INTRODUCTION. The EAEU, as a subject of international law, undergoes a process of integration cooperation with states. Interaction of the EAEU with countries is characterized by a variety of forms and despite the fact that it relies on the legal experience of most international organizations, nevertheless it chooses its own exclusive way. One example of a fruitful partnership, although not unambiguous on some issues, is the cooperation between the EAEU and the PRC. The purpose of this article is to trace the realization of the economic potential of the EAEU and the PRC to create the Silk Road Economic Belt as part of the PRC's global initiative "One Belt, One Road. In addition, to analyze the interlinking of expectations and economic reasons for this of each of the EAEU member states.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The research uses various documents of international legal nature, including international treaties, doctrinal sources and national legislation of foreign countries. The research is carried out with the use of general scientific and special scientific methods. In the process of legal analysis and forecasting methods of legal modeling were used.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the international legal framework of economic cooperation between the EAEU and the PRC and also formulates recommendations for improving this mechanism. The overland economic corridors and their correlation with the opportunities of EAEU member states within the framework of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative are analyzed in detail, as well as the results of each EAEU country's participation in this project. In addition, the initiatives of China, the so-called "Digital Silk Road" and the interest of EAEU member states in this direction are considered. In addition, the author conducts a legal examination of the basic agreements signed between the EAEU and the PRC.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The study of the problems and prospects of cooperation between the EAEU and its member countries allows us to note the systematic nature of the EAEU's activities in the field of integration interaction with third countries. At the same time, the variety of forms of cooperation allows the EAEU to respond flexibly to the level of readiness of one or another country to simplify trade procedures. The author concludes that, structurally, the process of pairing the EAEU and the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) occurs both as an interlinking of integration initiatives' development agendas and as cooperation with individual EAEU countries. The article emphasizes the inefficiency of a bilateral format of the EAEU member states' accession to the SREB initiative. Considering the legal basis for cooperation between the EAEU and the PRC, the author notes a consistent algorithm of joint actions at the current stage of integration. Nevertheless, for the future it is necessary to develop other formats of international cooperation, which would not be geographically contingent, but would ensure effective coordination between different economic blocs of states, including those at different stages (forms) of integration. We should note the topicality of the digital agenda of mutually beneficial cooperation for both the PRC and the EAEU countries on a long-term basis.

INTRODUCTION. The UN Commission on International Trade Law established Working Group III in 2017. Within the framework of this Working Group, States’ delegations and representatives of international governmental and non-governmental organizations seek to work out solutions to the identified problems of the investor-State dispute settlement system. Such problems include: lack of consistency and predictability of arbitral awards, lack of independence and impartiality of arbitrators, cost and duration of proceedings. Part of the ways suggested by the UNCITRAL Secretariat and States to remedy problems could be estimated as reform of the system, but several proposals seem to be a revolution.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The authors researched the provisions of bilateral investment treaties, case law of tribunals demonstrating the problems of the ISDS system, as well as the works of Russian and foreign scholars. The methodological basis of the research contains general scientific and special methods.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The authors have analyzed several ways of the ISDS system reform overviewed by the Working Group III. Firstly, the authors have considered the draft code of conduct for arbitrators, provisions on third-party funding and an advisory center in the ISDS system. It has been stated that each of these initiatives is able to solve certain problems of the system. Secondly, the authors have analyzed the documents on the creation of an appellate mechanism and a standing multilateral mechanism for the settlement of investment disputes. The authors have concluded that initiatives may bring the fundamental changes to the system.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The authors have concluded that the identified shortcomings of the ISDS system can be remedied only by its reform. Every problem of the system can and should be rectified through consistent work, and not by radical changes. The revolutionary ways considered, such as the appellate instance and the court, not only will not solve existing problems, but rather will add new ones. For example, such a “revolution” of the system may result in establishment of the two parallel regimes of investorstate dispute resolution.

INTRODUCTION. A large number of international treaties regulating various spheres of international relations have already entered into force. As current practice shows, the emphasis has shifted from the need to regulate an increasing number of relationships to the importance of improving the efficiency of existing international treaties. The article analyzes the implementation of this process in international environmental law. The authors show that a number of global and regional environmental agreements have established quasi-judicial procedures (so-called "non-compliance procedures") in the form of implementation and compliance committees serving as international control mechanisms. The purpose of such mechanisms is to identify and resolve both local and systemic theoretical and practical issues of non-compliance arising from the provisions of international treaties.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article is based on a large amount of material, including international binding legal acts, acts of advisory nature, and modern doctrinal research of Russian and foreign authors. The methodological basis of the research consists of general scientific (methods of logical and system analysis, dialectical method, methods of deduction and induction) and private scientific (historical and legal, comparative legal, formal-legal methods, the method of legal modeling and forecasting) methods of cognition.

RESEARCH RESULTS. In their research, the authors analyzed various international binding and non-binding instruments, summarized doctrinal positions made by Russian and Western legal scholars, presented in domestic and foreign scientific literature, and identified the main issues of compliance committees of international environmental agreements.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The authors have tried to give answers to the following questions: is it necessary to fix in the text of international environmental agreements the provisions establishing the compliance committee, or can this be done later: at the annual meetings of the conferences of the parties; what should be the composition and mandate of the compliance committee; and how efficiently do these committees function? As a result of the conducted research, the authors have drawn conclusions about the need fo detailed monitoring of changes in the various international environmental agreements in order to improve the effectiveness of compliance committees in exercising their mandates and to identify violations of the mandates of these committees.

INTRODUCTION. The article discusses the theoretical and practical problems of conducting trials in the absence of the accused (in absentia) in international criminal courts and tribunals.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article is based on international human rights treaties that regulate the rights of the accused in criminal proceedings, the statutory and procedural documents of these courts, and the practice of interpreting and applying the right of the accused to be present at the trial.

RESEARCH RESULTS. International human rights treaties establish the minimum rights of the accused in criminal proceedings. Among these rights is the right of the accused to be present at the trial. However, the practice of interpreting this right by the relevant conventional international bodies and international criminal courts and tribunals imposes significant limitations. A number of such restrictions appear to be both reasonable and justified. However, in many cases the restrictions are arbitrary and their justification is legally flawed.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. Universal and a number of regional international human rights treaties, in particular, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 contain norms that are binding not only for states in their application of national law, but also establish general human rights standards in international law. Due to this circumstance, the provisions of such treaties bind any institutions operating directly in the system of international law, in particular, international criminal courts and tribunals. Thus, international criminal courts and tribunals are bound by the provisions of these treaties, not only in terms of their implementation, but also in terms of their interpretation. The practice of these courts demonstrates a very inconsistent application and not always convincing interpretation of the rights of the accused in general and the right to be tried in his presence. Currently, this practice is trying to change the previously formed trend towards increasingly severe restrictions on exceptions to the right of the accused to be tried in his presence.

INTRODUCTION. The object of the research consists in the specific procedure of the recognition of foreign decrees of divorce which exists in the German law. The actuality of the object of the research is confirmed by keeping of this procedure during many decades, as well as nowadays, in regard of the recent reform of the law of the European Union about the mutual recognition of decisions in matrimonial matters.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article is based on the Act of the Federal Republic of Germany of 2009 on Proceedings in Family Matters and on the Family Law Reform Act of the Federal Republic of Germany of 1961, as well as both on the case law to the application of these Acts and on the German legal doctrine which analyzes it. The first Act is and the last Act was before the legal basis of that procedure of recognition. To achieve the results were applied the general and specific scientific methods, in particular the method of comparative legal study.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The research result consists in the presentation of the analyzed procedure of recognition of foreign decrees of divorce in German law. It is considered that this procedure is constructed after the model of the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements. Until the foreign decree of divorce is not recognized in the framework of this procedure, this decree is completely ignored by the German authorities, that means the spouses divorced by the foreign court remain spouses from the point of view of German law with all the ensuing consequences in the field of property and non-property rights both between each other and in the relations with the thirds parties. This procedure is realized by the regional administration of justice whose decision may be a subject matter of scrutiny by the appellate court. Although the delegation of this power to the executive raises by some authors the doubts about its constitutionality, the case law proceeds from the legitimacy of this competence.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The German concept of the obligatory preliminary recognition of foreign decrees of divorce is the equal alternative to the concept of automatic recognition of foreign judgements ruled on the status and legal capacity which exists in Russian law.

INTRODUCTION. The article provides a thorough analysis of the external dimension of the European Union’s (EU) migration and asylum policy and its main components. The primary object of the research is the external area of the EU’s activities in the field of forced migration. The aim of the article is to define political and legal contours of the external dimension of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), trace its development from 2015 to 2022, and determine future directions of its evolvement.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The aforementioned objectives are achieved through deployment of the following methodological designs: descriptive, exploratory, historical and case study. The article gives a detailed overview of the programming documents of the EU, acts of the EU law concerning forced migration, and their implementation in the context of global and regional instabilities.

RESEARCH RESULTS. Forced migration as an object of legal and political regulation on the part of the EU is subjected to “externalization” due to inconsistent internal practices and overall deviation of the EU members from the fundamental and internationally recognized burden-sharing principle in the field of refugee law. Such an approach should be perceived as an additional reason for potential deterioration of the migration situation in Europe, not to mention other possible implications on the human rights and economic dimensions.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The results of the analysis allow to draw significant conclusions: the external dimension of the CEAS became a top priority for the EU predominantly due to the inability of the European actors to reach consensus on the internal elements of the system; the external dimension of the CEAS may be characterized as a complex system consisting of political, legal and quasi-legal acts governing the EU’s external actions in the field of forced migration; the EU’s support became dependent on the willingness of its external partners to cooperate on migration-related issues; several external actors gained more bargaining power; external partnerships need to be readjusted in order to be efficient under current geopolitical circumstances.