The article reveals the little-studied activity of officials of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Empire targeted at the enforcement of factory legislation (The Act of June 3, 1886). The research is based on the inspectors’ reports stating the violations of law in drawing up the terms of employment and internal regulations, as well as manufacturers’ complaints about the resolutions of the factory committees (prisutstvia). The consideration of appeals allowed of interpreting the norms of the law, making amendments thus contributing to further improvement of the factory legislation.

The article analyzes a complex of measures directed at reforming forced labour institutions after 1953 under the influence of humanizing a formely punitive state policy. As a result the departmental legal acts which had earlier regulated the execution of criminal penalties in the form of imprisonment lost their value. The acts newly adopted in that period legally fixed a new system of imprisonment capable of solving the problem of purposeful correction of the convicted.

This article deals with the theoretical issues related to the effects of psychological violence, including the ratio of mental violence and mental harm. The author proposed the criteria of socially dangerous consequences in the form of mental harm on the basis of which a classification of the effects of emotional abuse has been developed. The features of the kinds of mental consequences of violence are suggested. The definition of criminal violent mental harm has been formulated.

The article considers some problems of enhancing the efficiency of measures (including criminal law) to respond to crimes committed by officials who are negligent in performing their duties. In the definition of negligence in the disposition of Article 293 of the Criminal Code the form of the guilt is not obviously stated. Therefore in the legal literature there are several points of view concerning the subjectivity of negligence. Thus the author concludes that it is expedient to admit that negligence may be treated as a crime only in case of a careless guilt of an official resulted in publicly dangerous consequences.

The paper analyzes the process of making a draft of the European Constitution, with special attention being paid to the purposes of its development and adoption. The author presents a brief analysis of this lengthy process which started in 1986 with the Treaty of European Union and then was recovered in 1997 by the Treaty of Amsterdam and is still under way. The most important propositions of the draft concerning the institutional and functional systems of the European Union are presented.

The article considers the Russian and European Canon Law in a comparative aspect. The author analyzes some modern problems facing the Russian and European Canon Law taking illustrations from Germany, France and Italy. Being brought to life by Canon Law legal institutions have formed the basis of all legal systems, including the Russian one. In modern understanding Canon Law is a current legal system governing people’s relationships within a religious community, i.e. the Church. The author makes a conclusion that there exists some spiritual moral intuition which attaches meaning to the whole existence, including Canon Law.

The author considers the features of the Russian economic legislation which should be taken into consideration in regulating commercial activity. As modern trade becomes internationalized, its role as a branch of economy increases. The author believes that Russian economic legislation regulating commercial activity is fragmented and contradictory. The lack of system legislation does not allow of establishing clear rules for trading activity. To overcome legal uncertainty the Commercial Code should be issued. The adoption of such a system-making law is expedient in terms of a complete acceptance by the Russian society of large-scale privatization legitimacy. The codification of market norms in modern Russia should be carried out with the use of its own legal units taking into consideration mass legal economic awareness. It should be kept in mind that Russian legal awareness has never been formed under the conditions of advanced capitalism.

In studying the structure of the system of legal liability based on the branch criteria the author highlights certain types of legal liability as structural elements. In this paper, based on the analysis of the content and functions of the constitutional responsibility, the author substantiates its inclusion in the system of legal liability as a structural element.

The article raises the problem of defining the victims under Art. 277 of the Criminal Code (violence to life of a statesman or public figure), since the Criminal Law does not reveal the content of the concepts “statesman” and “public figure”. The author develops some proposals to define and delineate the normative range of persons covered by the tem “victim” in the Art. 277 of the Criminal Code, which will allow to eliminate the possibility of subjective criteria for assessment and help to solve some problems in qualifying.

In this paper we study a very relevant question of the prospects of mediation as an entirely new alternative conciliation. To achieve this goal, the author analyzes the regulatory mediation, examines the history of the concept of mediation and highlights the characteristics of the prospects and benefits of mediation as a new method of conflict resolution in comparison with litigation disputes. The author makes concrete proposals for changes in the current legislation on the use of mediation particularizing the need for this change.