INTRODUCTION. In the rather extensive modern scientific research on international air law less attention is paid to the analysis of the peculiarities of international legal regulation of international air services in the northern polar region. Considering the development of international transport communication and the search for ways to improve the efficiency and safety of flights in specific parts of our planet, the analysis of prerequisites for the identification of a special regional international legal regime of the Arctic airspace is needed in light of the increasing scale of interstate airflights in the Arctic countries and transboundary (including transpolar) air transportation in the region. Meanwhile, the content of the legal status of civil aviation in the Arctic correlates with the key principle of international air law – the organization of safe and efficient air traffic in this area. In the context of the special climate, geographical, political and historical circumstances of the development of the countries of the Arctic region, the authors of this paper analyze the existing international legal regime governing international air services over the terrestrial and maritime areas of the Arctic States, which form parts of their territory, as well as over the Arctic Ocean beyond this part. The paper also inicates the preconditions for the formation of a corresponding regional international egal regime.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The authors conduct a comprehensive analysis of applicable international treaties, including first and foremost the Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944 and relevant bilateral air services agreements of the Russian Federation, using the research works of the Russian and foreign legal publicists. Due to the specificity of the subject of the article – international relations of the Arctic States on the regulation of international air services in the North Polar region – the authors applied methods of deduction and induction, as well as formal legal methods, especially while comparing the applicable treaty rules, and the documents of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and national legislation of the Arctic States on the issues of civil aviation in the Arctic airspace.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The specific nature of the existing legal regime of international air traffic in the Arctic is described in the paper; a comparative legal analysis of the regulation of international air traffic in the Arctic region before and after the adoption of the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation with a review of its key rules applicable to air navigation in the Arctic; the relevant bilateral international agreements of the Russian Federation are considered with focus on interpretation of their provisions on the regulation of transpolar international air communications; other applicable legal acts are examined, including documents of the ICAO.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION. Based on the results of the research, the authors have suggested that a regional multilateral international treaty might contribute to the increase of the quality of regulation of international air services in the Arctic. Such a format of cooperation of the arctic and non-arctic States would be effective provided that all the arctic States express their relevant common will and might take into account the work on the relevant international treaty, in particular, the negotiations between the arctic states on the Agreement on Cooperation on Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue in the Arctic, 2011. For the Russian Federation with its huge transit potential, including that relating to the provision of air traffic services on transpolar routes, the formation of such update international legal regime for the regulation of international air routes in the Arctic is of particular importance. 

INTRODUCTION. In contemporary international law, the idea of replacing the existing principles of international law, primarily enshrined in the UN Charter, with a “rules-based order” has gained popularity. The very use of this term is strongly criticized in the international community due to the impossibility to establish the content of this term, its legal basis and the possibility of its change. However, with regard to international space law (ISL), the application of the “rulesbased order” is often attempted to be presented as an opportunity to supplement the legal gaps in international space law with the provisions of the said “legal order”.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article analyses both the doctrinal understanding of the content of the term “rules-based order” and its applicability to the creation of new sources of international space law, revision and supplementation of existing legal norms. The subject of the analysis is the materials of the foreign legal press, articles in legal journals and the Internet. In addition to the data of the science of international law, the scientific categories of philosophy, political science and economics are also used. Historical, formal-legal, comparative-legal method and the method of system analysis, etc. were used in the study.

THE RESEARCH RESULTS. The successful development of international space law and the harmonization of its existing norms with the requirements of the time depends, first of all, on the common desire of participants in the exploration and use of outer space to update the entire existing legal “framework” of the existing norms of the ISL. Such updating is possible both through the elaboration of new universal treaties in this area of international relations and through the adoption of soft law norms, which, if universally recognized and approved, could eventually become universal norms of the ISL. Rejection of already existing treaties, primarily the 1967 Treaty, is unlikely to contribute to preserving and strengthening the existing legal order in outer space. Moreover, the established legal order in space exploration and use should not and cannot be replaced by vague legal ideas reflecting the position of a minority of states.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The study substantiates the conclusion that attempts to replace peremptory norms of international law with the provisions of “rules-based order” are, in fact, doomed to failure. First of all, because the legal content of the mentioned term and the possibility of changing the provisions constituting this legal order are not clear. In addition, only the adoption of general universal norms in the field of international law can serve as a guarantee of stability and ensuring equal interests of the participants in international relations. In the field of the ISL, attempts to fill the legal gaps created by the application of the provisions of the “rules-based order” are all the more unpromising, since, in fact, they create unilateral advantages for countries that have already been actively and for a considerable period of time developing outer space. Attempts to replace or broadly interpret the norms of the current ISL undermine the existing legal order in outer space. Replacing universal norms in the field of space exploration and use with national legislation and regional acts cannot solve the problems created in space legislation, although recommendations of international intergovernmental organizations and guidelines can serve as examples of soft law norms that can eventually become norms of the ISL. The main task is to preserve and strengthen the legal order that has been created and has been in force in space law for decades. New technical achievements, expansion of the range of participants in space activities, and environmental problems put new legal tasks on the agenda, but their solution is possible only with equal consideration of the interests of all participants in space legal relations.

INTRODUCTION. The article is devoted to the problem of defining the concept of "space debris" from the point of view of two concepts: the concept of safety and the concept of property. The aim of the article is to substantiate the importance of developing a unified definition of space debris and to formulate proposals for eliminating legal gaps in the definition of space debris. The research is based on publications by Russian and foreign specialists in space law, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Guidelines on Space Debris Mitigation, space debris reduction standards, Russian and US legislation regulating space activities, and draft regulations aimed at ensuring the safety of space activities and space debris reduction. The following methods were employed in the preparation of the article: the comparative analysis method, the analogy method, the logical method, the description method, the generalisation method, and the comparative legal method.

RESULTS. The research conducted has enabled the identification of discrepancies in the definition of the concept of 'space debris' from the perspectives of security and property; it is posited that the absence of a consolidated understanding of space debris in the near future may result in deleterious consequences. It is concluded that the precise definition of the concept of space debris is not critical for ensuring the safety of space activities; however, the concept of property requires clarification of space debris criteria in order to realise the possibility of cleaning the near-Earth space and the surface of celestial bodies from anthropogenic pollution. It is proposed that the definition of space debris be formulated within the context of the property concept.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The analysis demonstrates the relevance of the chosen topic, and the discussion of the problems is carried out in the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, on other international and national platforms. Despite the efforts of the scientific community, a consensus remains elusive regarding a universally accepted definition of 'space debris'. National jurisdictions make attempts to formulate their own definition of ‘space debris’ in order to allow their residents to carry out new types of space activities, occupying the relevant sectors of the space economy. The paper distinguishes approaches to defining the concept of 'space debris' through the prism of security and property concepts, and formulates proposals for formalizing the concept of 'space debris' from the perspective of the property concept.

INTRODUCTION. The article examines the issue of such a common word combination in the practice of communication on international “space” platforms as “space resources”, which, without proper consideration of the vocabulary and terminology base of current international law, was introduced into vocabulary circulation there as a result of borrowing and uncritical use of part of the name of the informal Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group, created in 2014. Another issue under study is how, outside the framework of international treaty and customary law, the issue of granting legal entities and individuals the right to appropriate natural resources of celestial bodies (NRCB) is resolved under the pretext of commercializing space activities.

 MATERIALS AND METHODS. The materials for the study are the international space law (ISL) treaties, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, reports of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), as well as its Legal Subcommittee (LSC), statements of some delegations at their sessions, works of Russian and foreign scientists, regulatory acts and documents of the USA, New Zealand, the Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group. Carrying out a comparative analysis of regulatory acts and documents of the named states and group, as well as some provisions of international treaties (taking into account their conceptual, vocabulary and terminological content), the author uses the general scientific method of cognition.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The current increase in interest to the issue of the development of the NRCB has revealed the need to clarify the international legal basis for this concept for its use in further possible practical and international legal actions of the global space community aimed at solving problems associated with development of outer space. The article examines the relationship between the concept of NRCB, the terms natural resources and minerals used in international law, and the American term space resource. The use of the first concept and the last term to regulate legal relations in space outside the limits of state supremacy makes it necessary to clarify what outer space is from the point of view of the current ISL.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. According to the norms of the current customary and treaty ISL, states only have the right to dispose (for scientific purposes) samples of mineral and other substances of celestial bodies that, in essence, represent NRCB. Assessing the currently existing international legal basis for the development of the NRCB, it can be noted that the offensive implementation of the commercialization of their appropriation is carried out with an artificially created stagnation in the development of the ISL and simultaneous attempts to use the norms of national legislation outside the territorial supremacy of states in order to create a new norm of international customary law there. The ultimate beneficiary of these norms will be global financial structures, for whose interests are commercialized space activities.

INTRODUCTION. In this article, the authors consider the main problems affecting maritime security at the current stage of development of international law. The authors include among such problems the lack of a universal legal framework regulating the operation of autonomous sea vessels, maritime terrorism, regulation of the sulfur content in marine fuel, the need for global regulation of economic activity in the Arctic region.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. When writing the article, international legal acts, national legislation of the Russian Federation, as well as studies of Russian and foreign authors were used. The methodological basis of the study was formed by general scientific (method of logical and system analysis, dialectical method) and specific scientific (historical and legal, comparative legal) methods of cognition.

RESEARCH RESULTS. Based on the study of international legal acts, national legislation of the Russian Federation, modern studies of Russian and foreign authors, the authors make conclusions and proposals on issues of ensuring maritime security in modern conditions.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The authors conclude that in light of the development of modern unmanned navigation technologies, it is necessary to develop global legal acts at the international level. The article examines the main types of autonomous sea vessels, identifies problems that hinder the effective operation of these vessels and suggests options for solving them. It is noted that it is necessary to work out issues related to compensation for damage caused by a sea vessel controlled by artificial intelligence systems within the framework of universal international acts. It is noted that it is important to develop uniform global rules for the operation of artificial intelligence systems on sea vessels. It is also noted that international cooperation is important in countering maritime terrorism. The authors draw attention to the common features between piracy and maritime terrorism, but point out different goals in carrying out this illegal activity. Moreover, it is often difficult to separate these concepts, which creates difficulties in the application of international legal norms. The authors point out that effective counteraction to maritime terrorism is possible only at the international level within the framework of effective interstate cooperation. Considering certain aspects of ensuring regional security in the Arctic region, the authors conclude that it is necessary to develop uniform international rules for the economic development of this region. The important role of the Arctic Council in ensuring sustainable socioeconomic development of this region is noted. The main international declarations adopted within the framework of this organization and their importance for the development of this region are considered. The restrictions on the sulfur content in marine fuel and the role of these restrictions in reducing emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere are considered. Various options for shipowners to comply with these restrictions are proposed. The importance of using other types of fuel, including liquefied natural gas or, in the future, hydrogen fuel, is noted. The importance of international regulation in this area is noted.

INTRODUCTION. Today, the international community recognizes the multidimensional and complex nature of the concept of «international security» and calls for the cooperation of states in this field. It seems that the development and implementation of such mechanisms should start with small regional groups, and then, by identifying the most effective models, they can be implemented universally. The Caspian region is an example of such regional efforts to strengthen security. The authors research the main aspects of regional security. It is the cyber security aspect. The authors propose the idea of creating a cyber incident management center in the maritime space of the Caspian region. The aim of the paper is to confirm the hypothesis of the need to develop a legal framework for the implementation of a cyber risk prevention and management system in the Caspian region as a mandatory part of the system of regional security.

MATERIAL AND METHODS. To achieve the stated goal, the authors' team solved a number of scientific tasks, among which is a brief analysis of UN legal acts justifying the fact of international security complexity and regional and international security interdependence. Then, review of the Caspian States' treaty framework for regional security and peaceful cooperation in various fields. The review of IMO acts on maritime and marine cybersecurity was an important step towards achieving this goal. Apart from the traditional general-science methods of research, the authors mainly used the method of doctrinal interpretation of legal acts, which allowed to justify the possibility of legal regulation and conclusion of a separate protocol.

RESEAECH RESULTS. The study resulted in recommendations on the structure and content of the Protocol for the Management of Cyber Risks in the Caspian Sea.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. In the course of a thorough analysis of regional normative sources operating in the designated area within the Caspian region. The authors conclude that it is necessary to adopt an additional protocol on cooperation in the field of maritime safety.

INTRODUCTION. The article examines the historical establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its role as the foundational framework for the international climate legal regime. The study highlights the importance of the choices made during the drafting of the Convention, analyzing their long–term impact on global climate governance. The research explores the events leading up to the Earth Summit (Rio Conference) in 1992, where the UNFCCC was adopted, and investigates how its fundamental principles and obligations shaped subsequent climate policies, including the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. The study aims to contextualize the Convention within the broader historical and legal developments in international environmental law.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The research follows a qualitative legal–historical approach, utilizing primary sources, including treaty texts, General Assembly resolutions, advisory opinions from international courts, and official conference proceedings. Additionally, secondary sources, such as academic commentary, environmental law textbooks, and journal articles, provide insights into the evolution of international climate law. The study is divided into two key phases. 1. Historical Analysis: A chronological examination of the negotiations preceding the UNFCCC, focusing on the Stockholm Conference (1972), the Montreal Protocol (1987), and scientific reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2. Legal Framework Analysis: An evaluation of the legal principles enshrined in the UNFCCC, such as sustainable development, common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR), and intergenerational equity, as well as an assessment of its institutional mechanisms, including the role of the Conference of the Parties (COP).

RESEARCH RESULTS. The UNFCCC as a Normative Framework: Despite being considered a “framework convention” with broad and non– binding commitments, the UNFCCC introduced fundamental legal principles that later became the cornerstone of climate governance. Legal Innovations and Institutionalization: The Convention established a system of cooperation among states, creating institutional mechanisms such as the COPs, which facilitated continued legal evolution in climate governance. The establishment of the UNFCCC Secretariat further institutionalized climate negotiations. Enduring Influence on International Law: The Convention remains a reference point for climate litigation and international advisory opinions, particularly in recent cases before the Inter–American Court of Human Rights and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. These legal bodies have increasingly drawn upon UNFCCC principles to determine states' obligations concerning climate change.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION. The article concludes that the UNFCCC, despite its perceived initial weaknesses, has proven to be a resilient and foundational legal instrument in international climate governance. The Convention's principles and procedural mechanisms have enabled the development of binding legal commitments, such as those found in the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Moreover, its flexible institutional design has allowed it to adapt to emerging challenges, such as climate litigation and advisory proceedings in international courts. Looking forward, the UNFCCC is expected to continue shaping future legal obligations related to climate action, particularly as climate disputes become more prominent in international judicial bodies. The study underscores the ongoing relevance of the UNFCCC in the face of evolving environmental challenges, reaffirming its status as the standard framework for global climate governance. 

INTRODUCTION. If in wartime the use of non-lethal weapons as a means of warfare is regulated by conventions and customs, in the context of law enforcement, the requirements related to these kinds of weapons are mainly reflected in acts of "soft law" (standards, recommendations, guidelines). Often, due to the “soft” nature of these norms, they do not provide adequate legal regulation for non-lethal weapons, while human rights organisations have repeatedly pointed out that the use of non-lethal weapons in law enforcement can be indiscriminate and lethal. The question arises: are there mandatory norms in International Law that regulate or prohibit the use of often unpredictable and sometimes experimental non-lethal weapons in the context of law enforcement? This article aims to determine whether there are international customs in the field of International Human Rights Law that can regulate the use of non-lethal weapons.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. This study is based on the works of Russian and foreign experts in the field of International Law. Due to the specific nature of non-lethal weapons and for the reliability of the results, the materials studied also include the works of specialists in other sciences (medical, technical). The author studied international agreements, acts of international organisations, case law and scientific literature. In preparing the study, general scientific, interdisciplinary (survey and interviewing) and special legal (formal legal and comparative legal) methods were used.

RESEARCH RESULTS. This article defines the significance of international custom in the field of International Human Rights Law and examines its embodiments in other sources of international law. It substantiates the applicability of international customs in regulating the use of non-lethal weapons in law enforcement, namely such customs as the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of life, the prohibition of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment, the prohibition of enslavement, the prohibition of genocide and crimes against humanity, principles of necessity and proportionality during realisation of law enforcement activities. It also proposes to consider the possibility of regulating the use of nonlethal weapons through international customs concerning the use of indiscriminate weapons and experiments on humans.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The author concluded that international customs are indeed capable of acting as a source for regulating the use of non-lethal weapons in law enforcement activities. However, this occurs indirectly, through the obligations of states to ensure fundamental human rights and freedoms. 

INTRODUCTION. This comprehensive analysis examines the 25th Amendment of the United States Constitution, focusing on its historical context, current political relevance, and potential implications for American governance. The study explores the amendment's provisions for presidential succession and incapacity against the backdrop of contemporary political debates.

MATERIAL AND METHODS. The research employs a multidisciplinary methodology combining historical analysis of presidential incapacity cases, a comprehensive literature review of constitutional law and governance studies, evaluation of ethical implications through democratic theory, and examination of current political discourse surrounding the amendment.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The study reveals the complex interplay between the amendment's four sections and their practical applications, highlighting the unprecedented nature of Section 4's potential invocation. Analysis demonstrates significant legal costs associated with its implementation, including institutional strain between branches of government, challenges to democratic legitimacy, and the establishment of potentially problematic precedents for future executive-legislative relations.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The findings underscore that the 25th Amendment represents both a constitutional safeguard and a complex governance challenge, requiring delicate navigation of legal frameworks, political realities, and ethical considerations. The potential invocation of Section 4 carries profound implications for separation of powers, democratic norms, and constitutional interpretation that extend well beyond immediate political considerations. This analysis illuminates the amendment's dual nature as both solution and challenge to the American constitutional system.