The principle of open regionalism, a new paradigm of regional economic cooperation, has become a focal point of several economic organizations, particularly in the Asia Pacific region and Latin America. Nevertheless, Asia-Pacific and Latin American versions of open regionalism substantially diverge and no compromise definition of this principle has yet been worked out. The Asia-Pacific approach (mostly advocated by academic community, though not equivocally, rather than governments) defines open regionalism as a guiding rule to the extension of trade and investment liberalization measures, undertaking by the members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, to all non-members on unilateral and unconditional basis. On the contrary, the Latin American approach (accepted by ECLAC, Andean Community) considers open regionalism a strategy of creating regional blocs whose liberalization measures can be extended to non-members only on reciprocal basis. Apparently, the Latin American interpretation of open regionalism remains non-distinguishable from the concept of closed regions shaped in forms of free trade agreements or customs unions in compliance with Article XXIV of GATT and Article V of GATS. The Asia-Pacific stance on open regionalism propagates outwardoriented regional liberalization programs that facilitate multilateral (WTOdriven) trade liberalization agenda. Thus the Asia-Pacific approach precisely specifies core and unique peculiarities of the conception of open regionalism. Yet, despite consistent and logical explication of open regionalism given by Asia-Pacific scholars, this concept has appeared to be hardly implemental in practice.

The International Programme for Search and Rescue – COSPAS-SARSAT represents a bright example of international cooperation in space and is considered to be a tried and tested model of the organization of the same cooperation for solving different problems, including solving problems concerned with safety of human life at sea In the article the following issues are considered: the activity of the COSPAS-SARSAT, the role of the COSPAS-SARSAT in regulation of states’ international cooperation in using outer space for peaceful purposes. There have been also revealed trends and perspectives of development of activity of the COSPAS-SARSAT as well as the role of the Russian Federation in the regulation of international relations in the said sphere.

One of the major requirements of the international humanitarian law is the provision in regard of the fact that all the population of a state in war cannot participate in a military conflict, this task is performed by special structures created by the state: regular and irregular armies, usually united by the term “armed forces” (combatants and non-combatants).
In the article there is offered an analysis of customs, international legal documents, writings of Russian and foreign scholars, state practice, which reflect the evolution of the terms combatants and non-combatants during a substantial period of time starting from conclusion of the Convention on institutes and customs of land warfare of 1899/1907 and till Additional Protocol 1 of 1977 to Geneva Conventions of 1949. The author comes to a conclusion that Additional Protocol 1 clarified the issue of determining rightful participants in a military conflict as pertaining to one of the categories: a) combatants – persons belonging to armed forces of a state, who are entitled to wage a war; b) non-combatants (medical workers, priests) from the body of armed forces, who do not have such a right. Nonetheless the author points out that there is still no single opinion on this issue.

During its history the European Community comprising together with Euroatom the first pillar of the European Union constantly increased its powers thus forming a complex mechanism. The creation in 1992 of the second and the third pillars lead to further complication of the internal structure of the European integration formations. This lead to different approaches in determining the powers of the European Community among scholars and disputes between member-states and national bodies.
The author conducts a substantial analysis of the legal documents, writings of scholars and cases of the European Court in this respect. Thus he creates a full picture and gives a wide coverage of the topic concerned and also helps to look at the problem at different angles as many opposing views are analyzed and the author tries to find the common solution on which most of the scholars agree. The author comes to a conclusion that now it is very difficult to pinpoint the exclusive powers of the European Community and that this can be resolved by the adoption of the relevant laws. The European Court does not give a clear solution to this problem either. The author explains this fact by the political importance and the complexity of the question.
The main conclusion the author arrives to is that uncertainty in the amount of the exclusive powers of the European Community leads to the necessity of political coordination and amendment of incorporation documents of each level of European integration. This in turn sometimes leads to political crises and legal collisions. That is why determining the exact limits of exclusive powers of the European Community are vital for the European Union.

The problem of the antimonopoly regulation and stimulation of the development of competition is becoming more and more acute for our country. The principal point of difficulty in the antimonopoly regulation of the companies’ activities on the market is the poorly developed competition legislation and heavily monopolized regional markets. One of the ways of solving these problems is borrowing some pro-competitive approaches and legislation that have been developed and successfully implementing in the countries with the developed open market economy with free competition, particularly in the EU In general, the EU rules on competition applying to undertakings include a general prohibition on cartels that results in the nullity of prohibited agreements or decisions, but that is made less harsh by the possibility of exemption (Article 81), a prohibition on the abuse of dominant positions (Article 82). However, the article is dedicated to analyzing of the most important and at the same time very controversial terms and meanings that are used in the EU competition legislation. These terms are set out in the Article 81(1) of the Rome Treaty establishing the European Community (EC Treaty). In particular this article considers the following:
1. conception of “undertaking” in terms of the competition law;
2 meaning “agreements, decisions of associations and concerted practices”;
3 meaning “which may affect trade between member states”;
4 meaning “which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the common market”.

The status of the law of the European Union has a significant meaning in the legal systems of the member states. The main tasks of this article are to understand the way the law of the European Union is being implemented and used on the territory of member states and to determine which of the “levels” of the law will have the priority in case of the conflict between the legal norms of the European Union and the national law In the article there is explained the difference between legal systems of member states what leads to the different status of the law of the European Union in these countries. Further on the author points out major principles in this sphere: direct action and supremacy, which were produced by the European Court. These two principles are then carefully elaborated by the author and their development and different aspects, such as the effectiveness of the law of the European Communities, are analyzed. Author illustrates his point of view on different examples and there are many references to the cases of the European Court in this respect. This helps to provide a broader basis for analysis of the issues touched upon in the article In the conclusion the author states that although the mentioned principles may be very simple and obvious, they continue to play an important role in the development of the European Community, thus increasing the significance of the law of the European Union, what in its turn provides its unified implementation on the territory of member-states.

The article focuses on one of the fundamental issues of the functioning of the League of Nations – its mechanism of the use of sanctions. The article is subdivided into two parts. In the first part, which deals with theoretical aspects of the League of Nations’ regime of sanctions, the author has outlined debates about the alternative to war methods of dispute resolution within the League and enforcement of the League’s decisions which finally resulted in the concept of the collective security. Theoretical constructions are illustrated by quotations by leading scientists and some of those high officials who personally participated in the discussion of the issue in question. The author draws attention to some loopholes in the Statute of the League which contributed to the ineffectiveness of the Organization in the sphere of the resolution of those global disputes which were submitted to it. The second part of the article is devoted to the activity of the League in the epoch of international crises such as the Italian invasion to Abyssinia, Japanese aggression against Manchuria etc Inability of the League to constrain aggression on behalf oh the recalcitrant fascist regimes and face connivance of superpowers has given a momentum to the Second World War and led the League to oblivion. The final part of the article contains conclusions and overall estimation of the activity of the Organization.

This article written by Artem Fokin (LL.M.), a New York tax attorney practicing in the area of international taxation, taxation of mergers and acquisitions, and taxation of derivatives, discusses the interplay between U.S. international tax law and other areas of American law as well as foreign law. In particular, the article focuses on how the U.S. tax law uses characterization of transactions prescribed by other areas of law. The author has chosen the distinction between royalties and remuneration for services as the basis for his article. He walks readers through the importance of proper characterization of transactions by the U.S. tax law and how such characterization could be different from characterization and titles elected by taxpayers and illustrates his points by discussing benchmark court decisions in the area of the U S international taxation.

The contemporary state of affairs is often characterized by the fact that hereditary relationships transcend the borders of one state. These cases are not unique due to migration of people, mixed marriages, etc. This leads to a problem of regulation of social relationships in the process of internationalization. Thus hereditary relationships having international character should be governed by the norms of a certain national legal order or of several such legal orders. The main task of the court or any other body in this case is to determine which national order is to be complied with, that is which legal order will serve as lege causae in a particular case Initially lege causae was understood as a written source of law, being in force on a particular territory, which included norms both from public and private, including hereditary, law. Later on the term lege causae was used in respect of the title of the state, which as included in conflict rules is relevant for the purposes of regulation of private legal relationships, related to the legal orders of several states, including the hereditary relationships.

For historical reasons, Russian insurance companies are vastly borrowing the practices and experience of English Protection and Indemnity Clubs. While in general this process is natural for a much younger shipowners’ liability insurance in Russia and serves to the benefit of the parties, massive citations from English rules sometimes lead to contradictory results and may not always comply with the requirements of Russian law.
English P&I clubs and Russian insurance companies act on different basic principles. P&I clubs are non-for-profit organizations in which member ship owners may to some extent direct the activities of the club. The financial stability of a P&I club is secured by the members’ obligation to make calls (payments) of several types, which size are determined by the club’s directors Russian insurance companies are commercial organizations whose principal aim is to earn profit for their shareholders. The insurance premium is fixed, and so is the limit of the insurer’s liability. Besides, Russian insurance legislation and practice differ significantly from English.
Therefore, a widely used practice of implementing the rules of an English P&I club into a contract between a Russian ship owner and a Russian insurer may not be found appropriate Implementing clauses referring to particular risks (such as liability for collisions, towage and payment of fines) may either directly contradict Russian law, or lead to uncertainties or discrepancies This problem may be partially resolved by establishment of Russian mutual insurance clubs that would act on the same principles as the English P&I clubs. Besides, Russian insurance companies should be more prudent while using English clauses in their rules of insurance.

The right to privacy belongs to fundamental human rights stipulated in the basic international treaties and conventions Despite the highest level of international recognition the concept of the right to privacy lacks uniform interpretation Existing definitions and interpretations differ in different legal doctrines. Anglo-American legal doctrine was the first to recognize and legally protect the right to privacy. Long-established legal tradition accounts for a broad construction of the right to privacy spreading its sphere to many aspects of one’s personal and family life. Physical privacy, informational privacy, communicational privacy, territorial privacy is seen as structural components of the concept “privacy” and enjoys equal legal status. This corresponds with the practice of the European Court of Human Rights to spread its protection to more personal and family matters with respect to Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights Russian legal doctrine gave the right to privacy complete legal recognition and provided possibilities for its protection a decade and a half ago In the Constitution and legal codes the right to privacy is separated from the secret of personal and family life, communicational privacy, inviolability of the home and other corresponding rights. This may lead to think that the right to privacy is construed strictly by the Russian legislator which contradicts the sense of the provisions of international conventions and the established foreign and international legal practice However research shows that Russian scientists and law experts interpret the right to privacy differently giving it a broad definition in a way similar to Anglo-American doctrine though differences remain.

This article is dedicated to the nuclear nonproliferation problem. The author explains the urgency of the issue, especially in the light of the recent international events. During the last years the Nonproliferation Treaty has been criticized for the world community can not agree how to apply the Nonproliferation Treaty towards the certain states that are suspected of creation of their own nuclear weapon potentials Under circumstances of the “crisis” of the Nonproliferation Treaty it makes sense providing a historical review of the Treaty in order to see what conceptual ideas underlie the nuclear weapon international control, which plans that existed before influenced the essence of the Treaty and which political realties the Treaty reflected initially. Such an analysis will make clear what kind of changes have occurred since the time when the Treaty was signed and which provisions fail to respond with modern circumstances. Subsequently it will help to work out propositions aimed at improving and strengthening of the nonproliferation regime.

The article is focused on examining legal aspects of the (SCO) and its characteristics as a regional international organization. Particular attention is devoted to examining statutory documents, legal norms and regulations formulated within the SCO, as well as to the analysis of structure, composition and functioning of various working bodies within the Organization.
The author points out that besides growing political impact on regional affairs the SCO displays dynamic institutional development and has significantly broadened the scope of interstate multilateral cooperation within the Organization both on regional security issues and economic matters.

The article focuses on drugs and on the ways how to combat this problem because drugs influence many spheres of our lives and one of the most significant goals of the human kind is to find a remedy to drug addiction and elaborate ways of fighting circulation of drugs. One of the crucial problems here is the inclusion of children into the sphere of interests of drug dealers who drag them into this business for the sake of extra gains. We witness the horror and the complexity of the problem and clearly see the necessity of dealing with it as it touches upon every one of us and especially our children Further the article offers the list of most common drugs and demonstrates effects they have on people. Afterwards the author shifts to the legal ways of fighting different aspects of drug addiction and circulation of drugs and enumerates several conventions on this subject.
In its latter part the author pays attention to the ways of combating drug-addiction in the framework of the UN and particularly UNICEF. The Children’s Fund of the United Nations Organization together with the international and regional organizations, official bodies, educational centers implements different programs in the sphere of prevention, assistance and research in the field of fighting drugs. The UNICEF tries to unite the states to cooperate against “drug epidemic” by developing different programs, projects, and charitable actions. The complex strategy directed towards the reduction of drug abuse and spread of a HIV-infection, is of vital importance, as it will make the struggle against drugs more effective.

Land parcels under buildings within the territory of diplomatic and consular missions are parts of the respective premises Such land parcels are objects of both international and national law (as for the latter of the receiving state). According to international law, these land parcels falls within the concept of “premises” as defined by Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 and Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963. National law of the receiving state usually provides that such parcels of land are parts of the state territory and a natural resource of this state. Taking this into account the article is devoted to considering legal status of such lands as a significant example of interaction between international and national law. Numerous practical questions are posed as a result of such a consideration Lands leased or sold according to the international treaties entered into by a receiving state and a sending state or by a custom or by a civil transaction are nevertheless within the general scope of the above mentioned Convention of 1961 and Convention of 1963 relative to the granting immunities In spite of such international protection such lands do not cease to be part of the territory of the receiving state Civil and other national legislation of this state is applied to such lands insomuch as it does not contradict the international law Buildings and lands under and around them being “premises” are granted only functioned immunities, that is for facilitating diplomatic or consular functions of the accrediting state. The rental fee and other conditions of leasing for such lands under international treaties usually do not have anything in common with fees and other leasing conditions used under national law. The priority of diplomatic and consular law remains even in cases when the initial title was formed by legal act or fact under national law.

The development of the international economy is closely related to the immigration process. The European Union is an significant member of the world policy, thus studying the immigration in the frame of the European Union is very important. The article “The immigration policy in the law of the European Union” is devoted to the analysis of the law development of the immigration process in the European Union. The attention is paid to the law progress and the main stages of its development. The author of the article bases her research on the international law sources showing the continuity in solutions of the immigration issues in the European area Attention is paid to the spread of immigration and motives of its origination. Studying the immigration policy the author comes to the conclusion that not all the European Union states pay sufficient attention to this question and tend to use cheap work-force in their economies. In the author’s opinion it is necessary to cooperate for the stability and solving main problems in the immigration policy sphere of the European Community.

Russia’s accession to European standards of human rights and freedom is a very complicated process and the mechanism of implementation of the European Convention on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms is far from ideal. The textbook under review is the first textbook in regard of the fundamental international treaty in the sphere of human rights and freedoms – European Convention, and also in regard of the questions related to the activities of European Court of human rights. This textbook is very acute in the contemporary world as it is impossible to give proper education to a law student without explaining the issues touched in the textbook. The book itself is divided into six parts each of which deals with a separate subject. The first part is dedicated to the European Council as the regional international organization. Other topics discussed in the textbook are the European Convention itself and the activity of the European Court of human rights. In the textbook there is also offered an overview of the existing literature on the topic including legal documents The textbook is of high theoretical and practical value and is very significant for the Russian law science as it can be used as by professors and students in the universities, so as by those who work in the sphere of human rights and freedoms.

This book is a collective monograph prepared by scientists from Russian Peoples’ Friendship University. The purpose of this book is to show the importance of the codification’s process for development of international environmental law (IEL) and to describe different forms of IEL’s legal sources This monograph has a good structure and consists of 5 chapters. In the first chapter authors analyze key concepts of IEL, such as “codification of International Environmental Law” and “soft law”. The second chapter is dedicated to description of principles of IEL. The roles of international governmental organizations (UN, FAO, IMO, ICAO and IAEA) and nongovernmental organizations (IUCN, WWF, Greenpeace International, ICRC) in process of codification and progressive development of IEL are discussed in Chapter III and Chapter IV of this monograph. In the last Chapter authors describe problems of IEL’s codification during the UN environmental conferences (Stockholm 1972, Rio 1992 and Johannesburg 2002).
In conclusion, we can say that this book is important and may contribute to the development of Russian’s IEL doctrine.

The reviewed book represents the collection of documents on aqualification of criminal actions of the Turkish government relating to Armenian people during the period between 1876 and 1923 as a crime of genocide. In addition the book provides for the relevant legal comment. Arguments of Turkey against such a qualification are challenged by the author of a book from the point of view of international law. Elements of a crime of genocide, including the analysis of provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948 are dwelled upon in details. On a practical level the author offers negotiations between the two states or their joint request for an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice as possible optimal means of settlement of Armenian-Turkish disagreements.

The review appraises a recent treatise on international criminal law written by Dr. Gerhard Werle, Professor of German and international criminal law at the Alexander-von-Humboldt University in Berlin. Unlike some earlier treatises on international criminal law, which had contained a combined presentation of both international criminal law and procedure, G. Werle’s work focuses exclusively on material law. The book is subdivided in six parts and expounds in a detailed way the foundations, principles and systembuilding institutions of international criminal law, as well as comments profoundly the elements of core international crimes – genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.
Summing up the main approaches towards elements of crimes in international criminal law, the author concludes that, unlike in domestic criminal law systems, international crimes have three elements under international criminal law: material element, psychological element, as well as the existence or absence of circumstances which exclude criminal responsibility. This theoretical construction brings to an “average” common denominator the Anglo-Saxon concept which encompasses only two elements of crimes (so-called actus reus and mens rea), and the continental one, which “splits” crimes into four elements (subject and subjective aspect of a crime, object and objective aspect of a crime). The specific elements of international crimes, which are considered in subsequent Parts, are further characterised from the point of view of those three elements It is suggested that the book, due to its superb academic quality and scholarly value, would be of a definite use to international lawyers.

On October 18-19, 2007 in Saint-Petersburg there was hold a Conference “Prospects of the Development of the Legal Regulation of International Relations in the XXI century”. Simultaneously the birthday of Prof. Lyudmila Nikiforovna Galenskaya, the Professor of the Chair of International Law of the Law faculty of the Saint-Petersburg State University, was celebrated. The Conference focused both on public and private international law aspects Many issues and problems of contemporary international law were covered and discussed. Prof. Galenskaya in her speech focused on the tendencies of the development of the international law and international relations, pointing out three major factors affecting these phenomena: globalization, technological progress and ecology. The presentations that followed touched upon different aspects of international law and offered an insightful analysis of the issues which are acute for the contemporary world. Among of the questions which were actively discussed were the issues of private international law, international security, law of the sea, regime of the territories, legal regulation of the economic sphere, etc. At the end of the Conference each participant was presented with a book “International Public and Private Law: problems and prospects. Liber amicorum in honour of Professor L.N. Galenskaya”.