USA and Pakistan), and procurement ombudsmen (using the example of Canada). The main tendencies of legal regulation of these ombudsmen’ status are determined, and the perspectives of their development are defined. The article specifies peculiarities of commissioners for entrepreneurs’ rights protection in Russia in comparison with world legal regulation of similar ombudsman schemes. Based on the research, the author concludes that these commissioners gets the features of law-enforcement state body instead of being the alternative dispute resolution scheme. Despite positive evaluation of commissioners’ practical activity, it is important to strengthen so-called “social component” of their legal status and to optimize their sphere of competence and power.

Keywords: business ombudsman, commissioner for entrepreneurs’ rights protection, alternative dispute resolution, taxpayers' ombudsmen, procurement ombudsmen.

Abstract: Based on E. Gans and F. Savigny’s works of 1810s and 1820s, the article analyses main issues, which were discussed by Historical and Philosophical School of Jurisprudence, namely, understanding of law; the role of nation in forming the law; the role of history in forming the law; comparison in law; selection of legal material; the place of jurisprudence in the system of sciences; the role of Roman law in the understanding of law. Gans represents philosophically oriented jurisprudence, while Savigny’s doctrine aims at the precise presentation of legal sources, thus obtaining anti-philosophical stance. Theory on nation represents the arterial line of collaboration between Gans and Savigny. Nevertheless, following Hegel’s philosophy of law, Gans supposes that the World Spirit is an absolute judicial instance dominating over nations, while nation is a carrier of the World Spirit. For Savigny, solely Spirit of the Peoples creates law, and legal material is produced by the essence of nation and its history. Gans’ universal history of law opposes Savigny’s historicism. According to Gans, comparison is needed for the search of truth; according to Savigny – for identification of the national tradition. The author examines Gans’ classification of different branches of jurisprudence, as well as Savigny’s viewpoint on the jurisprudence as a special science for lawyers. The article concludes that Gans’ and Savigny’s conceptions have much in common; yet, their heritage has different heuristic potential for history of political-judicial thought.

Keywords: Historical School of Jurisprudence, historicism, Savigny, Gans, universal history of law, comparativism.

Abstract: The article analyses reflection of the principle of subsidiarity in Russian and Polish legal systems of local self-government. On the base of comparative analysis, the authors consider the following issues: formation of the integrated subsidiarity conception in Catholic social teaching; historical and legal bases of subsidiarity in the systems of local selfgovernment; principle of subsidiarity in territorial organization of local self-government; correlation of subsidiarity and decentralization of power; delamination of public tasks between different levels of the public power according to the principle of subsidiarity; autonomy and independency of municipality as a marker of subsidiarity; principle of subsidiarity in organization of the system of local bodies of power and in financial sphere; reflection of subsidiarity in the institutions of democracy in Russia and Poland. According to the authors, the principle of subsidiarity has two aspects – internal and external ones. Both aspects are reflected in the legislation of Poland, as well as in the legislation of the RF. Nevertheless, in Russia, there is no formalization of this principle in legislation, and the attention is centered on the internal aspect of subsidiarity – relations between the state and local self-government, as well as relations between different levels of local self-government. As for Poland, there is constitutional legal regulation of this principle in respect of relations between public power and civil society. In both countries, the substantial scope of the subsidiarity conception depends on the discretion of legislator. However, the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland has formulated criteria of subsidiarity that should be used in the law-making process. Because of the absence of such criteria in Russia, the discretion of legislator is too wide. In spite of proclamation of separation of self-government from the state, principles of autonomy and independency of the bodies of local self-government are violated, especially in financial sphere. The principles of subsidiarity and decentralization of power are important for social and political life in Russia. Nevertheless, the authors outlines the tendencies of their formalization and even violation.
Keywords: subsidiarity; principle; local self-government; decentralization; democracy; civil society; European Charter of the Local Self-government; catholic social teaching.

For the first time in the legal science, the article in a consistent manner estimates the legal regulation of exporting and importing bio-resource collections to and from Russia. The article analyses bio-resource collection and its objects as the object of exporting and importing to and from Russia; considers the main legal regimes of exporting and importing bio-resource collections to and from Russia; defines further developments in the legislation on the exporting and importing bio-resource collections to and from Russia, and provides concrete proposals for improvement of the legislation. The article concludes that the level of development of legislation on the exporting and importing bio-resource collections to and from Russia is unacceptably low. To improve legislation in this sphere, the author suggests the establishment of the special legal regime of exporting and importing bio-resource collections on the level of Eurasian Economic Union, and the simplification of administrative procedures of exporting and importing bio-resource collections through forming the integrated “one-stop-shop” service.
Keywords: biological (bio-resource) collection; legal regulation in sphere of bio-resource collections; exporting bio-resource collections from Russia; importing bio-resource collections from Russia; Eurasian Economic Union.

Abstract: The article contains review of the all-Russian scientific conference “Current issues of scientific support for the state anti-corruption policy in the Russian Federation” (Ekaterinburg,
June 25–27, 2014). The author analyzes conceptual statements of the reports presented at the plenary session and the significant propositions appeared during three panel discussions “The
potential of modern state and civil society for combating corruption”, “Political and legal mechanisms of combating corruption” and “The world and Russian experience of combating corruption
in comparative and historical perspective”. The article considers the key conference recommendations including minimization of legal formalization of social relations, reduction of excessive state
functions, improvement of the administrative self-control in the mechanism of state bodies, development of participation democracy. The author emphasizes on the necessity of further improving
the state anti-corruption policy on the base of adequate theoretic and empiric scientific grounds.
Keywords: scientific conference, science, anti-corruption policy, combating corruption, preventing corruption.

The article analyzes the methods of establishing the competence of state bodies in the legislation of the Russian Federation. The author concludes about the lack of uniform understanding of the term "Competence of state body" in the legislation. Basic viewpoints on the term "Competence of state body" and on its structure are examined. The author offers her own definition of the term "Competence of state body" and distinguishes its characteristics.

Keywords: state body, state power, competence, subjects of competence, authority, rights and duties of state body, methods of establishing competence of state bodies.

The article considers basic viewpoints on the relation of legal personality and competence of state bodies. The author argues that above-mentioned terms have different content. Nevertheless, the competence of state bodied is regarded as one of the factors, which influence the very nature of their legal personality.

Keywords: state body, legal entity, state power, competence, authority, legal personality of the state body, rights and duties of the state body.

The article summarizes world experience of applying the concept of ombudsman to social relations, which involve entrepreneurs. The author analyses legal status of business ombudsmen (using the example of USA, Australia, and Russia), taxpayers’ ombudsmen (using the example of Georgia, Canada, USA, and Pakistan) and procurement ombudsmen (using the example of Canada) among public sector ombudsmen and self-regulatory industry-based ombudsmen, and organizational ombudsmen among private sector ombudsmen. The main tendencies of legal regulation of these ombudsmen status are determined. The author defines the perspectives of their development. The first one is variability of their terms of competence depending on social and political needs of the state. The second one is expanding of exercising the ombudsman conception to private relations purposed on alternative dispute resolution, and supporting such ombudsmen by state through their approval as alternative dispute resolution schemes. The third one is setting up mediation functions to ombudsmen contributing to business rights protection, and using the informal procedures of dispute resolution in their activity. The forth one is the search for additional guarantees of ombudsmen independence, including involvement of publicity into their activity.

Keywords: business ombudsmen, taxpayers’ ombudsmen, procurement ombudsman, self-regulatory industry-based ombudsmen, alternative dispute resolution, business rights protection.

The article analyses the order of establishing Public Councils in the system of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, and forming their panels; their functional destination; their rights and duties; forms of cooperation between Public Councils and the Investi- gative Committee of the Russian Federation, and other state bodies; legal validity of their solutions; the order of organization of their activity, taking into account the legal regulation of the social organs activity in foreign countries. Besides generally positive appreciation of Public Council’s activity in the system of Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the author pays great attention to further development of the regulation of legal status of the appropriate Public Councils.

Keywords:  Public Council, Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, participation of citizens in realization of state power, legal status of Public Council.

The article is devoted to the issue of relevance of applying the category of trust to the analysis of Internet communications, and to the analysis of the integration in online communities in social networks, in particular. Nowadays, the issue of trust or distrust towards online communities and integration in Russia becomes the factor that sharply splits society and pushes the state to tighten control over the Internet; the issue of trust as an internal factor of the online communities becomes relevant not only theoretically but also politically. The authors attempt to understand the processes of horizontal integration in online communities that quite differ from the genesis of real communities arising in vertically integrated social structures, or adapt to a vertically oriented social environment. We use “grounded theory” approach to analyze the dynamics of mobilization-type online communities in the social networks Vkontakte and Facebook. Weak significance of the interpersonal trust factor in the functioning and development of the observed communities is revealed. The contradiction between this fact and the established ideas of trust as the basis of social interaction and a key component of the social capital can be explained by clarifying the specifics of interaction in online communities. This specific can be described through following features. Firstly, there is institutional trust “at the entrance” to the group, based on the user's loyalty to the values, rules, and norms of the group. Secondly, there is the lack of a hierarchical structure that reduces the role sets and role expectations to minimum. Finally, it is the prevalence of the “weakest” type of links comparing with “strong” and “weak” ones, implying the absence of personal links, and preventing the expansion of the “culture of distrust” into online reality. Horizontal integration is not typical for all kinds of online communities. Nevertheless, the growth of online communications in the world, and inRussia, in particular, allows us to predict the growing influence of the “trust culture”of “online sociality” as an alternative to the culture of distrust inherent in hierarchical societies.

Keywords: trust; institutional and interpersonal trust; online communities; horizontal and vertical integration