The article examines the concept of universalism of human rights, which came into prominence after World War II. The core of this concept is that human rights belong to everyone, no matter of what status a person holds in society. Every individual has a claim to enjoyment of human rights, wherever the individual resides.
The article shows criticism of the universalism. Critics argue that universalism perpetuates colonialist practices, complaining that one group assumes superiority over the other.
On the basis of the detailed analysis of the issues connected with the above mentioned criticism of universalism the author underlines that human rights are internationally agreed values, standards or rules regulating the conduct of states towards their own citizens and non-citizens. Human rights, in the words of the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are common standard to achieve for all peoples and nations.
The article clearly demonstrates that a long process of civilization has imposed norms to restrain human behavior, and these norms of restraint evolved in parallel fashion across different cultures.
In conclusion the author underlines that the universal concept of human rights still encounters a legitimate obstacle by local cultural, religious, and legal norms. The World Conference on Human Rights affirmed that “the international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing. While the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of states, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and to protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

This article outlines history of international legal regulation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) protection; main theoretical aspects of the subject in question and examples of successful regional cooperation in the field of IDPs protection.

The article addresses the issue of international legal grounds of prohibiting usage of certain methods and means of warfare by belligerent parties. The sources and modern doctrine of Humanitarian law have not defined the notion of the “means of warfare”, often there is no distinction between the “methods” and “means”, which hampers classification of war conduct by the conflict parties in case of illegal implication of force and means.
The author holds that means of warfare can be distinguished on a number of features and suggests classifying them depending on the criteria of lawfulness of their utilization, scale of usage, typical affecting factors, and spatial sphere of war conduct.

The article is concerned about analysis of activity of United Nations Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1540 (2004). Committee monitors implementation of legislative resolution 1540 (2004) dealing with prevention of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, their means of delivery and related materials by non-state actors. The article provides characteristic of structure and main areas of activity of Committee 1540 such as the examination of relevant measures taken by State Members of the United Nations, the organization of intensive outreach activities, the development of cooperation with other Security Council bodies and with global, regional and sub regional intergovernmental organizations, the creation of new tools to facilitate assistance and transparency. The accent is made on characteristic of current general trends in the Member State’s implementation of resolution 1540 (2004) and main priorities of future work of Committee 1540.

In the article we conduct a general comparative research on legal regulation of conflict of interests in joint stock companies in Russia and foreign countries, in particular England, USA, Germany and France. The sources of Russian and Foreign regulation of the matter are defined. The authors also give analysis of terminological distinction in regulation including Russian concepts of interested person, interested party transaction; as well as the notions used in English and American law: “conflict of interests”, “director’s conflicting interest transaction” respectively. The main types of interested party transactions under German and French company law are likewise introduced.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Law of the People’s Republic of China “On proprietary rights” which is compared in the basic points with relevant Russian legislation (mainly Civil Code of Russia). The following legal institutes are considered in the article: proprietary rights and ways of their protection, proprietary security rights/their enforcement (mortgage, retention), ownership right (definition, kinds), possession right.
Currently the Chinese civil law is actively developing. The new legislative acts are regularly adopted. The Law “On proprietary rights” along with several other Chinese laws (General Provisions of the Civil Law, Contracts Law, Prices Law, Security of Performance of Obligations Law, Foreign Trade Law, Arbitration Law etc.) aim to establish the legal basis for market economy development. Most of these acts will definitely form someday the Civil Code of China.
The article may be useful for lawyers working with Chinese civil law and may be used for scientific purposes as well as it reviews one of the basic Chinese civil laws in comparison with similar Russian acts, revealing similar things and differences, advantages and disadvantages in legislative regulation of the considered issues in the two legal systems.

Within the scope of the article consideration of questions, concerning laws and normative acts connected with conclusion, performance and cancellation of a bank account contract, persons authorized to carry out operations with money on the client’s account, inheritance of a bank account in Russia and Germany is carried out. The comparative characteristic of various bank account’s legal regimes is given – deposit account, escrow account, blocked account, joint account etc. Examples of opportunities and ways to change the Russian legislation regarding introduction of corresponding legal constructions, which will allow raising the role of bank accounts in civil relations in many respects are shown. Looking at problems of this sort will help to improve standards of banking services in Russia and will promote achievement of balance of interests between banks and clients.

The article is devoted to the U.S. Supreme Court decision of June 1, 2010 in the case Samantar v. Yousuf, which authoritatively resolved the issue of the source of legal norms regulating the immunities of foreign officials in the U.S. law. Prior to the judgment, different federal courts of appeals gave different interpretation to the question, whether the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act applies to representatives of other States acting in their official capacity. As a result of this legal uncertainty, foreign governmental officers in U.S. courts received different treatment in terms of immunities in almost identical situations. The Supreme Court judgments being binding on all the lower U.S. courts, the case of the Somali general Mohamed Samantar provoked a vivid reaction in the country’s legal community, as well as in a number of foreign States. The article explains different legal views presented to the U.S. Supreme Courts by the lawyers of the petitioner, respondents, Government and third parties. It summarizes the argumentation by the Court and analyses the bearing that the June decision may have for the development of the U.S. law of immunities.

The article deals with the features of legal status of a person and citizen in Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The author studies the issues of legal confirmation of basic human rights in the Constitution, acquisition and termination of citizenship. The article is also devoted to the problem of human rights observance in Pakistan.

Basic aspects of illegal money-laundering are the following: economic, legal, substantive and procedural. The present Article analyses the substantive aspect, models and typologies of illegal money-laundering in the context of the necessity of the preclusive fight with the above problem.

The article deals with the international legal concept of unilateral acts of States. It addresses issues of legal nature of unilateral acts of States, the place of unilateral acts among the sources of international law, criteria to distinguish unilateral acts of States that generate for the State-author international legal consequences from other unilateral acts, bearing a political character, an analysis of judicial practice and doctrines of international law devoted to this subject.

The article reviews the main development stages of legal regulation of financial services in the European Union along with the sources of European finance law and its specifics. The emphasis is given to the analysis of core directives regulating investment services. Evolvement and development of main concepts of single market of financial services is being traced down, and specifics of principle of mutual recognition are being analyzed. The article characterizes the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union in affirmation of freedoms which are necessary for performance of investment and financial services in EU. Additionally the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the area of financial services is being examined hereunder. The author determines the key concepts of an investment firm and “European passport” for performance of investment services as well as makes assessment of a conduct of business of investment firms. The article points out the way whereby the home country control principal regulates business of financial institutions which provide financial services beyond borders of a country of registration. The special emphasis is given by the author to the Financial Services Action Plan as to one of the most essential documents for development of integrated financial market in EU. The article is being finalized by an overview of current investment strategy in the European Union.

Commonwealth of Independent States, created in 1991, was originally focused on the former Soviet republic’s consolidation, at one time formed the Soviet Union, and to create conditions for a constructive and cooperative development of each of these states. For the effective implementation by States - participants of the regional body of agreed goals and objectives established institutional system: statutory and subsidiary bodies (the latter have generally indicated a narrow competence).
Interparliamentary Assembly refers to the statutory bodies of the Commonwealth. The article presents the results of an international legal basis for the functioning of the body, its main tasks, especially the legal situation. Special attention is paid to the immunities and privileges vested in this important body and its officials.