The article presented above deals with the issue of the functions of international law as it is represented in the Russian doctrine of International law. Apart from that the author touches upon the development of international law, its interconnection with the national law, international relations, future prospects.
First of all the author gives the definition of the functions of international law and lists their types among which due attention is paid to the functions of the subjects of international law and actors of international relations (e.g. Holy See). Another important point the author highlights is that functions of law are greatly influenced by the system of relations in the society or international community. Further on functions of the international law are compared to the national one with the emphasis on four aspects: creation of norms, regulation, coercion and court. As for the functions of international law proper, they are divided into two groups: internal functions connected with the essence, goals and aims of the international law and external functions dealing with the impact of international law on the social systems and international relations.
In the conclusion the author states that functions should also be identified according to the branches of international law as with the development of the doctrine of international law doctrines of its branches were also developing : for example, theory of international diplomatic law, theory of international law of the sea, etc.

The author of the article criticizes the concept of the relative character of State sovereignty. At present sovereignty preserves its absolute nature. The State sovereignty has no borders, it is indivisible, representing a common will of a people – it either there is or it does not exist. Presence of the sovereignty is an attribute distinguishing the independent State from other subjects of international law. The contemporary international law is based on absolute nature of sovereignty, which guarantees independence and selfreliance of States irrespective of character of their international relations and volume of carried out powers. Realization of the State rights directly by State, by subjects of federation or through the international organizations is a confirmation of independence and the absolute nature of the State sovereignty. In view of absolute nature of State sovereignty, any State is not subordinated to the authority of other States. However, according to the norms of international law, its law capacity is limited, as, at least, a State is obliged to respect the sovereignty of other States.

The initial stage of the activities of the new UN body for human rights was marked by the adoption of several procedural decisions, which allowed the Council for Human rights to provide succession to the UN Commission for Human Rights. But this lead to a low effectiveness of the Council demonstrated on the first two sessions. In this respect the institute of special sessions offers itself for analysis, as during sessions the Council adopted its first decisions concerning acute problems. These special sessions were marked by the increased influence of Muslim countries and lessening influence of the Americans and Europeans (due to inner disagreements) what lead to the fact that primary topics of the sessions were focused on the Middle East particularly on Palestine and Lebanon. Countries of the BRIC group in turn have all the opportunities of increasing its influence in the Council. The weak link in the Council is represented by Nigeria, Gabon and Cameroon, due to the renewed idea of extra requirements for several countries concerning the protection of human rights in those countries. The analysis of the texts of final resolutions of both special sessions testifies to the fact that their goal was primarily political and most of its decisions are unbalanced, what is explained by the context of their adoption. The process of implementation of these decisions showed that there are problems, which should be solved to enhance the effectiveness of the Council. This situation requires from the member states of the Council to create mechanisms that would allow to involve all the interested parties in the process of adoption of the decisions of the Council and also to solve the problem of financing the activities of the Council in order for it to function independently and effectively.

This article is devoted to international cooperation of Russia with the partner structures of foreign states on a bilateral basis and developing relations on a multilateral basis within international organizations concerned with the assurance of civil rights and election and referendum problems. Representatives of the CEC of Russia are constantly engaged in activities of international organizations elaborating the topics of actualization obligations in the electoral domain.
The main aim the article is to show the international standards of democratic elections: periodic and mandatory, free, genuine, fair, open and public elections based on universal and equal suffrage and held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures assuring to voters the freedom of voting with effective judicial protection, effective civic (public) and international monitoring.

Prompted by the recent ratification by Russia of the Agreement among the States Parties to the North Atlantic Treaty and the other States Participating in the Partnership for Peace regarding the Status of their Forces and the Additional Protocol thereto, signed by Russia in, respectively, 2005 and 2006, this article discusses relevant Russian (and Soviet, for that matter), experience regarding the status of its own forces on foreign soil, as well as that of foreign military units on the Russian land.
The author looks for applicable examples as far as Medieval Times and suggests that as early as in 944 A.D. Russian Prince Igor concluded an agreement with Greece that contained elements of the status of forces. Further examples include the Russo-Chinese Convention on Liaodong Peninsula of 1889 and most notably treaties concluded in the aftermath of the World war two. Of particular interest to the reader would be a historical legal anecdote that draws its origins from a defection of a Russian sailor in 1900 from the Russian warship “Variag” then being outfitted in Philadelphia, PA. The case known as Tucker v. Alexandroff finally reached the US Supreme Court and was decided in 1902 with the majority heavily leaning on what in modern terms may be described as the law of visiting forces.
Subsequent periods, both Soviet, and early post-Soviet provide a host of examples of Soviet and Russian participation in the status of forces agreements. In the author’s opinion, they have been part of this country’s international treaty experience since times immemorial.

This article was written during the preparation of the master’s thesis at the Institute of Comparative Jurisprudence and International Private Law of the University of Passau (Germany). It is devoted to the analysis of the consequences of non-observance of the bargain’s form according to German civil law.
In the article the consequences of non-fulfillment of legal and voluntarily established by the parties requirements of bargains’ performance in definite form (§ 125 of the German civil code) are considered in detail. The correlation of legal norms regulating the consequences of non-observance of the bargains’ forms (§ 125 of the German civil code) and contracts (§ 154 of the German civil code) is interpreted. The legally established exceptions to the common rule of § 125 of German civil code (including sentence 1 of § 550 of the German civil code) are analyzed.

Legal regulations, adjusting contractual commitments, play a significant role in the International Private Law (further IPL). They regulate quite a broad sphere of civil and legal relations, complicated by a foreign element (factor). To take into consideration the significance of present international legal acts, regulating various spheres of external economic relations, it should be noted, that a certain number of issues remain out of the field of International contracts regulation. So they have to be adjusted by the rules of the domestic law, which are established by means of conflict norm. The problem of the selection the law, applicable for this or another private legal relation, complicated by the foreign element, is the fundamental problem for the International Private Law. This issue is particularly vital for countries, which, having gained their independence at the end of the past century and have entered into International relations, while in process of their own legal system build up.
The article represents the analysis of the mechanism of the private law regulations of contractual commitments in the national legislation of Georgia.

Iceland is one of the least corrupted countries in the world according to Transparency International (1st out of 158 countries). Iceland has ratified a number of Conventions in the field and is a member of several organizations fighting against corruption such as FATF. The article offers a comprehensive analysis of Iceland’s legislation on issues of bribery, money laundering, bank secrecy etc.
A bribe in the legislation is defined as “presents and other benefits”. The Attorney-General investigates the most serious crimes including those dealing with money-laundering and bribery, while minister for justice can exercise some control over the work of the attorney-general. It is important to mention that the Office of Attorney-General closely cooperates with the Police. As for the judicial system of Iceland it includes 8 circuit courts, Supreme Court, Court dealing with labour disputes, but still there has been created no particularized bodies to fight corruption despite recommendations of the respective organizations.
There are separate paragraphs in the article dealing with the issues of abuse of official posts, bank secrecy, violence or threat of violence against civil servants or witnesses. Also in the article “Competitive Bodies” (Competitive Council, Competitive Appeal Committee, etc) are considered as they play a great part in fight against corruption. The other bodies involved in anti-corruption activities are National Audit Office, responsible for the implementation of the Law on state Budget, Ministry for Finance which bears responsibility for budget construction projects, Financial Supervisory Authority. Further on the question of immunities is considered.
The conclusion made in the article states that Iceland authorities primarily focus on fighting bribery and ignore other problems related to the issue. To support the point in the end of the article a list of recommendations made to Iceland are quoted.

International terrorism acquires new forms and intervenes with old challenges and threats among which there is a threat to the state sovereignty. The fertile soil for terrorism is offered by religious extremism, regional conflicts, drug trafficking, weapons of mass destruction. To fight all these challenges they should be thoroughly analysed and the sources and conditions for the existence of terrorism should be eliminated.
New characteristics of terrorism are its international character, selffinancing, terror against civil population in order to destabilize the society and the state. This development of terrorism cannot be stopped until its roots are not cut – poverty and unemployment, social and national disparity of the nations of the world. The use of force proved to be useless in this situation. The other reason vitalizing the terrorism is separatism, for example basks in Spain. There is an increasing gap between the rich and the poor what also leads to discontent among the people. This creates positive idea of terrorism among the people; they perceive it as fight for the freedom and independence of their country or nation.
The UN tries to find its place in combating terrorism by elaborating a widescale antiterrorist strategy, but still there is no unity among states concerning crucial issues –defining terrorism, solving problem of interference into internal affairs. In case of Russia it instituted National Antiterrorist Committee to combat terrorism. But still there might be created a permanent body to it, which can become an expert center, uniting efforts of non-state organizations, business community and independent experts. This center would have been responsible for cooperation of state and aforementioned actors in fighting terrorism.
It is obvious that humankind should unite its efforts in combating new challenges in threats first of all by eliminating the reasons for discontent, extremism among the people. Today this is the only way of responding to international terrorism.

The process of constitutional development of Palestine is not over yet and is on the level of the national discussion over the third project of the constitution. First endeavours to work out a draft constitution refer to the 80s of the XX century.
The first meaningful result was the adoption in 1997 of the Basic Law, which was endorsed by Yassir Arafat only in 2002. The next step was the creation of special commission responsible for drafting the constitution headed by Minister Nabil Shaas. In 2003 there was released third draft constitution. It sets stage-by-stage adoption of the constitution, on the last stage it should be approved on the referendum, and this brings uncertainty in the process of adoption and may undermine the legitimacy of future government and its institutions. This is connected with the elaboration process which is not transparent and people cannot participate in it.
One of the peculiarities of the project is that in the elaboration of the constitution a considerable number of specialists in the field both from Arab countries and the West took part what influenced its content. The draft constitution does not contain a preamble. In the text of the Constitution Palestine is declared as independent, sovereign state with the republican form of government. It is also declared to be a peace-loving state, condemning terror and aggression. One of the major principles there are principles of democracy, independence of the courts, market economy, competition, protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Jerusalem is named as the capital of a new state.
The future constitution is to be the basis for the new legal system. That is why its quality as its core is out of doubt. Adoption of the constitution will be a new stage in the state development of Palestine, but it should be noted that there are still lacking the conditions for finalizing the constitutional process and adoption of the permanent constitution.

Problems of implementation of state jurisdiction in the sphere of space are of great relevance and importance nowadays and they are primarily caused by the issue of multinational activity in space. Many scientific achievements in the field of an outer space exploration have become possible due to the teamwork of researchers from different countries. This teamwork includes joint projects of launching artificial satellites, delivering spacecrafts with international crews on board to the orbit, creating the International space station, and the long-term joint development and use of resources of celestial bodies, including the Moon and planets of the Solar system. In these circumstances, some problems related to the state jurisdiction cannot be overlooked.
The article analyzes universal conventions concerning the issue of activity in space as well as multilateral agreements involving a limited number of participants, bilateral agreements regarding cooperation in the field of exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes and the UN General Assembly Resolution. The questions concerning the International space station and the cosmodrome Baikonur jurisdiction, the prospects of development and use of resources of celestial bodies, particularly those of the Moon, are considered separately. The problem of delimitation of the space and airspace for practical implementation of jurisdiction of the states is also designated.
In the conclusion it is substantiated that the principles of criminal jurisdiction are applicable today to the space activity of the states.

In 2007 the Republic of Uzbekistan celebrates its 16th anniversary of independence. For this short period a lot had been done by the government and parliament of the state so that Uzbekistan was recognized as an equal member of international community but still there is a lot to be done to build a strong, economically developed state with strong ties with other countries. One of the most important ways of achieving these goals is diplomacy.
The author starts with determining the definitions acute for diplomacy: diplomacy, diplomat, diplomatic corps, forms of diplomatic activity, etc. As for diplomatic corps the author mentions that it is not based on any norm of international law and is not a political organization with legal personality.
The other issue the author touches upon is that dip. corps do not belong to any particular country and thus there is no Uzbek or Malaysian or any other diplomatic corps.
Further on the author dwells on the problems of diplomatic life both official and private. He states that diplomat is viewed as a “perfect” person and should act correspondingly without forgetting that he is representing his state, not himself. The author divides the environment of a diplomat into several levels: relationship with the colleagues, relationship with official and unofficial environment (the latter implies the people of the receiving state), relationships with the citizens of his country, residing in the receiving state, and also private life of the diplomat. Apart from giving this classification the author meticulously describes each of the mentioned spheres giving useful pieces of advice on each issue.
In the conclusion the author asserts that diplomatic service is not just a profession, but a style of life and thinking. To understand all the diplomatic intricacies and complexities, pieces of advice and recommendations means to successfully develop a diplomatic career, thus gaining maximum profit for the State.

The article touches upon the problem of international use of transboundary rivers by the republics of Central Asia and its legal regulation on the basis of the principles and norms of the international law. Speaking about the problem of transboundary rivers the issue concerned was the navigability of rivers, while in the case of Amudariya and Syrdaria it is the issue of irrigation, that is the equal access to the resources of the rivers.
The author lists several examples from history paying attention to how the problems were solved. Then the author offers a substantial list of international agreements and documents dealing with the subject though it is mentioned that there is no unified norms on how to use transboundary rivers.
Central Asian region is formed by the republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It is between these countries the negotiations are primarily conducted on this problem. The author identifies and lists both bilateral and multilateral agreements on the issue of the use of transboundary rivers and their resources between these countries in chronological order what helps to form the whole idea of the process which is still not finalized as even there has not been worked out single terms as the author points out. The author asserts that it would have been beneficial for the mentioned states to join international agreements and rely on the UN resolutions concerning this issue as this may help to solve the problems the countries are facing.
In the conclusion the author once more time returns to the necessity of use of the UN resolutions and the principle of sustainable development contained in them. This is the only way to secure the existing resources for the future generations and enhance the economical development of all interested parties.

The article is dedicated to analysis of the reasons for reforming the control mechanism established on the basis of the Convention of the Council of Europe for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms for the period from 2000 to 2004 (as a result thereof Protocol No. 14 to the Convention was adopted). The article also dwells on the principal stages of development of this Act.
The following problems are considered in the article: changes made by Protocol No. 14 to the procedure of consideration of complaints on violation of human rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Convention; the process of execution of Resolutions of the European Court for Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Court); the new conditions of acceptability of appeals; as well as such innovations as increase of the terms served by judges of the Court; granting to the Commissioner of the Council of Europe for Human Rights the status of the third party in the case; introduction of such category as the “established decisional law of the Court”; and the opportunity of joining to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the EU. Besides, practice of the Court in several, for example, combination of consideration of individual complaints with respect to acceptability and on the merits, which is fixed in Protocol No. 14 is also considered.
Influence of the changes fixed in Protocol No. 14 on the efficiency of the Court activity, including the efficiency of solving such problems as availability of the Court for applicants, and, first of all, for private persons, in view of expansion of the circle of the demands raised to complaints, preservation of quality of work of the Court, the growing number of “clone cases” and the measures, which could promote adoption of general measures to decrease the number of “clone cases” by the state-participants of the Convention are being analyzed.

Research conducted in several countries shows that consumers are demanding higher quality agricultural products while producers feel need for protection of the “names” of the food products they manufacture. The article provides a comparative overview of the former and current EC legislation on the problem of the labeling of quality in food. It touches upon the subject of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in the EC and brings to light a general trend of the EC food legislation to focus on quality concerns. It covers such particular issues as protection of geographical indications, protection of traditional specialties, and regulation of organic farming in the EC law as well as problems of national labels and control systems in the EC.
An advanced experience of the EC in regulation of the quality of agricultural products and of the protection of the IP rights of its producers can be useful for Russian lawmaking and law enforcing bodies.

The purpose of the present article is to consider validity of “modern approaches to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights as a source of the Russian legal system” forwarded by advocates of “an overcoming a lag of the domestic doctrine of international law ”.
The author of this article proceeds from the fact that even the constitutive treaty of the European Court of Human Rights – Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (known as “European”) – extends the jurisdiction of the Court to the matters concerning the interpretation and application of the Convention and the protocols (Article 32 p. 1). Article 46 (p. 1) demands from the participating states to abide and execute only the final judgments of the Court to which they are parties. However this wording contradicts the Russian ratification law, which invokes the older version of this article without amendments, introduced by Protocol No 11. Thus, there’s collision between the said Russian Federal ratification law and corresponding provision of the effective text of the Convention.
Though it should also be stressed that the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 15 p. 4) determines that should an international treaty of Russia establish rules other than those established by law, the rules of the international treaty shall apply.

The article deals with the problem of dumping and anti-dumping practices. In 1947 after the proposal of the USA there was elaborated article VI of General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT). Since that time antidumping legal regime reflects the ideology of the USA in this sphere. Art. VI of GATT has become the basis for national antidumping legislation. This article remained unchanged in the charter of WTO. In 1994 there was signed an Agreement on implementation of art. VI GATT (Antidumping Code of 1994).
From the definition of dumping it is clear that GATT does not prohibit it, just condemns. A stipulator has the right to impose an antidumping tax, but it should not exceed the dumping margin on these goods. GATT provides 3 alternative criteria for determining the difference in price, what is described in detail in the Antidumping Code.
The issue of which regulations of Antidumping Code to be included in the national legislation depends on the circumstances. In the article the author offers the position of New Zealand on this question and gives comprehensive analysis of what has been done in this sphere by the USA and the EU. As for Russia its legislation in the field is primarily identical to the ones of foreign states due to the process of its accession to the WTO.
Taking into account the number of member states of WTO, the Antidumping Code is a fundamental unified standard for the antidumping regulations. It dominates over other sources and serves as a reference point for them.

Nowadays there is no common law in Iraq which would fully, clearly and in details regulate relations in the sphere of mineral resources. But the corresponding Draft Iraq Oil and Gas Law (further – Draft Law) has been elaborated and it was transmitted to the Parliament of the State on the 15^th of February, 2007.
Repeating the norms of the Iraq Constitution, the Draft Law (art. 1) fixes the ownership right of the Iraq people to the energy resources. The Draft Law fixes the legal basis for the activity of the Iraq National Oil Company, established in 1964. The special attention is given to the regulation of the usage of mineral resources in Kurdistan, where (the oil-field Kirkuk) there are about 40 % of all oil resources of Iraq.
The “foreign element” is represented in this sphere, first of all, by the interests of the USA, which is reflected in the Strategic Plan of realizing the external policy of the USA in 2007-2012. The USA goes on interfering within the domestic affairs of Iraq, thus hoping to establish control over its richest oil reserves.
Iran and some other states also try to have their “finger in the oil pie”.
The Iran oil companies currently play a marked role in the economy of the South of Iraq.
As to the “Russian factor”, the specialists from the USSR have helped Iraq to carry out works at the number of oil objects from 1969. More than 40 Russian companies took part in the Program “Oil in Change to Foodstuffs” from 1996 to 2003. The war in Iraq in 2003 brought serious losses to the Russian companies that had business interests in Iraq. Among them nowadays “Lukoil” has the most significant strategic business plans in Iraq: by the year 2015 the company is going to concentrate more than 20 % of its oil output outside Russia. To a large extent these plans are connected with Iraq.
Russian companies have certain perspectives in Iraq due, first of all, to the experience of our specialists in Iraq, a considerable number of Russian equipment in the State and the local qualified workers, who have received education in Russia and are loyal to Russia.

The book under review is the second revised and corrected edition of the textbook released in 2001 edited by Professor V.I. Kuznetsov (1940-2002). Composite author is presented by famous names in the field of international law, by people who had a long standing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Constitutional Court, other ministries, as well as international organizations.
Apart from that the majority of authors have been involved for a long time in scientific and educational activities in the major universities teaching international law all over Russia. All of the authors are united by the Russian Association of International Law, which celebrates 50th anniversary in 2007 and endorses the publication of the book.
The authors tried to approximate the text of the book to the needs of carrying out practical activities by foreign policy and external economic organizations and ministries of our country without any drawbacks for the theoretical level of the book. One of the peculiarities of the book is that international law is analysed in unity with the national one.
In comparison with the previous edition the book has undergone several structural changes and its content has been considerably renewed. Apart from that, new chapters have appeared in the book – e.g. “International Court of Justice”.
Still there are several aspects which can be improved: new textbook lacks appendixes containing official documents which could have been of help to those studying international law; also a list of cases offering real or imaginary situations containing international law element could be added.
Upon the whole, the appearance of the new textbook is a great accomplishment and its publication should not be postponed.

The book under review is the first one in Russian legal literature, which gives the comprehensive analysis of four major types of foreign representation: diplomatic representatives, consular offices, special missions, and permanent representatives of states at the international organizations.
The authors of the book rightly use the term the law of foreign relations instead of diplomatic or consular relations, as the latter does not include the whole scope of the issue. In the book the history of formation of this sphere of law is given. It is necessary to remark that authors pay attention to a very important issue – the one of international legal personality as a condition for settling up foreign representations. Another crucial aspect considered by the authors is the question of special and particularized foreign representations and their functions. Authors also provide a classification of special missions and use for this purpose different criteria. It should be noted that authors manage to find new approaches to topics which were already meticulously researched. One of the major advantages of the book is that theoretical and practical questions are analyzed simultaneously. Authors also touch upon the issue of formation of the institute of diplomatic asylum, the notion of which is still very vague.
Evaluating the results of the research on the law of foreign relations presented in this book it is necessary to underline the fact that the book is a major scientific analysis of the problems of the law of foreign relations and has a very important both theoretical and practical meaning.

The competition between States over natural resources of the continental shelf of Spitsbergen and its superjacent waters increases dramatically nowadays. The authors clearly show that the contemporary disagreements of Norway with Russia and with Iceland and Spain over Norway’s expanse of powers on Spitsbergen are “early manifestations of an imminent legal arena with regard to the oil and gas reserves of shelf areas surrounding Spitsbergen”. As has been written by A.G. Granberg, Member of the Presidium of Russian Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the Council for the Study of Productive Forces, in the preface to the book, “all that happens in the Arctic affects the interests of Russia”. In his Introduction William E. Butler, English editor and translator of the book, emphasize that “Russian international legal perceptions of the legal status of Spitsbergen itself and the adjacent marine areas are little-known abroad. The present monograph is the first substantial elaboration of Russian doctrinal views on the subject for many decades and certainly the first ever to be made accessible in the English language”. The book provides an analysis of the legal regime of Spitsbergen based on the sound scholarly research. The individual chapters reveal the legal history and the core instruments of the regime. The issues discussed include legal status of Spitsbergen prior to 1872, Russo-Swedish/Norwegian Agreement of 1872, international conferences concerning Spitsbergen (1910-1914), Paris conference (1919-1920) and Russia, Treaty of Spitsbergen (1920), Norwegian regulation beyond the territorial waters of Spitsbergen, international law and Norwegian preservation of bioresearches around Spitsbergen, Russo-Norwegian treaties as basis for ecosystem management of natural resources of the Barents sea. As A.G. Granberg has noted, “the value of this work lies in its scrupulousness legal precision, and persuasiveness based on documents”.

On 25-26 June 2007 in the Moscow State Institute of International Relations – MGIMO University was held a workshop devoted to legal aspects of maritime boundary avoidance and resolution. The participation of National Boundary Commission of Nigeria gave international character to the workshop.
The workshop assembled well-known academics in the sphere of international maritime law. Among them: Prof. A.L. Kolodkin, LL.D., Judge, International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, President, Russian Association of International Law; Prof. A.N. Vylegjanin, Head, Department of International Law of MGIMO University, Member of the Scientific Expert Council of Maritime Board of the Government of the Russian Federation; Prof. P.V. Savaskov, LL.D., Department of International Law of MGIMO University; Prof. B.A. Smislov, Head, Department of International Law of the St. Petersburg State Technical Marine University; Dr. S.V. Vinogradov, CEPMLP, University of Dundee (United Kingdom).
The discussion touched on several legal issues: International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea and maritime delimitation; international law requirements for drawing of baselines; delimitation of internal waters and territorial sea; basic principles of maritime dispute resolution; overview of the Russian legislation on maritime boundaries; issues of relevance of artificial islands, installations and structures to the process of maritime delimitation; influence of islands on maritime delimitation; legal electronic data on maritime delimitation; practical issues on settlement of maritime delimitation disputes; the Caspian Sea dispute and the issue of Spitzbergen.