The problems of systematization and classification of the international election standards are discussed. Classifications of the international election standards proposed in four documents (“Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters” by European Commission for Democracy Through Law; the report by the group of experts OSCE/ODIHR “Existing Commitments for Democratic Elections in OSCE Participating States”; draft European convention on election standards, electoral rights and freedoms; the analytical report of Independent Institute of Elections “Russian Elections in the Context of the International Election Standards”) are compared. Some problems of the content of the international election standards are also discussed, namely, the problem of exceptions to the rules and a declarative character of many standards.

The manifold Russian-Scandinavian ties (in the Middle Ages–chiefly dinastic) from the very beginning and up to now keep safe their weighty historical significance. The present essay is devoted to the identification of a certain Varangian Prince Jakun, in 1024 comrade-in-arms of the Grand Prince Jaroslav the Wise of Kiev. Already almost three centuries this problem attracts attention of top Russian and foreign historians. In 1981 Omeljan Pritsak in the USA thoroughly substantiated hypothesis – first brought forward in Sweden by Eric Brate (1925) – Jakun is the Norvegian Jarl Hakon Eiriksson, the nephew of the King Knut the Great. The aim of this essay is the presentation for the first time at length in Russia of the above hypotheses together with its critical analysis on a base of sources available. The result achieved is the conclusion on a good reliability of the hypotheses with some remarks.

Kazakhstan’s foreign policy initiative to convene the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICBMA) is a response to the existing need to create a unified regional system of collective security and cooperation. Such a conference is necessary because, unlike other continents, Asia still lacks a properly functioning mechanism of legal control and regulation. The activities of international institutions operating in this part of the globe are mostly sub-regional and closed in their nature. Therefore, it is necessary not only to establish an inter-regional dialogue between these institutions, but also unite them under a single regional organization.

The concept of humanitarian intervention is one of the main problems of contemporary world order. The point is that the humanitarian intervention is legally inconsistent. The term “humanitarian intervention” was brought into service by western states and scientists to justify the use of military force against other state for human rights protection in this state, against will of its government.
Humanitarian intervention may be defined as the use of force by one or more states against another state with the aim of protection of human rights – citizens of this state that is human rights protection within the territory of another state without either the permission of its legitimate government or the authorization of the UN Security Council.
The article considers the content of humanitarian intervention, as well as its differentiation from the closely-related concepts. It is necessary because of the term “humanitarian intervention” is doctrinal construction; there is no acknowledged international instrument which gives a definition of this term.
The conclusion of the article is to show the illegality of humanitarian intervention. The task is that international cooperation for the human rights protection in crisis situations develops within contemporary applicable international law.

The article is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the International Labour Organization (ILO). It reviews concisely the history of its establishment, considers the legal status of this organization and the record of relations between ILO and the Russian Federation. Emphasis is placed on the currently central fields of activities of ILO. It is pointed out that the Organization is focused on the problems of decent work and job creation; eliminating child labour; gender equality; skills development; safety of work; strengthening of tripartism and social dialogue; facilitation of standards, fundamental principles and rights at work and their exercise; social justice and globalization; codification of international labour standards; cooperation with other international organizations; etc.

The present article covers the actual problems concerning the immunities of individuals in relation to criminal prosecution for international crimes in national and international courts. The immunity is an institute of modern international law. After the World War II the provision that the official capacity does not prevent individuals from criminal proceedings in case of committing international crimes became firmly established and now makes part of modern general international law. At the same time according to international rules high officials, head of states including, enjoy the immunities from criminal jurisdiction. International and domestic court practice in such cases is rather controversial. Thereby the most complicated question is to find the correct correlation between these legal provisions concerning the immunities in case of conductance of international crimes by a high official of a state.

International community faces the challenge of terrorist threat, stemming from international terrorist organizations. The most dangerous threat to international peace and security is the possibility of a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction. In this connection it makes sense to overview the concept of terrorism as a crime. The crime of terrorism should be considered as a crime under international law instead of a crime of international significance. This conception could underlie new actions, standards, criteria and principles in the sphere of enhancing international security. The article contains positions of distinguished international jurists, review of the documents of the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council, and references to treaties concerning the suppression of terrorism.

The article examines the problem of money laundering and financing of terrorism with the use of new technologies. The author presents the general description of the actual situation of money laundering and financing of terrorism at national and international levels, notes the danger of the crime, the increasing challenges and threats. The special attention is given to the problems of money laundering and financing of terrorism via Internet, as well as other technologies. The author examines methods of money laundering in the Internet, particularly by the provided services of online banks and Internet gambling.

This article presents my personal narrative, in the epistemology of a new but mostly deserted subject ‘Polluter Pays Principle’. It addresses the complex issues of transnational environmental law that have a profound relationship with Polluter Pays Principle. To give some context to the discussion, first portion of this article briefly discusses the definition of Polluter Pay Principle and its history. Further, it analyses the issues of liability, standard of proof that requires for establishing a polluting event, and its limitation period. It particularly focuses on the criticisms of Polluter Pays Principle. It is hoped that the results of this research would attract the attention of policy-makers, and rigorous legal safeguards should be implemented to protect the environment from future abuse.

The article touches upon the problem of interaction of the two systems of law: international and national. The author shows a Russian–speaking reader the approach to this problem of lawyers of the FRG. The article presents the evolution of theories of monism and dualism, their theoretical aspects and their manifestation in the practice of international relations.

The main task of this paper is to analyze the present binding regime of the outer space de-weaponization and particular measures on consolidation and strengthening of this regime. The article provides a detailed legal analysis of the draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Treaty or Use of Force Against Outer Space Objects (PPWT) that the Russian Federation together with the People’s Republic of China, officially submitted to the Geneva Conference on Disarmament (CD) for consideration on February 12^th, 2008 and that was considered at the UN General Assembly’s last session.

The article addresses one of the key documents regarding the activity of the states on prospecting, exploration and exploitation of the mineral resources of the International seabed area – the Regulations on prospecting, exploration and exploitation of the polymetallic nodules in the International seabed area. The mentioned Regulations were the first to develop the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, set forth a legal framework for the states’ activity in the area, and also serve as a basis for adoption of the similar regulations on ferromanganese nodules and cobalt-rich crusts by the international seabed authority in future. For the purposes of clarity and readers’ convenience the narration of the article resembles the structure of the regulations with the concurrent analysis of the most important issues being given at the same time.

GATT article I (1) provides for WTO members to accord Most-Favoured-Nation treatment to like products of other WTO members regarding tariffs, regulations on exports and imports, internal taxes and charges, and internal regulations. The MFN is a fundamental principle of the WTO.
The GATT and the WTO Agreement provide for certain exceptions to the MFN principle, for example, generalized system of preferences, non-application of multilateral trade agreements and other exceptions. Exceptions guarantee the account of interests of participants and flexibility of the WTO law, but related exceptions need to be carefully administered so as not to undermine the MFN principle.

Globalization, internationalization, integration are a tendency of development of economics and law. Tax law is not an exception in this process. World community tries to unify norms of tax law, to implement a united tax policy, which promotes free transaction of goods, services and financial assets. Basic World Tax Code (BWTC) is one of such universal world instrument; its implementation is developed in this article.
The author emphasizes Russia exercised many norms of Basic world tax code in the Tax Code of Russian Federation.

Professional practice serving large capital-incentive operations in the sphere of international economic relations is characterized by a massive and targeted presence of international players. Before the crisis, more than 50 of their offices were opened in both our capitals. Foreign law firms are constantly present in countries where large-scale economic projects are brought into life. Excessive spread of foreign legal products, use of models subject to English law leads to stagnation of Russian law in its most important sections. Domination of foreign companies in all spheres of practice impedes national players on the market regarding cadres.
Legal services are more that many other services connected with national culture. Unlike other professions, such as a builder, an engineer or a teacher, a lawyer is the most national of all free professions.
Today, competition and coexistence of brands is characterized by great dynamics, quick mergers and break-ups of law firms, almost always related to departure of specialists. Market of legal services is confused and destructive if such transfers occur too frequently, since continuity and stability are required to create and implement complex legal products.
Whereas foreign firms possess and will possess large volume of assets, it is hard in current conditions yet possible and necessary to compete with them in the sector of their active market presence. There are ways for a better competition and they are easy to see: provision of more complex services to the clients. Complexity as a concept is implemented in advocate’s assistance.
Domestic advocates work in offices of foreign legal network firms on the condition that only clients of these firms receive services. There is an obvious violation in this model of legal services and legal assistance – misrepresentation of clients that a known foreign brand acquired its own advocate support.
The second directly negative factor is the absence of possibility for advocate organizations to initiate relations with the clients. Advocate services in the sphere of commercial law should be rendered by a company that determines itself which specializing lawyer is the most appropriate. This is the legal basis of development of brands of legal services due to stability, continuity, perfection and standardization of national legal products based on Russian law.

All the states meet real or potential menace of terrorism. Legislation of the European countries attributes international terrorism to the most dangerous criminal offence. International law marks out “technological terrorism” as a very dangerous variety of international terrorism. It concerns the usage of the nuclear weapons, radiological weapons, chemical weapons or biological weapons or its components, pathogens and other radioactive materials that cause harm for people. Biotechnologies can reduce to the terrible consequences if the mankind does not control its’ development. Compactness of the material, easiness of the delivery, really hard possibility to be found – all that makes biological means of terror rather perspective for terrorists. In order to minimize the risk of bioterrorism governments should collaborate in the field of prevention, warning and exchange of information.

The article dwells on the contemporary situation in respect of the judicial practice related to the application of the capital punishment both in international and national law. Today the European Convention for the Human Rights is the only international Act, prohibiting the death penalty as per Protocols № 6 and № 13. The author has undertaken an attempt to analyze the current situation, basing on the recent judgments of the European Court. However, the Court still has no definite opinion regarding the subject – should the capital punishment be considered as a violation of the Art. 2 of the Convention or not. The current cases mostly correlate the possibility of the application of the capital punishment with Art. 3 of the Convention, whereas the Art. 2 is considered violated just in some specific cases.

The author considers the problem of human rights protection in the EU, the history of the mentioned issue, as well as why it is necessary for the EU to accede to the European Convention. The author also describes the position of the Council of Europe towards the problem of accession in the light of the documents, concluded by Council of Europe. Special emphasis is given to the political and legal consequences of the future accession.

The recent textbook prepared by the Chair of International law of the MGIMO-University preserves the tradition of the MGIMO school. The Chair celebrated 60 years from its foundation in 2008. At the same time, the book under review is decidedly innovative and the focus is made on contemporary International law, its relationship with politics of states. The textbook in a clear and comprehensive manner introduces the reader to the most complex and essential theoretical issues of International law.

The Chair of International Law of the Russian Peoples’ Friendship University (RPFU) is one of the most authoritative chairs not only in Russia, but also abroad. It was founded in August 1963, and since then there has been no tradition to produce a textbook on International law. Thus, the staff of the RPFU’s international law chair under the supervision of professor A. Ya. Kapustin published the Textbook on International law for the first time over 45 years of the Chair’s existence.
The Textbook highlights the main issues and problems of International law. The authors have written their chapters basing on modern and classic literature, as well as with large number of examples from international practice.