The Vienna conference, during which there had been elaborated Convention on the law of the treaties, took place 40 years ago. The article demonstrates the significance of this Convention, describes history of its elaboration. The main goal of the Conference was to create such norms, which could enhance the development of the treaty relations between states, assist in concluding treaties on a fair basis without use of force. Stability of international relations primarily depends on the stability of international treaties.
Vienna convention codified existing norms on the law of the treaties. Several new norms had also been included into it thus reflecting the practice of states and tendencies of the development of the international law. In the article new principles and norms on the law of the treaties which emerged as a result of the conference are analyzed, among them:
treaties are void if had been concluded under duress: treaties are void if they contradict jus cogens norms; In the article new norms and principles, which were introduced by the Vienna Convention of 1969, are also analyzed: reservations to international treaties, termination of international treaties, Also in the article is described the discussion about the right of state formations, which are parts of federate states, to conclude treaties.
In the conclusion it is stressed that Vienna Convention of 1969 is an important step in the progressive development of international law. It facilitated the development and refinement of national legislation on the issue of international treaties in many countries, including the USSR and the Russian Federation.

Article is devoted to analysis of relation between international legal theory and philosophy. Author asserts that moral, political and legal philosophy is having a great significance in international legal doctrine. Interaction philosophy and international legal doctrine in modern period of development international law realize in the contest of increasing interdisсiplinary issues. The formation of thoughtful philosophical underpinnigs of international law and his theory have determined of the falling of the positivists dogma. In this article the author argue that international legal theory possess of inherent philosophical foundations. They have been divided into methodological and ideological foundations. Philosophy influences on their development. Author of the article review the philosophical basis of the international legal theory as an object of the philosophy of international law. Separate attention put up analysis of direct and indirect philosophical impact on international legal doctrine. Reason for great significance philosophical ideas is central role of philosophy as a spirits phenomenon of culture. In modern epoch philosophical pluralism is expanding. Diversification of the philosophical conceptions complicates the philosophical basis of international law doctrine. Philosophical basis include idea of oldest philosophers and conception of modern philosophers. Also they include the philosophical views of international lawyers. Author of article suggests to modernize philosophical basis of international law and his doctrine and to establish the mutual consent in the sphere of the philosophical foundations of the international law.

The International Law of Protection and Promotion of Human Rights is one of the branches of the contemporary International Law including legal rules that regulate interstate cooperation in respect of creation of international instruments on human rights and mechanisms of control and protection of human rights. The branch of International Law in question has quite a long history and is still in process of development nowadays. Thus this subject remains one of the most urgent issues. The present article concerns first of all the review of human rights concepts as well as the notion of the branch, generations of human rights and principals of the branch; regional and universal international human rights law sources; international mechanisms for protection of human rights including the new mechanism created within United Nations (Human Rights Council and its new procedures); new trends in development of International Human Rights Law (new human rights, rights of indigenous peoples, reform of UN human rights protection mechanism, extension of international courts’ competence, humanitarian intervention etc.) including situation with human rights in Russia.

Legal status of an individual in the modern state is the key element of the state system. The question is, to what extent having a right to nationality results in an actual possibility of enjoying this right. This particular issue has become extremely pressing in the light of the practice employed by the Baltic “powers” with respect to the legislation on nationality. Modern international law treats the actual possibility of obtaining such right or exercising it as one of the key, fundamental personal rights, which, given the declared primacy of the international law over the national law, becomes a sort of conditio sine qua non to the state system of a particular state being civilized. Where are the Baltic states with this, as a matter of practice? The selective approach adopted by the Baltic regimes to applying international law rules is still being supported by the Western community. The regulation with respect to obtaining nationality is quite tight and has a clearly verifiable purpose - to hinder obtaining nationality for the part of the population not belonging to the ethnic majority as much as possible. This particular policy explains the existence of a vast group of so called non-citizens in Latvia and Estonia. This is a unique Baltic invention. Notwithstanding a number of cosmetic measures, a significant number of the ethnic Russians in Latvia and Estonia still remain non-citizens. Thus, their right to nationality is denied by the authorities of the said countries, which contravenes the applicable general principles and rules of international law.

Scientific and technological progress, especially in the area of medicine, genetics, biology and chemistry gives a lot of possibilities and raises a lot problem to us. Now one can do euthanasia to himself or to his relatives, can choose the sex of his child, change his own sex. Many questions rise with the use of stem cells and with perspectives of cloning of the human being.
So in theory of law now we can speak about new generation of human rights which contains: right to die; human rights concerning its organs and tissues; sexual human rights (to seek, receive and impart information concerning sexuality, sexual education, the choice of a partner, to decide that the man should be sexually active or not, to decide the issue of voluntary sexual relations, marriage, the issue of legalizing prostitution, trafficking in pornography products and regulation situation of sexual minorities); reproductive human rights (positive: in vitro fertilization and negative: abortion, sterilization, contraception); right to change sex; right to clone an organism as a whole and individual organs; right to use drugs and psychotropic substances. UN, UNESCO and Council of Europe create some legal instruments (conventions, declarations etc.) in sphere of regulation of somatic human rights. These instruments are analyzing in the article.

International protection and promotion of the rights of the child has been evolving from the ancient times. However, the modern phase of its development began in 1945 with the establishment of the Organization of the United Nations. In this article the author shows how the evolution of the international protection of the human rights, especially of the rights of the child, resulted in development of the separate institute of the international protection and promotion of human rights regarded as separate branch of the international law. In the article you will find the argumentation of the emphasis made on the special protection of the rights of the child, as well as their promotion presented. The author adduces arguments with regard to the common rules and principles of the system of law theory itself, evaluation of the conceptual categories: “human being” and “child”, as well as evaluation of the equality of the rights of all humans with respect to special protection of the rights of the child and some limitations of the rights of infants and minors. In the last part of the article the author provides the separate classification of the sources of the institute of international protection and promotion of the rights of the child.

After the collapse of the USSR there were formed several countries and each country had to make a choice with regard to its model of external relations and security. Turkmenistan chose the status of total neutrality and it had been a natural reaction to the geopolitical situation in which the country appeared to be.
Policy of neutrality is a way of preserving security of a nation and a state, thus providing for the international peace and stability in the region.
In 1995 the neutral status of Turkmenistan had been recognized by an international community through the Resolution of the UN General Assembly 50/80. This Resolution has wide implications both for Turkmenistan and the international community. Turkmenistan on the one hand received international guarantees of its security and territorial integrity; on the other hand it refused from its several rights, accepted some obligations as a state and it cannot reject this status unilaterally.
But the neutrality status does not prohibit international contacts and the membership in international organizations. Turkmenistan is a member of more than 40 international organizations. Also Turkmenistan is a signatory nearly to all of the international treaties banning the use, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Apart from this Turkmenistan played an important role in conflicts in Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
One of the key directions of the external policy of neutrality is international economic cooperation. By taking an active part in international economic cooperation Turkmenistan facilitates the strengthening of regional and international security what is the primary goal of the Turkmenistan’s neutrality.

A substantial part of the Arctic coastline belongs to the Russian Federation. But the legislation in respect of the Arctic started to develop only in the beginning of the XX century. In the article the author profoundly analyses existing both international and domestic legislation of the Russian Federation in this respect, the positions of other countries with regard to this issue. Also the author touches upon the question of the sector theory and points out that it is one of the easiest to employ in respect of the icecovered spaces particularly in order to ascertain the sovereignty over the Arctic islands.
Further on the author analyses the nature of the title to the continental shelf and the Russian submission to the Commission on the limits of the continental shelf. In the article it is stated that there is no simple solution to this problem. Wide-scale research of the bottom of the Arctic Ocean is conducted by several countries; negotiations are on the way between the countries with Arctic coasts as to the possible delimitations between them.
The author concludes that Russia’s submission in respect of the Arctic continental shelf had been the first but not the last one. The other arctic states are in the process of adjusting the accepted norms and principles of international law to the new region. This experience can be used further on in other regions of the world.

In the year of 2008 the 60th anniversary session of International Law Commission took place and the article is devoted to this subject. The author conducts a full-scale description of the history of the work of the International Law Commission highlighting major points of its activities and expressing his own opinions. For example, the author states that if the topic “independence of states” had been codified it could have been possible to avoid several international problems as in the case with the situation in Kosovo.
Further on the author dwells on the subject of Soviet and later on Russian representatives participation in the work of International Law Commission.
As for the anniversary meeting there were discussed 8 topics, which are enumerated and discussed in the article.
Upon the whole the International Law Commission greatly contributed and continues to do so in the spheres of the law of the sea, international criminal law, law of the treaties and other spheres. In detail the author touches upon the role of International Law Commission in the development of international ecological law and the elaboration of the notion of “soft law”. The author also pays attention to the relations between International Law Commission and the International Court of justice and comes to the conclusion that their relations can be characterized as symbiosis.
In the conclusion the author states that International Law Commission accomplishes very difficult but necessary work and expresses the opinion that there will be new achievements in the process of codification and the progressive development of the international law.

In the literature on private international law, there are certain terms, which characterize the legal connection between legal persons and a state. On the base of interdisciplinary method, the article firstly analyzes the notions lex societatis, personal law, personal (corporate) statute, state belonging, nationality, domicile and residence of the company and reveals their legal nature and application in various jurisdictions. It is noted that in the contemporary times of legal developments in private international law, the notion “nationality” in relation to companies loses its practical value and becomes obsolete. It is mentioned about the belief of the author regarding inexpediency of application of the notion “nationality” in private international law. The article, secondly, explores the main approaches of determination of personal law of the company: incorporation, real seat and main place of business. The advantages and disadvantages of incorporation and real seat theories were illustrated in light with the law and practice of various states. Furthermore, the theory of control is explored in light with the French, American and British case law and practice of International Court of Justice. The article gives an idea of recent cases of European Court of Justice and specifies that the real seat theory has been put aside in the EC after Centros, Überseering and Inspire Art.

There are two general approaches to relationship between national and international law: monism and dualism. Under monism, national and international law are integral parts of one legal system, so the issue which law shall prevail in case of discrepancies can be resolved by using common rules of conflict of laws (lex specialis derogat generali, lex posterior derogat priori etc.) Under dualism, national and international law are two separate legal systems, so when the question which law shall prevail arises, one should refer to special rules (usually specified in constitutions).
The Constitution of the PRC doesn’t provide for any special ruling on the issue of conflict between national and international law. The absence of the ruling in question can be explained by numerous factors, e.g., historical background, the influence of the USSR Constitutions, etc. Furthermore, under traditional legal doctrine in China, national and international law are in “natural consistency” with each other if the state duly performs its international obligations, so usually there’s no need for specific ruling on the issue of conflict between national and international law.
However, after China joined WTO the question about the legal force of international treaties on China territory arises again, this is why Chinese current legislation, governmental acts and court practice provide for specific rules resolving the issue of conflict between national and international law. The examples of these provisions can be found in civil, criminal, administrative laws, etc. The above said rulings (all of the same wording) provide that in case of any discrepancies between the provisions of the law in question and an international treaty China has concluded or participates, the rules of international treaty shall prevail. Based on these regulations Supreme People’s Court made some further clarifications. It is noteworthy that as long as this ruling is not included into the Constitution of China, it can’t be deemed as general principle of Chinese legal system (as, e.g., in Russia) – now we would consider it as a trend in Chinese legal system development.

It’s for many years that the revision of the Chicago Convention on Civil Aviation of 1944 is discussed. Still more acute is the need for the Convention on Air Law (CAL) from the point of view of united legal regime for any flights and any kinds of activity in airspace which constitute the interdependent system. The experience of European Union in this respect is mostly successful. Less successful are the CIS member-States, which just formally declared United Airspace (UAS). Still in both cases we have just Functional Airspace (FAS) declared for certain flights and activities.
The States-members of Pact of Ands created FAS for commercial aims.
FAS is declared by all regional organizations in the sphere of air navigation: ASECNA, EUROCONTROL, COCESNA etc. It is possible to use the term “United Airspace of the Convention on Air Law” keeping in mind (among all) the idea of creation of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based on GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO.
CAL will help to settle a number of “frozen” (traditional) problems (disputes) of air law, as well as new ones, with the help of a new Global Organization on the Use of Air Space (GOUAS). It will also promote the creation of stable legal base for the functional “flight cyber space”.
As to the procedural aspects of the problem it advisable to use the experience of Convention on the Law of the Seas of 1982 and of Draft Convention on the Law of Outer Space proposed by Russia in 2000.
In any case it should be kept in mind that many States oppose the idea of global agreement on exchange of commercial rights in air transport.
So the CAL should be mostly devoted to the public aspects of International Air Law.

The article dwells on the issues of formation and development of the international legal norms regulating non-international armed conflicts.
The author points out the stages of development of the norms under consideration and refers to the questions of recognizing nonintervention by a warring side and the International Red Cross Committee activities.
The author studies the main points of the additional protocol tо the Geneva conventions, signed on August, 12th, 1949, that deals with the defense of the victims of armed non-international conflicts.

The term “United Economic Space” (UES) is used in many international treaties. Generally it aims at integrating the states of certain region into the sphere of common market of goods, services, capitals and working force, into developing of united transport, energy, information systems. Some definitions (as the way to guarantee the aforesaid) include also such elements of the UES as: harmonized legal norms, united infrastructure, money-credit, taxation, trade and custom policy. The preceding stage is usually the formation of Custom Union and United economic territory.
The idea of United European Economic Space (UEES) between the European Union (EU) and Russia emerged in 2001. Then, in 2003 the EU member-states elaborated 4 Common Spaces (Road Maps) without any participation of Russia. (In May 2005 the “Road Map” of UEES was signed with no effect). In 2003 Russia signed the treaty on UES with Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Byelorussia.
The principal point of the process is whether the corresponding European laws might be introduced into the Russian legal system so that the latter would become just a subsidiary to the European laws. Russia opposes such option in principle.
The rich experience of the States of Western Hemisphere should also be investigated. Practically, there are examples of just an ordinary cooperation with real features of integration only within NAFTA (United States, Canada and Mexico as members). Perhaps, the Zone of Free Trade (ALCA) is comparable to it, while the South-American Common market is less successful. The states of Latin America try to create UES (meaning the free flow of capital and working force) with the ASAN. But it remains unclear where this process would lead to.
The idea of formatting Global UES seems to be illusive. The possibility of uniting of different markets into the United (Common) Market appears more practical. Generally, it is likely to have little chance of success, if there is not any supranational governing organ.

This article deals with a consultative body of the Council of Europe - the European commission for democracy through law (commonly known as the Venice Commission).
The author reveals historical and legal reasons of creation of the Venice commission the most important of which are some limitations of State sovereignty on behalf of international organizations. The article also tackles some general aspects of development and using of non binding norms by international organizations and, in particular, by the Council of Europe, for instance, legal opinions of the Venice Commission which, according to the author, are more efficient than obligatory (binding) norms.
The mission of the Venice Commission which is to strengthen the Council of Europe principles, such as democracy, human rights and rule of law is also revised.
Finally, the author analyzes a legal form of the Venice commission – a partial agreement (only interested member states participate in an activity). The author draws attention to the fact that the Venice commission has now been transformed to an enlarged agreement (all member states participate in its activity as well as some of non-member states) which proves its efficiency and usefulness even if it has only consultative competences.

In the beginning of the article the author stresses that by the end of the previous century in the framework of the European Union there existed several documents governing the issue of criminal extradition. The author describes the history of elaboration of the principle of mutual acceptance of documents in the sphere of law-enforcement and particularly in the question of extradition in the form of “framework resolution” of the European Union. Apart from the history of the resolution the author also gives an in-depth analysis of its contents, including the procedure of its implementation.
Further on the reports of the European Commission on the implementation of the European arrest warrant are analyzed. In these reports the results of the work in this sphere are commended and characterized as positive. But the author points out the notice of the European Commission that this should not lead to weakening of the efforts of states not fully complying with the requirements. Then the author enumerates the difficulties existing in this respect.
In the conclusion the author states that the practice of implementation of warrant requires an enhancement to the procedure and that there should be worked out some guidelines for the effective implementation of the warrant.

The article examines the development of the EU legislation in the banking sphere and the role of “soft law” in this process. The author considers the Final Report of Committee of Wise Men on the Regulation of European Securities Markets, Brussels, February 15th 2001, a successful example of implementing soft law into regulation of the banking system in the EU.
The investigation demonstrates that the system of regulation introduced with the Committee of Wise Men report on the EU level has been implemented into national legal systems of the EU member states and currently is being operated as a successfully working mechanism. The norms introduced primarily for regulating of the stock market have been further extended to the order and structure of the EU banking supervision bodies.

Considering the character of judgments on detention during the investigation in the Russian criminal trial, the Russian criminal legislation does not conform to the concept of impartiality of the judge developed by the European Court of Human Rights. The author adheres to the opinion, that the judicial control over investigation can be provided by the assignment of function on detention during the investigation to specially created body – an investigative judge. Such practice has justified itself in other member-states of European Convention of Human Rights. Despite of a variety of judicial systems and the difference in the litigation, the function of the judicial control is provided by creation of special courts or judicial posts everywhere.

The monograph by the president of the Association of legal maritime studies professor A.L. Kolodkin and his colleagues professor Gutsulyak V.N., Bobrova U.V. studies one of the oldest and at the same time currently rapidly developing field of international law – the International maritime law.
The monograph successfully combines a detailed revision of the legal regime of the use of the World Ocean, Russian legislation regulation the regime of sea and practical recommendations of their further progress.

In the international law literature there appeared a new book “International Labour Law” written by Damir K. Bekyashev, an associate professor of the International Law Department in the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Affairs (University), Ph.D in Law. The book under review is the first book in Russia where the author covers in a systematic way key issues of international labour law as an autonomous branch of international public law. The book is comprised of four chapters, a bibliography, and five appendices. Chapter 1 contains the fundamentals of the international labour law theory. Chapter 2 is devoted to the International Labour Organization (ILO), its legal status, structure, general directions of its activity, as well as the ILO cooperation with other international organizations. In chapter 3 the author examines the issues of international protection of labour rights, international legal regulation of labour of separate categories of workers including migrant workers, the participation of the Russian Federation in this process. In chapter 4 the author analyzes legal regulation of labour of international organizations officials, the UN Administrative Tribunal, as well as the ILO Administrative Tribunal.
The book under review is quite interesting and necessary; it is prepared on a high professional level. The manner of delivering the material is that of a full-fledged scholar, simultaneously quite simple and easy for understanding.
However, one cannot do without a number of comments and wishes to be expressed. The author of the book should have paid more attention to the methodology adding tables and schemes, which could be used in lectures and seminars. Tests on international labour law would also have been advantageous for the book. The author could have placed questions and other assignments for students at the end of each chapter, and he could have formulated topics for course papers and diploma papers at the very end of the book. The reviewer wishes the author would prepare a sound monograph on one of the international labour law institutes. In 2004 Damir K. Bekyashev already had a monograph published on the labour of seafarers and fishermen. However, four years have passed since; lots of new documents have been adopted in the sphere of international legal regulation of labour of different categories of workers in the World Ocean. Besides, there exists an urgent need for a special work devoted to the labour of migrant workers.

The first all-Russian Congress on Bioethics with international representatives was held on 26-27 September 2008 in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation under the auspices of the UNESCO Moscow Office, Commission of Russian Federation on UNESCO Affairs, Government of Republic of Tatarstan, Commission of the Republic of Tatarstan on UNESCO affairs, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. The first day of Congress was followed by the General Assembly of Forum of National Ethics Committees of the CIS member states. The discussions during the Congress concerned the most important and sensitive issues such as protection of human rights (patient’s rights) during biomedical research, work of ethics committees during procedure of approval of clinical trials, status of fetus, international cooperation in the field of human rights and bioethics (including cooperation within UNESCO and the Council of Europe).
The most significant result of the event reflected in the Final Document of the Congress is the recognition of necessity for the Russian Federation to adhere to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine of 1997, and to submit to the Russian Committee on Bioethics a proposal to estimate the necessity and expediency for Russia to ratify the Additional Protocols to this Convention, including the Protocol on Transplantation of Organs and Tissues of Human Origin, the Protocol on Biomedical Research, the Protocol on Genetic Testing for Health Purposes.

The article introduces the Communication from the Commission to the European parliament, the Council, the European economic and social committee and the committee of the regions – An Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union (October, 10^th 2007). The document communicates the position of the European Commission on integrating the EU member states activities in the maritime policy sphere. However, the communication of the Commission on this important political and legal position of 10^th October 2007 is not the first official document in the European maritime economic integration. The article gives an extensive historical excursus of developing an integrated legal regime of regulating maritime and fishery activities of the EU. The extensive analysis of the legislation since 1970s enlightens the main stages of an integrated policy progress in this sphere.