INTRODUCTION. This article proposes a possible direction of state ethnopolicy in Russia – constitutional multiculturalism, which is formed in the process of functioning and development of national law, especially in relation to indigenous peoples who are essential part of the Russian legal system. The domain of ethnic relations is subject to constitutional changes precisely because the rights of indigenous peoples are not a static legal phenomenon, but a constitutional and legal reality that tends to change along with the developing world. In 2020, Article 69 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation was supplemented with new constitutional purposes (protection of cultural identity, linguistic and cultural diversity in the context of preserving the Russian cultural identity), and therefore it becomes relevant and important to develop them further in legal terms, as well as to justify them with state ideology and theoretical aspects. In particular, multiculturalism is considered as the latest ideology for the development of a multicultural society, which at its core contains the idea of the harmonious coexistence of cultural and ethnic groups whose traditions, practices, and values are recognized by the state.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The author analyzes the works of Western and Russian scientists engaged in the problems of constitutionalism, the constitutions of Russia and other states using the comparative legal method. The functional comparison employed in the study allows to highlight similarities and differences not in the essence and structure of the legal norms of constitutions and regulatory legal acts, but in the functions which they perform, i.e. to understand the effect of the regulation of ethnic relations. The author also uses a problematic comparison, trying to identify and compare the theoretical foundations and legal instruments that exist in different jurisdictions. In this way, the most successful concepts have been formulated and proposed for the national legislation and law enforcement systems.

RESEARECH RESULTS. The author states that the most effective ethnic policy in multi-ethnic countries is constitutional multiculturalism, which, however, lacks theoretical justification in Russian legal reality. Close attention in this regard is paid to the "indigenous dimension" of constitutional multiculturalism, which the author considers as special legal aspects in relation to indigenous peoples, unfolding «the cultural identity, ethnic identification, values and knowledge of unique ethnic communities, necessarily enshrined in the basic law of the state.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. Indigenous aspects of constitutional multiculturalism ought to be conceptualized, i.e. to develop new theories and models, systematize legal, structural, economic and other instruments, with the aim of embodying the values and needs of ethnic groups characterized by indigenism in real legal structures, which will allow indigenous peoples to be granted special rights, including the opportunity to choose a special path of development. If in the policy of constitutional multiculturalism, a special role is given to indigenous peoples, capable, with due constitutional and legal support, of maintaining significant forms of cultural identity, ethnic diversity and traditions, then this will meet the requirements of the developing world and modern Russian constitutional legal reality.

INTRODUCTION. Viewed for a long time as an outstanding example of restoring durable peace on the continent and a major precondition for its prosperity, the European integration project is increasingly running existential risks. The precedents of States’ withdrawals from the main European regional organisations – the European Union and the Council of Europe – command a critical review of both their experience and the perspectives for their continuing existence. While the aforementioned events were unique in nature, they have shaken in their own ways the long-established architecture of Pan-European cooperation and prompted in-depth studies of political and legal models of States’ withdrawals from European regional organisations.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The study is based on a broad ensemble of international and national norms and case-law that have shaped the Great Britain’s exit from the European Union. The analysis has been nurtured by an array of sources connected with the long negotiation process and the parallel legal and political processes within the UK. Mass media publications have been used along with official speeches and statements by high-level lawyers and politicians. The research also benefits from an in-depth study of the doctrine and practice, including the commentaries by direct actors of the pivotal events. Beyond the traditional methods of legal analysis the author has used historic and dialectic approach with a view to combining the study of the formal legal sense of the desintegration processes with their systemic understanding as interconnected elements within the broader dynamics of international law and international relations.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The study has analysed through the prism of Brexit the legal aspects of desintegration as a complex process of the State’s desengaging from a highly organised supranational union. On the one hand, the article reviews the international-law dimension of the desintegration process through the denunciation of the statutory treaties and the conclusion of new ones with a view to a «soft exit», thus ensuring a progressive transformation of the intra-union relations into new formats, cutting off multiple connections, while preserving some others. On the other hand, the article explores the way the desintegration is framed and its consequences managed in national law. The progressive transformation of the nationaly rooted elements of the European legal order requires thousands of new legal acts, let alone the review of a more voluminous body of the EU-related case-law through national judicial decisions.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The geopolitical shifts in Europe and the world, allied with the unprecedented deterioration of the political and economic situation within the European Union itself, raise doubts at both its continued leadership and even its capacity to survive in its present format. The current international context therefore commands a review of the Brexit experience in a comparative perspective, taking it as a highly sophisticated legal model, albeit not the only one, of withdrawal from the regional integration project. While the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU presents notable differences with Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe, which deserves a separate study, certain parallels have been identified between the two phenomena both in terms of their framing in international and national law and in terms of their significance for further desintegration on the European arena. 

INTRODUCTION. The Antarctic region is unique in terms of organizing effective management by a large number of states at the same time. For this purpose, the Antarctic Treaty was concluded, which made it possible to prevent the conflicts. Nevertheless, not long ago the concept of territorial division of this region has been actively discussed. China, being one of the most economic rapidly developing states, which implies its interest in strengthening its influence in the Antarctic region, also actively participates in solving the problems related to the legal regulation of the Antarctic region. The purpose of the article is to determine the position of China in relation to the activities in the Antarctic region in general, as well as, establishing state sovereignty over the territories of Antarctica.

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. R

ESEARCH RESULTS. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the Chinese international legal doctrine concerning the establishment of state sovereignty over the Antarctic territories and makes assumptions on further development of China in the Antarctic region. The main directions of China’s activity, including related to national security and extraction of natural resources, were analyzed. The provisions of the “White Book of China on Antarctica” were also analyzed. In addition, China’s initiatives concerning the establishment of Marine Protected Areas, Specially Managed Areas were examined. The question of whether China has its own Antarctic policy was answered.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The examination of the problems of establishing state sovereignty over the Antarctic territories from the point of view of China allows us to conclude that at the moment China does not have a developed Antarctic policy and is at the stage of its formation. China’s attempts to influence the Antarctic management system began in 2005, when the establishment of the Specially Managed Areas was suggested. Since then, China’s influence has continued to grow. China acted and continues to act in accordance with the Antarctic Treaty System, which indicates that China is not willing to change the system of management of the region to the system of territorial division. At the moment, China’s interests in Antarctica are characterized by an increased focus on scientific research, environmental protection and international cooperation. China’s influence in the region is expected to increase. 

INTRODUCTION. This article is devoted to the analysis of the complex political and legal reasons behind the prohibition of eugenics in European law. The article examines the contemporary prohibition of eugenics in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union 2000, the ban in international criminal law, the historical regulation of eugenic practices in European countries, as well as new challenges in this area.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The scientific study examines international treaties, conventions, and judicial practice. General scientific and specific scientific methods of cognition (methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction, induction, comparative legal and formal legal methods) were used in preparing the study.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The author concludes that there are several blocks of reasons for the modern prohibition on the regulation of eugenic practices. The first block of reasons for the prohibition of eugenics is linked to the criminalization of certain eugenic practices, including the deliberate selection of people, at the international level after World War II. The second block of the eugenics ban is due to the failure of the political and legal course in several European countries (primarily Scandinavia), associated with the infringement of reproductive rights of certain vulnerable social groups. The third block of reasons for the prohibition of eugenics is triggered by attempts to apply modern advances in biomedicine and genetics, affecting human reproduction and genome, which could adversely impact the interests of future generations of humanity.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. New challenges of eugenics are difficult to regulate and are often not covered by any prohibition or legal regulation at all. An obvious threat is that eugenics for the purpose of human selection, facilitated by the development of new biotechnologies, may become an initiative of civil society without any state programs and policies and be based on the activities of non-state actors or the convictions of private individuals.

INTRODUCTION. According to the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, during the international cooperation in the field of protection and promotion of human rights, national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds of States should be taken into account. The international law acts adopted under the auspices of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC, Organisation) enshrine the connection between protection and promotion of the rights of the child and the preservation of social systems of the Members of the Organisation. The present article aims to discover the effect of historical, cultural and religious backgrounds of OIC Members underlying “the right of the child to lineage”, as enshrined in the decisions of the Organisation, on the international protection of the rights of the child and application of mechanisms of alternative care for children deprived of family environment by these States.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article applies the system and comparative method to universal international legal acts, decisions of the OIC and national legislation of its Members. It focuses on legal measures taken by OIC Members aiming at protection of the right of the child to lineage and providing alternative care to children deprived of family environment. The research traces the impact of these measures on interpretation and application of the universal human rights norms.

RESEARCH RESULTS. Islamic law provides for protection of lineage which is defined as a permanent legal relationship between the child and his or her biological parents. The general doctrinal concept of “lineage” is applied in national legislation of OIC Members using the normative terms “ ” and “ ” which are commonly translated as “lineage”, “descent”, “filiation” or “parentage”. OIC Members refer to protection of lineage in their international legal positions but lack coordination in assertion of their arguments in international organisations and organs of the UN system. The term “right to lineage”, as enshrined in the 1994 Declaration on the Rights and Care of the Child in Islam and the 2020 Draft Jeddah OIC Convention on the Rights of the Child, indicates the right of the child to a permanent legal relationship of lineage towards his or her biological father. The right to lineage is unknown to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and differs in its scope from any right enshrined in the Convention.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. Protection of lineage should be regarded as a national and regional particularity of certain, but not all, OIC Members. No uniform approach to its implementation exists among OIC Members. Their standpoints with regard to the protection of lineage affect the legal regulation of the mechanisms of alternative care for children deprived of family environment. One should distinguish States allowing full adoption, States allowing simple adoption, States allowing several forms of adoption and States prohibiting adoption. OIC Members assert different international legal positions concerning interpretation and application of universal treaty norms governing the right of the child, as far as possible, to know and be cared for by parents, as well as the right of a child temporarily or permanently deprived of the family environment to special protection and assistance. Given that the approach to interpretation and application of the provisions of universal treaties on the rights of the child concerning adoption differs from State to State, their implementation should be considered a matter within domestic jurisdiction of States.

INTRODUCTION. The granting of asylum to people persecuted by the host State on political grounds in the premises of diplomatic missions can be traced in the practice of different countries for many centuries. Nevertheless, the institution of diplomatic asylum remains one of the most controversial issues of international law and diplomatic practice primarily due to the lack of international legal regulation, which leads to divergent positions of states on the admissibility of granting diplomatic asylum. In practice, inconsistent practice in this regard serves as a basis for potential international disputes, as well as violation of the inviolability of diplomatic missions by the host State, abuse of immunities and privileges and interference in internal affairs by the accrediting State. Despite the existence of a treaty framework governing the procedure for granting this type of asylum, the practice of Latin American countries is also inconsistent and contradictory. In this regard, the article analyzes the current international legal issues of the institution of diplomatic asylum, including its role and place in international law, along with the peculiarities of the procedure for granting it both in Latin American countries and in states of other regions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The present study was carried out on the basis of universal international agreements, as well as regional acts applicable to the institution of diplomatic asylum. In preparing the article, the author also took into account works of leading Russian and foreign experts in the field of international law and diplomacy. In addition, for the purposes of the research court decisions rendered on the disputes arising in the course of the implementation of the institution in question were analysed. The following general scientific and special methods of cognition were used in the work: dialectical method, methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, comparative-legal and historical-legal methods.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of diplomatic asylum institution legal basis, including the inherent characteristics of Latin American regional approach to the right of asylum in premises of legations. Special attention was paid to the practical aspects of the question under consideration, based on existing case law, that facilitated the identification of conflicts of universal and regional legal norms applicable to the institution of diplomatic asylum. In particular, legal uncertainty was revealed regarding the correlation between the sovereignty of the host State and the inviolability of the premises of the diplomatic mission of the accrediting State.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. Based on the conducted research, the author concludes that the absence of universal international legal recognition of the diplomatic asylum institution, uniform practice of states and universal international treaty regulating the issues of its granting contribute to the formation of a dangerous trend: host states apply illegal measures against foreign diplomatic missions thus infringing not only the inviolability of its premises, but also the provisions of international law, justifying their wrongful acts by the need to prosecute undesirable persons who have taken refuge on the foreign state’s territory, thereby undermining the foundations of international security. The interstate disputes arising in this regard necessitate further reglamentation of the institute of diplomatic asylum to develop a unified legal approach to the matter at issue. 

INTRODUCTION. Artificial intelligence (AI) can significantly strengthen cybersecurity systems of States, as well as serve an additional technical means for malicious actions in the so-called cyberspace. Recognizing this, States have started investing in defensive and offensive autonomous cyber capabilities to protect their interests and deter potential adversaries; this has further fuelled the increase in inter-State cyber operations as nations seek to gain a competitive edge in the digital realm. This paper focuses not only on the problems of applying existing norms of international law to situations of malicious use of AI by States, but also on the process of these norms’ interpretation by different actors and, through this interpretation, crystallization of a common (or at least converging) understanding of their applicability. More specifically, this paper examines the path to understanding of how the norms on the use of force apply to AI-enabled cyber operations.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The present study is based on the works of both Russian and foreign specialists on the law of international information security, as well as analysis of documents and materials of groups of governmental experts under the auspices of the United Nations and the positions of States. In addition to general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction), the theory of transnational legal process is applied to this study, which considers ongoing discussions of relevant issues on various platforms, and, more generally, the interaction of various actors regarding the formation of a pool of rules for responsible use of AI by States through interaction, interpretation and internalization of the interpreted legal ideas and practices into the domestic legal systems.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The international efforts to develop a universal set of rules for responsible State behaviour in cyberspace have enjoyed rather modest success. The analysed history of cyber-related debate suggests that the AI-focused discussion for the foreseeable future will progress outside the area of developing a comprehensive treaty framework. Instead, the legal landscape of AI applications will appear to emerge from soft law instruments and private sector initiatives, which would lead to fragmentation of interpretation and State practice.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The complication of inter-State cyber operations by AI technology raises additional questions about the application of international law, in particular its norms on the use of force, to AI-powered cyber incidents. The deployment of lethal autonomous weapons systems and commitment of AI-powered cyber operations could potentially lead to another ‒ this time, AI ‒ arms race, as nations seek to develop and acquire these systems to maintain strategic parity. This could destabilize global security and increase the risk of conflict escalation. This and other political and ethical considerations argue in favor of limiting the discretion of States in the use of AI. However, to date, the incentives for NATO States, China and Russia to agree on an international binding instrument limiting the use of AI for malicious purposes appear illusory. One could argue that corresponding discussions on AI will probably take place outside of the development of an international treaty, given the historical debate surrounding the application of international law in cyberspace and the development of norms governing responsible States behaviour in the use of information and communication technologies. Further analysis of this development, thus, will require examining how transnational norms, such as those emerging from soft law instruments, customary practices, and private sector initiatives, will shape the international legal landscape of the AI application. 

INTRODUCTION. The latest digital technologies play a key role in the development of modern society and the state, contribute to their further progress and improvement. One of the varieties of such technologies is artificial intelligence (hereinafter – AI), which has a significant impact on all aspects of human life. The article examines the problem of international legal regulation of AI, analyzes existing documents and identifies the main problems and challenges facing the world community. Particular attention is paid to the issues of establishing a balance between the expansion of AI capabilities and the risks associated with the transfer of management decisions from human to machine. The objectives of the work are: to analyze existing concepts of AI and international acts regulating the specifics of using this technology, to consider topical issues of improving legal regulation and practice of using AI, to determine the prospects for further development of legal regulation of AI.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The sources of international law of a universal and regional character, scientific works related to the topic under research were analyzed. Formal legal, comparative legal and historical legal methods were used as research methods.

RESEARCH RESULTS. AI is one of the most important and key elements of sustainable human development, the use of which contributes to technological progress and solving global problems. International legal regulation of the use of AI is at the stage of development and formation of new rules, the creation of which must take into account the possible risks and specifics of the use of technology in various fields. International cooperation and exchange of experience in the field of legal regulation of AI is designed to promote the harmonization of approaches and standards in this area, taking into account the principles of sustainable development, environmental safety and protection of personal data of users.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The main conclusions of the research are as follows. AI helps automate many processes, increases work efficiency and improves the quality of life of people and society as a whole. Cooperation between states and international organizations is a key factor in the successful development and application of AI, contributes to the creation of common principles for ensuring security, transparency and maintaining the technological sovereignty of countries. However, at the moment, the international legal regulation of AI is at the initial stage of its development and many countries face problems with the lack of appropriate norms and standards. The consistent development of legal regulation at the international universal and regional levels, the introduction of clear and comprehensive terminology, taking into account the existing experience of individual international organizations will allow us to continue working on the development and improvement of standards in the field of AI, taking into account the interests of all participants in the international community.

INTRODUCTION. Due to the recent trend related to the use of information and communication technologies by certain states with the aim to assert their geopolitical superiority, study of the issue of attribution of responsibility for acts committed in the information space as well as possible of responses to such attacks becomes even more relevant. Therefore, in the article the problems related to international responsibility, particularities of attacks in information space and ways to attribute such attacks, as well as effectiveness of international law are analyzed.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The research examines treaties, international customs, general widely recognized principles of international law, as well as resolutions, materials and documents of specialized working groups, and doctrine. General scientific and specific scientific methods of enquiry (methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction, induction, dialectical and formal legal methods) were used in the preparation of the study.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The result of the conducted research is the conclusion that it is impossible to effectively regulate issues arising from the issue of attribution of acts committed in the information space exclusively with the current international law. Therefore, there is a need to develop a relevant international treaty taking into account the provisions of the concept of the UN Convention on International Information Security. At the same time, in order to effectively attribute an act, it is important to take into account the political, technical and legal elements of attribution of responsibility.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The article considers approaches to the issue of attribution of attacks in the information space as well as of possible ways of responding to such attacks within the framework of current international law. The problem of possible application of international humanitarian law, especially issue of interpretation of “attack” for the purposes of attacks in information space was also examined. In addition, the author analyzes the provisions of the concept of the UN Convention on International Information Security.

The author concludes that current international law is not sufficient for effective attribution of an act committed in the information space. Elaboration of additional international legal regulation that would take into account the particularities of the information space is required. It is also crucial to develop international cooperation in this area, including through the creation of a global register of contact points.

INTRODUCTION. The use of artificial intelligence technologies (hereinafter referred to as “AI”) is characterized by the mediation of human actions by autonomous processes, which leads, in the case when technical expertise is unable to identify the causer of harm, to a “responsibility gap” is an undesirable legal phenomenon in which the imposition of responsibility for harm caused by the use of AI on a specific person (persons) for the rules of tort liability are impossible.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The research used general scientific and special methods, including the historical method, methods of formal logic, analysis, synthesis, as well as systemic and comparative legal methods.

RESEARCH RESULTS. To eliminate the “responsibility gap”, the article proposes a mechanism that allows to fill in the missing elements of a tort committed using AI when the error that led to harm cannot be attributed de lege lata to any participant in the life cycle of an AI system or application. The starting point for the development of this mechanism was the theory of “guidance control” over the use of AI. A legal understanding of the philosophical foundations of the theory of “guidance control” allows us to substantiate the general legal principle of allocating responsibility for harm caused by AI, according to which the legal responsibility is borne by the person obliged to exercise human control over the use of the AI system or application, unless other perpetrators are identified. This principle is gradually being accepted by the international legal doctrine, which is expressed in the designation of the need to control the use of AI in a number of international documents.

CONCLUSIONS. Provided that the protocol to the Treaty on the EAEU enshrines the general legal principle of responsibility of the controlling person for harm caused by AI, it can acquire the significance of a regional international legal principle, and thereby become the basis for the formation of regulatory regulation in the EAEU of the distribution of responsibility for harm caused by AI. The proposed toolkit is convenient for legal consolidation through supranational legal regulation. 

INTRODUCTION. In the world, due to the growing trends in the militarization of the information space, military actions in this area are becoming a reality and a prospect for a number of operational, tactical and other advantages in comparison with military actions in traditional forms within the classical theaters of war. Information military confrontation will be carried out through the use of a new type of weapon – information, which does not fit into the established paradigm of approaches to traditional weapons, which, of course, gives rise to many questions and contradictory expert opinions, but is in dire need of further development and comprehensive research.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. Given the complexity and multi-component nature of the topic under study, the study is based on the results of the analysis of scientific works by Russian and foreign legal scholars on international humanitarian law (IHL), experts in the field of military affairs, and specialists in the field of information technology. The author also examines key international treaties on IHL, on the topic of international information security (IIS), which together form the basis for the international legal qualification of information weapons as a means of waging war in the context of the gradual adaptation of IHL norms to situations of hostile use of information space. In conducting the study, analytical and review materials of the ICRC on the issue of cyber operations during an armed conflict were used. The methodological basis is made up of general scientific and special research methods.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The results of the conducted study established two formed concepts reflecting approaches to IIS and threats in this area through the prism of cybertopics and information aspect, within the framework of each of which specific terminology is formed, including approaches to defining methods and means of conducting military operations. It was determined that the domestic doctrine is built around the information agenda of security, which determined the development of the definition of “information weapons” and the study of its status as a promising means of waging war in the information space. It seems significant to identify and generalize doctrinal trends in the qualification of information weapons as weapons of mass destruction or conventional weapons, as well as to establish new approaches to regulating the development and use of information weapons in armed conflicts.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The article presents the author’s objective assessments of the existing doctrinal approaches of both domestic and foreign scientists on the issue of international legal qualification of methods and means of waging war in the information space in general and information weapons as a means of waging war in particular. Separately, international treaties on IHL and IIS are considered in terms of the possibility of applying their provisions to regulate the restriction of the behavior of warring parties in information warfare, taking into account a certain adaptation of IHL norms to the conditions of hostile use of information technologies. Prospects for further development of the IHL doctrine on regulating the development and use of information weapons in armed conflicts are identified.

INTRODUCTION. In the process of adapting to the changing realities of geopolitics and international law, collective legitimation has become one of the main political functions of the UN as a means of politically significant approval (or disapproval) of the behaviour and positions of states as consistent with international law and at the same time meeting the needs of the present, a means of recognising them as legitimate (or illegitimate). Awareness of the dynamic nature of such a phenomenon of contemporary international law as “international legal legitimation”, competent mastery of international legal argumentation skills, their constant improvement and updating, innovative approach to the formulation of international legal positions that could really claim to be dominant and progressive, development of an optimal mechanism for their articulation and legitimation will allow to ensure the competitiveness of Russia’s international legal policy among such rigid, wilful, but, it should be admitted, calculating and shrewd strategies of legitimation, which are applied primarily by the United States of America. Against the background of Washington’s generally successful and effective international legal legitimation of its interventions, as a result of which not a single resolution was adopted either by the UN Security Council or the UN General Assembly (UNGA) that would have qualified the American invasions of Iraq, Libya or Syria as “aggression”, the international legal support for the Russian Federation’s special military operation in the Ukraine (SVO) needs to be improved, since precisely this qualification was given to it by the UNGA. The relevance and significance of the issue increases in view of the need to enhance the quality of the international legal justification of the SVO, which should be aimed at the recognition, approval and acceptance by the majority of members of the international community of Russia’s international legal position on this issue, i. e. at its international legal legitimation, capable of reversing the currently prevailing pro-Western international legal consciousness. Therefore, this phenomenon encapsulates a tremendous applied value in the context of the increasing number of hybrid threats to the national security of our country and the emergence of new sources of such threats.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The theoretical and empirical basis of the research is constituted by domestic and mainly foreign international legal literature with an emphasis on the latest scientific developments and also with reference to the relevant to the topic law enforcement practice (practice of the International Court of Justice) and material of specialised dictionaries. On the basis of integrative (multidimensional) approach to scientific legal research, taking into account such principles of scientific cognition as theoretical novelty and scientific relevance, the study was guided, in particular, by hermeneutic, formal-legal, formallogical, structural-functional and systematic methods, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis, legal modelling, legal construction and strategic planning.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The article reviews relevant studies on the term “legitimation” in international law, outlines various approaches to the definition and interpretation of this notion, reveals the content and structural elements of the process of international legal legitimation aimed at achieving, recognising or confirming the legitimacy of an international legal position of a state. Forming her own vision of the notion of “international legal legitimation”, the author has devised a number of classifications (structural schemes): a typology of approaches to the definition of the term “legitimation” (nihilistic, idealistic and compromise), the structure of the process of international legal legitimation, the types of international legal legitimation according to the time and will criteria.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. Amid the large-scale and powerful “legal aggression” of the West against Russia, the phenomenon of international legal legitimation of the state’s actions often raises the question of the need to be bold, inventive and even creative in formulating international legal positions in a particular area. Our hypothesis is that in the real world, in which international law is a “product of a game of powers and interests”, the direct and active involvement of the Russian Federation in the process of constructing a common model of international legal legitimation of states’ positions would help to increase the effectiveness of the protection of Russian interests. The first step on this path could be the development and approbation of an international legal mechanism of legitimation of Russia’s international legal position on the SVO. Besides, it is important to analyse the international legal legitimation practices of particular states not only in order to study and potentially absorb their experience, but also to learn how to predict and anticipate further international legal manoeuvres of a certain country so as to be able to respond to them in a timely and appropriate manner.

INTRODUCTION. The exploration and use of the Moon, including its natural resources, is a priority in the space research activities of many participants. This is evidenced by the adoption of lunar space programmes at the national level, the preparation and launch of spacecrafts to the Moon and its surface, and discussions of future international legal regulation in international intergovernmental and nongovernmental organisations. It is important to ensure communication with the spacecraft through the use of lunar orbits in carrying out such lunar activities. In order to understand this process, it is necessary to examine the scientific and technical, as well as regulatory aspects that are interrelated, including the international legal regime for lunar orbits.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The materials used in the research and for writing cover fundamental works of Soviet/Russian scientists in the field of international space law, as well as research works and analyses devoted to CIS-lunar space and orbits around the Moon. The assessment of the existing international legal regime on lunar orbits requires the application of not only formal-legal and comparative-legal research methods inherent in legal sciences, but also general scientific methods, such as analysis and synthesis, to understand the specific scientific and technical nature of the issue under consideration. An important place in the article was taken by the study of the conceptual definitions, namely such terms as “a Moon orbit”, “lunar orbit”, “CIS-lunar space”, “frozen orbit’”, “haloorbit”, “shielded zone of the Moon”, etc.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The lunar orbit refers to various trajectories of natural or artificial objects around the Moon. Orbits around the Moon are distinguished by the altitudes of migration, aposecretion and inclination. Separately distinguish ‘frozen’ orbits and haloorbits, which are characterized by special properties in terms of space objects placed on them. Spacecrafts use different radio-frequency spectrum in all types of lunar orbits. Most of the orbits around the Moon are unstable. The international legal status and regime of lunar orbits are regulated by documents of the International Telecommunication Union, among which there are a number of documents dealing with the issue of radio astronomy in the shielded zone of the Moon. The fundamental provisions of international space law also apply to the activity on use and exploration of CIS-lunar space and its orbits.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The following conclusions were obtained from the study. By 2027, the international community within the ITU will have to solve a number of issues related to the use of CISlunar space and orbits around the Moon, including radio astronomy, the use of repeater satellites, and the radio-frequency spectrum. Additionally, a system for coordinated lunar time is discussed. Disorderly use of lunar orbits may lead to the problem of space debris. An increase in the number of objects sent to the Moon may cause difficulties in astronomical research and limit the number of stable orbits for all interested participants. International cooperation of States and other interested participants in lunar activities within the framework of international organizations will contribute to solving the outlined problems.