Since 1945 and till 1991 the Baltic Republics (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) constructively and loyally participated in the common State life of the USSR on absolutely equal terms with other Soviet Republics. To all intents and purposes the Baltic Soviet Republics could not legally and impartially be treated as «occupied». The conception of the so-called “Uninterrupted Statehood” of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia since 1920 and up to now is totally fictitious and absurd legally. History is a stubborn substance and does not allow to strike out half a century period of the Soviet Statehood of three countries. The moods of neo-Nazi revanchism, Russophobia and anti-Semitism in the now-a-days Baltic States are really artificially instigated and cultivated by the so-called “yesterday’s forever”, the belated Nazi-followers, as well as by some Western global strategists eager to create their anti-Russian outposts at the Baltic States. The most spectacular, senseless and unlawful at that is the promotion of claims to Russia “to compensate” some fanciful damages due to “occupation”. The sensible policy of Russia vis-а-vis the Baltic States would be the dignified and weighed repulse to any anti-Russian activities and provocations, but for the most part a conduct of all-round policy of mutually beneficial economic and cultural regional co-operation.

The author of the article focuses on the outcomes of the Second Hague Conference of 1907 and offers an in-depth analysis of the respective documents adopted on this Conference. The author also analyses the results of the first Hague Conference in order to highlight and interpret the results of the second. The author arrives to the following conclusions about the international importance of the Hague Conferences: first they demonstrated political activity of Russia on the international arena; second they accumulated legal norms already existing but not codified and gave impetus for further development of the norms and ideas contained therein; ideas of the Conferences influenced the development of the concept of peaceful settlement of disputes, which was later on incorporated into the UN Charter; new notion of “victims of war” was introduced and deliberated; ideas of the Conferences had impact on the shaping and development of the concept of responsibility of states for breach of international legal norms; the legal status of combatants was elaborated and further developed; Conferences greatly influenced the development of science of international humanitarian law; results of the Conferences lead to the improvement and development of the provisions of internal legislation due to the implementation of international legal norms. In the conclusion the author states that the Conferences themselves and their respective results became possible due to the efforts of Fedor Fedorovich Martens, an outstanding scholar of international law, famous publicist, advisor to Russian tsars on international issues, professor and head of the Chair of St. Petersburg University.

The author highlights main doctrinal theories on legal nature of concordats, the specific features of their subject and the current understanding of their nature in contemporary international law. It is emphasized that concordats do not fall within the standard aims and content of ordinary international treaties and refer to matters of so called “mixed competence”: international and domestic, spiritual and temporal. It is also mentioned that in strict understanding of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969) concordats do not fall within the scope of the Convention. The aforesaid, however, does not vitiate a concordat or prevent the parties from subjecting it to the Vienna Convention. A brief characteristic of the Lateran concordat of 1929 is given. Concordat is defined as an international legal agreement between the Holy See and a particulate state with the aim of regulating the bilateral relations between its parties, determining the legal status and terms of activity of the Catholic Church within the state and guaranteeing the Church’s interrelation with the Holy See.

Considering the strongly marked tendency of internationalization of services market in recent years the leading role of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in governing international trade in services is certain. As today foreign access to the Russian services market including Russian travel services market is among the four main areas of talks on Russian accession to the WTO it is important to explore the GATS’ fundamental principles, obligations and disciplines and its influence on Russian travel market further development. The liberalization of Tourism market and removal of barriers to the growth of Tourism under the GATS has to facilitate higher tourism inflows, trade and investment. The agreement covers all internationally-traded services including travel services, but the question of a special Annex on Tourism to the GATS still remains undetermined. As the GATS contains multilateral rules and commitments covering Government measures which affect trade in services the objective of each Member is to protect its national providers of travel services.

The article discusses the flexibility mechanisms contained in the Kyoto Climate Protocol of 1997, among which the document classifies clean development mechanism, joint implementation and emission trading. Special attention is paid to the already existing experience in the field of foundation and functioning of carbon markets and exchanges.

After the assassination of President Slobodan Milosevic the only “accused” of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia who defends not himself but Serbian nation is Doctor Vojislav Seselj. Dr. Seselj voluntary came to the prison of ICTY in February 2003 — just a week after the indictment was made public. Since that time — for more than 4 and half years — ICTY still could not start his trial. Such a great delay with the start of the trial violates the fundamental norms of international human rights law, including norms of European Convention on Human Rights, but it has an explanation. The indictment against V. Seselj like indictment against S. Milosevic is completely false. Accordingly, the only way to «prove» such an indictment is the policy of the delay of the start of the trial or the presentation of false witnesses. Official reasons for this delay announced by ICTY officials are openly illegal or has no sense. Some of them are: rejection of translation of all documents into Serbian language and the “non-availability of free courtrooms”. In 2007 several dozens of witnesses reported that they received threats from ICTY officials in order to make them giving false testimony against V. Seselj. These threats included not only the start of criminal proceedings but also killings. The so-called Seselj case even on the pre-trial stage is one of the sharpest examples of the illegal activity of the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Despite positive tendencies in the sphere of Russian mergers and acquisitions market development, improvement of M&A transactions spread over the segments, hostile takeovers based on abusive use of subjective rights still prevail. The main reason for Russian unsolicited takeovers is defects of material and procedural legislation which do not secure proper and adequate protection of property rights making any acquisition based on misrepresentation, manipulations and breach of law possible. Thus the article deals with general methods which include federal antimonopoly control, measures of civil, administrative and criminal liability and special methods applying by the companies to reduce economic value of acquisition, increase costs for a hostile company, get temporary delay in order to additional protective measures creation. The article concerns effectiveness of special measures (amendments of OJSC charter, subsidiaries establishment, transfer of shareholder register to foreign country) and measures resulting from securities regulation (transfer of shares to beneficial ownership, American depositary receipts offering, additional shares issuing) use by Russian companies and provides suggestions with regard to Russian corporate legislation improvement.

The German law on groups of companies has often been credited for its differentiated approach to concepts of liability within corporate groups. The relevant provisions of the German Stock Corporation Act of 1965 devise two categories of corporate groups — contractual and factual corporate groups — and apply different liability schemes to each of them. This Article explores some of the most important aspects of liability strategies within corporate groups in which the controlled subsidiary is not a stock corporation but a limited liability company. Part I and Part II summarize the principles of liability in the contractual and factual corporate groups respectively. The significant role of the German courts cannot be underestimated although court decisions are not officially acknowledged as a source of law. Part III analyzes the development of a separate legal doctrine and the change of liability strategy in the so called “qualified factual corporate group” since the recent decision of the Federal Supreme Court is considered to be either the abandonment of the elaborated doctrine and a sign of a new era of liability or just a modification of this doctrine regarding the liability of the only shareholder of the limited liability company. Taking into account some deficiencies of Russian statutory framework regulating the liability of parent companies, judicial decisions should be acknowledged as a further source of law provided that certain requirements are fulfilled.

Europe holds the first place in industrial use of energy resources. Energy sector of economy and transport influence environment and could be reasons of climate change. Introducing the EU policy oriented at promoting energy efficiency and use of alternative energy sources has become one of the EU priorities. Ensuring higher levels of energy efficiency is the core component of the EU strategy for sustainable development. Such goals require efforts of all EU member-states. Therefore proper legal regulation of the energy related activities is essential. Energy law is considered to constitute a separate legal discipline due to the imminent importance of such a regulation for economic development and environment. Treaties of the EU and EU secondary legislation form the basis of EU energy law. The EU policies are oriented at the legal integration of norms regulating energy use and environmental issues in the EU energy law.

In article the reasons and conditions of occurrence of procedure of transit in the law of EC are analyzed. The author builds in the chronological order the most essential changes of legal regulation of procedure of customs transit in EU brought as at the introduction into EC of the new states-members, and at reforming customs procedures. The special attention is given to the reforms of 1988 directed on introduction of the single document for custom procedures, and 1997-2005, connected with introduction of electronic registration of declarations and directed on an antagonism of activity of the organized crime in sphere of customs transit. Problems of reforms and their results are analyzed. In clause process of distribution of action of rules of procedure of transit of EC on territory of the states which are not a part of EC, by the conclusion of the international agreements is analyzed also.

The article is devoted to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, 13 January 1993 (CWC). In connection with the 10th anniversary of the CWC’s entering into force (29 April 1997) a short review of achieved progress and current problems is of vital importance. Besides the description of today’s status of the CWC and the role the CWC plays in the global process of disarmament and strengthening peace and international security the article contains analysis of several significant issues: prohibition of the use of chemical weapons in war conflicts and international humanitarian law; use of toxic chemicals in law enforcement purposes and the issue of riot control agents, positions of state-parties to the CWC. The article covers different approaches of academicians from The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Indiana University School of Law (USA) and officials from The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Russian Munitions Agency.

The article analyzes constitutional, legal and political institutions of Israel, their correlation and interconnection. The author offers an in-depth analysis as to the deliberation, implementation and evolution of these institutions.
First, the article dwells on the constitutional system of Israel pointing out that there is no written constitution, which is substituted by several constitutional laws and certain mechanisms, which sustain the state from falling into constitutional vacuum. The major actor in this field is the Parliament of Israel – Knesset, which possesses a wide range of powers including the power to elect prime minister and president. Further, the author describes how Knesset works, pinpoints its peculiarities and demonstrates how it has been evolving.
As the second factor influencing political and legal system of Israel the author names the correlation between state and political institutions. In this regard, attention is drawn to the work of the Supreme Court, which apart from supervising constitutionality of the laws also controls the activity of the Parliament. An important place in the Israeli political system is occupied by political parties. Their main characteristics and overall impact on the system are also given in the article.
Other factors influencing the political system of Israel are the sociocultural ones, such as relationship between religious and state authorities, different cultural groups within Israel (ashkenazi and sefards). The author concludes that the prominent feature of the Israeli political system is its heterogeneity, which in no way inhibits political process due to the consensus inside the Israeli society.

The author of the presented article introduces the problems of protection of the child in armed conflict. In modern international law there still remain many unsolved problems concerning legal aspects of the status of the child in armed conflict.
Although the regulation of the aspect is quite thorough, one of the most crucial matters, like the minimum age for a child to be admitted to the armed forces is not solved definitively. The same regards the age frames for a person to be held for a child on the basis of international law.
The author also highlights the complexity of the problem. Children-aspect in the armed conflict implies the division of children as a complex group into several categories, like child-soldiers, unaccompanied children, refugeechildren, imprisoned-children, and many others. All of these groups demand special approach and consideration.

Water security is an indispensable part of ecological security and to ensure it states of the region of Central Asia will have to change their respective approaches to the problem of shortage of water resources in the region in accordance with rules contained in international treaties. The state practice proves that only through execution and proper implementation of relevant international treaties the problems of the kind were successfully solved. In the case of the Central Asian states, one of the major facts hindering the solution of this problem is insufficient implementation or nonimplementation of international legal principles and norms in regard of the use and protection of transboundary water resources. This is due to the fact that some states are not Parties to the most important international treaties concerning this issue. Though there are no substantial reasons for the Central Asian states to avoid these treaties, as they are completely applicable to the situation in the region. It is important to remark that apart from issues of transboundary resources, protection of wild species should also be considered in this regard.
The other problem here is insufficient internal legislation of the states in respect of these issues. Sometimes provisions contained in them contradict international treaties and are implemented intentionally in order to receive maximum benefit out of the use of transboundary resources.
In the conclusion it is necessary to state that there are no comprehensive international legal norms regulating all the aspects related to transboundary resources. But still in order to ensure the security of water resources Central Asian states have to adhere to relevant international treaties as this will not only help to stabilize the situation but also will allow the states to use the international expertise in this sphere to the full extent.

When the Antarctic Treaty was concluded in 1959 it was primarily intended to exclude the possibility of conflict in the region. Its main provisions concerned the use of Antarctic for peaceful purposes, the conduct of sсientific research and control over the claims to sovereignty over areas of the continent asserted by several of the contracting parties. It was not meant to be and did not provide a comprehensive set of rights, powers and responsibilities of the states concerning their conduct there.
Clearly there are many difficulties related to the extraction of minerals from Antarctic and any unilateral claim in this respect could jeopardize the delicate balance on which the treaty regime rests. This fact puts in the centre of the discussion the viability of the Antarctic Treaty system. From this perspective we should analyse the tendency of states using the related concepts to pursue their national interests. Though the dynamics of the international relations constantly put on the agenda various problems objectively requiring their solution.
The paper mainly focuses on the materials related to the chronology of the Antarctic Treaty system development. One of the conclusion made in the article refers to the necessity of regular forecasting studies in international legal practice and this fact is demonstrated on the example of the Antarctic region and its resources.

The article tackles the issue of extradition in the aspect of its evolution and gives deep analysis of this notion at different stages of its development and in different epochs starting from the ancient times. The author enumerates several treaties on the issue and illustrates the development of the phenomenon of extradition on their basis. Apart from this, different aspects of extradition (such as refusal to extradite, consular courts, etc.) and their evolution are also analyzed. Theories concerning the issue of extradition are reviewed as well and their influence on the shaping of the concept in different countries and their respective legislations in this sphere is described. The author offers the analysis of the evolution of this concept in Russia thus demonstrating the importance of the concept of extradition in bilateral relations of the states. In the article the author has analyzed the evolution in history of the notion of extradition and thus has tried to convey its meaning. In this respect it is essential to remark that knowledge of the past events concerning the topic of the research may help understand further trends of the development of this phenomenon. This will also assist in assessing the influence it may have in the contemporary society.

International humanitarian law distinguishes between two categories of journalists working in area of armed conflict: war correspondents accredited to the armed forces and «independent» journalists.
International humanitarian law grants war correspondents prisonerof-war status if they are captured. Article 79 stipulates that journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of armed conflict (“independent” journalists) are civilians within the meaning of Article 50 (1) and thereby benefit from all the protection conferred by international humanitarian law on civilians.
Article 79 (2) of Protocol I, read together with Article 51 (3), grants journalists the legal protection conferred by international humanitarian law, unless they:
– accompany the armed forces and are located near it;
– participate directly in the hostilities;
– engage in espionage;
– wear military uniform;
– spread panic.
The journalist loses his immunity and becomes a legitimate target in the aforesaid situations. But the journalist sometimes recovers his right to protection against the effects of hostilities, for example, when he is far enough from the armed forces.

The subject-matter of the article is “KIKONES Summer Campus 2007- Training of Balkan and Black Sea States’ Representatives on the Rule of Law and Democracy” that was attended by the author of the article.
The event was organized by the European Public Law center for the third time and was designed to tackle the issues of the rule of law and democracy.
KIKONES Summer Campus 2007 involved 80 participants from Balkan and Black Sea states majoring in international law and public administration. The summer camp consisted of two sessions – for beginners and for those who chose to continue the course. Lectures on the important issues of international law and modern international relations were delivered, as well as there were seminars aimed at engaging the participants in debates about those issues.
Russian representatives took part in the event for the first time and made advances in promoting Russian academic life abroad. Relevant information from the MGIMO web-site was translated into English and passed on to foreign colleagues.