The present article is dedicated to the most significant conditions that led to the creation of international private law (IPL), and in that light covers the analysis of distinct issues of its evolution throughout different stages of society’s development up to IPL’s emergence as a structural element of law.

The article deals with the problem of development of an adequate legal regime for the active space debris removal from outer space. Authors examine the existing norms of international space law through the prism of their applicability to the active space debris removal issue. The authors attempt to offer the international legal regime for space debris, encouraging space activities participants to actively remove it. The article also concerns the regulatory aspects of monitoring of outer space, liability for damage caused by space debris removal operations, giving suggestions regarding the organizational aspects of such activities.

The paper is considering teachings of foreign specialists of International Law and Policy, relating to the procedure of environmental impact assessment as it applies to the economic activity in the Arctic. Special attention is paid to views of different authors relevant to formats of participation of local population, including indigenous peoples, in the environmental impact assessment as a legal instrument.

The principle of sustainable use of marine living resources is one of the fundamental principles of international law of fisheries management at the present stage. The inclusion of this principle in international treaties involves clear and specific international obligations in fisheries management. The article substantiates the existence, the stages of development, international legal fixation and the legal content of the principle of sustainable use of marine living resources. It is analyzed the activities and decisions of the UN General Assembly and FAO on the conservation of stocks of marine living resources and sustainable fishing in the oceans. Special attention is devoted to the fixation of the principle of sustainable use of marine living resources in the universal, regional and bilateral treaties. The examples of establishing this principle in the legislation of a number of States and the European Union are also considered.

Over the last decades the role of customs regulation, namely its unification for the sake of simplifying mutual trade between the states, has considerably increased. An essential role in it plays an international legislative consolidation of the principle of non-discrimination at trade in goods. Conventions and contracts on special, customs issues aim to codify and unify already existing arrangements on a wide spectrum of international relations in terms of moving goods, broadening this way the circle of sources of the international customs law. The authors analyze various scientific statements about the place of the international customs law in the modem legal system, noting a topical and highly debatable nature of the matter.

Security and fair treatment of foreign investments are among the main goals of international investment law. At the same time they appear to have been among the most topical problems of international investment law for long time. Starting from the XIX century (when international investment regime was established primarily by the rules of international customary law) the theory and practice of foreign investments have developed significantly; and one of the main results of such development is the increased role of international investment agreements. While international customary law has developed the concept of the “international minimum standard”, the treaty practice has developed the widespread concepts of the standards of “full protection and security” and “fair and equitable treatment”. This article is focused on the main concepts and approaches of solving the problem of security and fair treatment of foreign investments with a view on their historical evolution and the current legal practice.

The article examines the legal problems of elaboration of the new international economic world order within the transport sphere, with the accent to the growing role of pipe lines systems of transportation. It is stressed that in the regulation of systems the important meaning belongs to the question of harmonization of national and international legal norms and principles. This presupposes the adoption of the new as well as developing the acting legislation including the sphere of regulation of obligatory technical-economic demands of safety of various kinds of pipe lines with the view of national peculiarities.

This article discusses the major changes of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in the sphere of functioning of corporations. It also takes into account legislation of a number of foreign countries, particularly the US, Great Britain, France, Germany and others. The author explores, in particular, the order of formation of the bodies of a corporation, characterizes by the bodies of a corporation and an independent director, defines corporate governance model in corporations and also raises the issue of legal liability of persons belonging to the bodies of a corporation.

Terrorism is a real scourge of nowadays and is a great threat to states and the world community. Almost every week terrorist acts are committed in a comer of the globe, striking innocent people who accidentally turned up in the place of the tragedy. In this article the problem of terrorism in international and non-intemational armed conflicts is considered. Such acts of terrorism are regulated by international humanitarian law (IHL).

The article analyzes the legal possibility of involving the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to investigate the US Air Force’s attack on the Trauma Centre of the international humanitarian organization «Doctors without Borders» in Kunduz (Afghanistan). The author concludes that there is no such possibility for the Commission in its current configuration, because the fulfillment of a number of conditions is required. At least one of the parties (the United States or Afghanistan) should file a request for an investigation, and the other-to express its consent. Parties should cover all expenses for investigation. The Commission’s final report will remain confidential, unless the parties request its publication. Given the fact that as such a dispute between the US and Afghanistan is absent, the task of the Commission in connection with the incident in Kunduz is completely missing.

The electoral system of Morocco was forming and developing under the conditions of the monarchical form of government. For years, the influence of the monarch on the electoral process became the cause of disagreements between the political forces in the country, at the same time he initiated a reform of the electoral system. Several constitutional referendums did not bring significant changes in the political life in the Kingdom. A wave of demonstrations that took place in the Arab world, reversed the situation and in 2011 the electoral law was significantly amended, which made a serious impact on the development of the electoral rights of Morocco, largely improving the elective procedures, as well as setting the legislative regulation in a number of areas that previously did not fall under the control of the law. According to the results of recent parliamentary elections, we can conclude that at this stage the electoral system of Morocco meets the needs of the country and produced on the basis of the “Arab Spring” reforms were sufficient to avoid a political crisis in the country and to guarantee pluralism of opinions. However, it should be take into consideration that further reforms are important, as the existing electoral system does not meet international democratic standards, however, it shows a fairly good example for the Arab region as a whole.