Chief Editor’s Note
Articles
This article deals with the much debated issue of children’s public participation from the perspective of legal practices in the Russian Federation. Having emerged at the level of national jurisdictions, the practice of engaging minors in decision-making processes on issues of public significance – or the practice of public participation of children – is stipulated by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, based on Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Public participation of minors implies that children have clearly defined opportunities to take part in decision-making processes concerning those political and public matters affecting their interests.
Albeit limited by the clause “regarding the issues concerning them,” the claims for such participation are dictated by emerging standards of international law. The author has examined the process of devising these standards in Russian public law. Moreover, an analysis of the evolution of academic views on public participation of children in Russian legal scholarship is also included in this article.
Relying extensively on the method of legal analysis and the comparative analysis of the conformity of national public law standards with respect to international law, the author proposes several legal amendments to the Federal law “On the Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation,” which would lead to anchoring more solidly the participatory right of minors in the legal system of the Russian Federation.
Comments
This paper explores business transactions in the context of the principle of legality. It will be argued that Article 168 of the Russian Civil Code, as a metarule, contains three types of rule: 1) rules dealing with the priority of special rules and exceptions (exclusive rules); 2) rules dealing with the interpretation of general, special and exclusive rules, as well as with the requirements of statutes or other legal acts violated by a transaction and established outside of Article 168 of the Civil Code; 3) rules dealing with the admissibility of special rules and exceptions, as well as with the conditions of admissibility of these rules.
With regard to the first group of rules, the legislature and commercial courts consider Article 168 of the Civil Code a common base for other grounds in the Civil Code, and in certain other statutes, for declaring transactions invalid. According to the second group of rules, the subject-matter (object) of legal interpretation consists of two elements: а) the text of Article 168 of the Civil Code; and b) the texts of legal acts, described by the generic term “statute or other legal act.” Article 168 of the Civil Code provides instructions, not only for rules as objects of application of the article, but also for the methods of interpreting violated requirements. The rules of admissibility for special rules and exceptions, as well as the conditions of admissibility for these standards, are aimed at the numerous cases in which the legislature, in the Civil Code or in other legal acts, expressly establishes nullity (voidness), voidability and other legal consequences for illegal transactions. The paper also answers questions regarding the impact of recent amendments to the Russian Civil
Code on the use, by commercial courts, of rules on business transaction invalidity.
Conferences Review Notes
The Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki is committed to diverse and internationally collaborative approaches to studying various legal systems in the context of comparative law, and UHLS and the Law Faculty of the National Research University, Higher School of Economics have developed an ongoing program to undertake this effort. The original annual conference series on the Development of Russian Law was launched in 2008 as an initiative to further knowledge and critical thinking about Russian law during its period of transition and modernization. The conference is held annually and brings together legal practitioners and scholars from Russia, Finland and elsewhere to discuss important matters of Russian law, legal reform, and legal practice. Prior years’ Conference themes have included discussions of legal reforms, the justice system, the Russian legal profession, human rights, civil and business law, legal policy, rule-of-law and market economy.
This year’s program was designed to attract law faculty, scholars from different disciplines, and also practicing lawyers, to address a wide range of topics grouped around the general theme of how the phenomenon and challenges of globalization affect Russian legal system development. The call for papers included: (i) Relationships between Russian domestic and international law, (ii) The impacts of international legal institutions on the development of Russian law(s), (iii) Globalization in the field of business law, (iv) Global law & Russian legal theory, (v) Regional models of legal cooperation and Russia’s participation, (vi) Transnational legal problems in areas such as constitutionalism and rule-of-law, (vii) Theoretical and applied implications of the concept of global transplants, and (viii) A global human rights agenda, including Russia’s place in this agenda.
This was a very ambitious and multi-faceted undertaking. Through a process of careful evaluation, the Conference organizers produced a very diverse and challenging program, consisting of 8 Sessions, (7 panels and one round-table devoted to specific Session themes), along with a general Round-table discussion on the subject of Russian-Finnish legal cooperation partnering.1 The two-day Symposium, October 6–7, was preceded by a Wednesday afternoon PhD student seminar. At this seminar, there were presentations by Dr. Ari Hirvonen (University of Helsinki) on Finnish doctoral education in law and Dr. Svetlana Vasilieva (Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia) on Russian PhD education in law, followed by presentations by PhD students of their works-in-progress.2 Professor Pia Letto-Vanamo, Director of the Doctoral School at the University of Helsinki, then delivered the Keynote Lecture – Methodological Challenges of Legal Research, followed by a Reception for participants. In this lecture, she highlighted how global agenda influences national legal issues and what it is to practice good lawyering.
ISSN 2312-3605 (Online)