The article analyzes the institution of electoral law as an effective tool of civil society, the value of which is in its capacity to resist the influence of the administrative resource. The author criticizes the view according to which citizens-voters during the election campaign are considered only as objects of the “authorized” subjects’ propaganda. The possibility of “information dictate” as a form of election campaign under the guise of a wide-national coverage of the current activities performed by the authorities is admitted. The author comes to the conclusion that such daily propaganda aimed at forming the “bright image” of the Russian authorities is practically inseparable from pre-election promotion, which annihilates all assurances in the observance of equality principle with regard to all participants of the election campaign.

The article is devoted to the issues of improving the electoral process by analyzing the experience of using modern technologies. The weak and strong sides of the relevant technologies were identified: technologies, materials for informing voters and participants in the electoral process; technologies related to counting the votes of voters; technologies designed to organize monitoring of the electoral process. Based on these data, the author concludes that today modern technologies are deeply integrated into the electoral process and facilitate it, besides they strengthen the confidence of citizens in the institution of elections.

The article considers the standards of the Administrative Court Proceedings Code of the Russian Federation adopted on September 15, 2015 and focuses on the practice of their application. The judicial practice in cases of distortion of the will of people receives critical evaluation. The types of procedural guarantees to ensure the validity of the will of people when voting are proposed. The warranty of this kind in the first place should be aimed at: 1) independent, not limited to formal requirements, initiation of a citizen’s suit against the state; 2) production of evidence by citizens themselves, its unrestricted investigation in court, assistance in submitting the evidence to the party, inadmissibility of blocking the actions of citizens in their proving the circumstances of the case; 3) coercion of the state to prompt the disclosure of its evidence; 4) liability of the state in case of adjudication not in citizen’s favor for ill-performing procedural duties; 5) independence of the court.

The article is devoted to the problem of determining the administrative and legal nature and content of public offices of the Russian Federation and its subjects, which is topical in both theoretical and applied aspects. The use of the concept of “public office” since the time of Peter the Great till our days is considered. The conclusion is made that in modern conditions the administrative legislation concerning public offices does not fully meet the requirements of the state-legal development of modern Russia. The author argues the necessity of enactment of the Federal Constitutional Law of the Russian Federation “On Public Offices of the Russian Federation and Public Offices of the Subjects of the Russian Federation”, which will allow to systematize the list of public offices and also to determine the bases for administrative and legal regulation of their general and special statuses.

The author reveals new aspects of the development of information law under the conditions of modern society putting an emphasis on the formation of information law as an integrated branch of law, as well as a legal science and academic discipline that should be taught at law faculties of the universities. The article highlights the institutionalization of this branch of law, new information culture of the society and emergence of its new, in terms of quality, legal consciousness. The nature of information law has been studied and ten relationships that could be regulated by this law have been identified. Recommendations are given to lawyers and university professors on important aspects of information law education.

The article deals with the problem of constitutional and legal provision of the national priorities in the current economic conditions. Legal problems of constitutional protection of national interests are identified and ways of optimizing the constitutional and legal protection of national interests in the Russian Federation at the current stage of economic development are proposed. The authors come to the conclusion that the observance of the national priorities is impossible without the improvement of constitutional and legal mechanisms, the dynamics of development of which should meet modern challenges, including the economic ones, and provide an effective legal basis for further economic development of the Russian Federation.

This article addresses the topic of organisation of local self-government by a subject of Russia under the terms of 2014 local self-government reform. The authors analyse the federal acts that have changed the approach to legal regulation of the organisation of local self-government by a subject of the Russian Federation. The authors use general and specific research methods in this research: analysis, synthesis, generalisation, formal legal research, comparative legal research. By applying these methods, the authors carried out a comprehensive study of the stated problem. The results of this study show that by exercising the powers provided by the federal legislator, the subjects of the Russian Federation have faced a number of issues. The researchers reveal the main cause of problem issues arising from the amendments to the federal laws on local self-government. The article provides proposed solutions to these issues, including the improvement of the federal laws. Furthermore, the authors come to the conclusion that further detailing and specification of the powers of the subjects of the Russian Federation regarding the organisation of local self-government are necessary at the federal level.

The article reveals the modern structure and basic principles of the German labor law. The author analyzes modern German legislation in the field of protecting the citizens’ labor rights. Based on the analysis of legal practice, new mega-trends in the development of Labor Law have been presented and scientifically substantiated. The author emphasizes the fact that the state should not interfere with labor relations on the basis of the directive. Each person should have a motivation for effective participation in labor relations. The principle of tariff policy established in Germany and freed from state encroachments does not need any alterations, as it has been proved by the German experience, but should and can be borrowed by other countries. The author comes to the conclusion that after the independent civil society of the 19th century and the working society of the 20th century we are on the threshold of the emerging “busy” community of the 21st century.

The article analyses the data of the study on lawyers’ professional judgment concerning law enforcement in the state conducted with the use of sociological methods. It has been revealed that in the first quarter of the 21st century lawyers experienced many difficulties in their professional activities, first and foremost in interpreting the rules of law or applying new legislation to judging disputable cases. The authors argue that such facts can be explained not only by legal collisions and imperfection of the legislation, but also by a low level of lawyers’ legal consciousness, as evidenced by sociological data of the study of legal judgments.

Based on the current legislation, existing judicial, notarial and other law enforcement practices, the article analyzes approaches to the application of the presumption of inheritance fixed in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The main focus of the article is on the variety of actions that may indicate the actual acceptance of inheritance, with the specificity of inheritance objects and the role of the institution of inheritance taking into consideration. The author stresses the importance of goal-oriented actions in accepting the inheritance. A solution is proposed for the actual acceptance of “atypical” inheritance objects, taking into account the mechanism of protection of interests characteristic of the Russian law.

In connection with the changes in the Tax Code in 2016 and in the Civil Code in 2017, the article examines the status of the self-employed. The authors conducted the analysis of Civil, Tax, Social Insurance and Employment legislation, as well as the experience of a number of foreign countries. The persons who independently provide themselves with work are characterized from the standpoint of the type of participants in legal relations, presence/absence of the specifics of the legal personality, the nature of economic activity, considered as employed, and compared with individual entrepreneurs. The authors of the article revealed some contradictions in legal acts and proposed improvements to the legislation on the issues under discussion.

The authors consider the issues of the definition and legal nature of franchising; carry out a comparative analysis of the elements of the contract of commercial concession and franchising; determine the legal status of the parties under the franchise agreement; analyze the pre-contract stage of franchising relations. According to the results of the study, the authors draw the following conclusions of: 1) inadmissibility to identify the sets of exclusive rights and property complexes on the basis of possible profit making; 2) advisability of clear legislative regulation of the pre-contract stage of a franchise agreement. The research method was based on comparative legal and formal legal approaches.

The article explores some drawbacks of legislative regulations of an escrow account in Russia and possible negative consequences of using this type of account abroad. The long-term practice of escrow accounting abroad has been analyzed. On the basis of the study of the prospects for the application of an escrow agreement in Russia, the author proposes some ways to avoid possible risks under this agreement, relevant to the Russian Federation.

The article defines the main powers of the prosecutor conducting supervision at the stage of initiation of criminal proceedings, guaranteeing the realization of the right to the protection of persons involved in criminal procedure relations. The powers of the prosecutor supervising the initial stage are analyzed in the laws of other member states of the CIS. Based on the revealed peculiarities in the laws of the countries of the former Soviet Union, the author devises additions and changes to the Russian criminal procedural legislation. It is concluded that the prosecutor should be provided with the authority to verify the legality of a suspect’s detention and adjudge the release of the persons detained in violation of the proceedings established by the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. The author proposes to supplement the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation with a new article “The Supervision of the Prosecutor over the Legality of Criminal Case Initiation”. The law should contain direct references to prosecutor’s specific powers at the beginning of criminal proceedings in order to increase the efficiency of the participants of criminal proceedings to ensure the right to defense.

The article is devoted to theoretical and practical problems arising from the resolution on suspension of the preliminary investigation. Historical roots establishing the institute of preliminary investigation are determined, the optimum content of the grounds for the resolution on suspension of the preliminary investigation is identified. In particular, the author substantiates the possibility of suspending not only the preliminary investigation but also the inquiry. A proposition is made to expand the grounds for the suspension resolution by indicating that the suspect is not established. Special attention is paid to revealing the problems of proper registration of the resolution on suspension of the preliminary investigation. It is indicated that the document should not only contain a reference to the corresponding provision of the law, but specific circumstances, confirming this or that reason for suspension. The author concludes that more transparent legal regulation is required as far as the grounds and the order of suspension of the preliminary investigation is concerned. The legal act should contain a statement that not only the preliminary investigation shall be suspended but also an inquiry. It is advisable to expand the powers of the head of the inquiry agency, the chief of the interrogating department and the prosecutor supervising the investigation.