By his concept of the separation of powers M.M. Speransky created a springboard for the subsequent rise of political and legal thought in Russia in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. A two-stage theory of the imposed (not contractual ) version of the constitution was designed aiming at legalizing the limited power of the monarch’s representative bodies. The author of the article ascribes the thesis that “monarchical rule from above and its formal recognition (by popular vote) from below of the type of the French Charter of 1814” to M.M. Speransky and argues that it appeared in Russia and influenced the national political and legal thought as late as at the end of the 19th century. But even at present the presidential Russia seems largely nostalgic about this failed model.

The article is concerned with the practice of amnesties and parole in Soviet Russia in the 1920s. The basic principles and ideological content of the held amnesties are identified. It is argued that the concept of the Soviet penal policy was based on the principle of feasibility of various measures of social protection of workers and issued from the principle of struggle with only those offenses which are socially dangerous. The institute of amnesty and parole as an integral part of the Soviet penal policy acquired two main functions: to be a technique for carrying out a policy of releasing persons from particular social class-based groups and to serve as a means of unloading prisons.

On the basis of the analysis of existing viewpoints in scientific literature the elements of the structure of private law are investigated and the distinction is shown between the terms “private law” and “private legislation”. The author highlights the inherent subjectivity of approaches to the division of private law into sections. The author describes the rules which require the transition in determination of rights and obligations of the parties of contractual relationship from mandatory norms to the dispositive ones. The article can be useful to scientists, teachers, postgraduates, undergraduates of the law faculties, and all interested in the problems of private law.

The sphere of crediting is a key link of the Russian economy and provides effective functioning of economic activity as a whole. Criminal bankruptcies of credit organizations are a component of the crimes committed in the sphere of economic activity. They are highly dangerous for public and cause great material damage to the interests of individuals, legal entities and the state. This article considers the generalized factual data on deliberate and fictitious bankruptcy of credit organizations, the basic structural elements of their forensic characteristics, such as ways of preparation, commission and concealment of the specified acts; the identity of a typical criminal; crime-provoking circumstances.

At present the organized crime prevention is one of the central problems of modern society. Firstly it is because of the damage caused by organized criminal activity, and secondly because of its potential threat. Penetrating into various spheres of economy the leaders of the organized criminal formations seek to establish control over the activity of profitable enterprises, use them for concealment of financial operations, create within the production structure legal and illegal (“shadow”) firms with the purpose of obtaining criminal income. These tendencies testify both to global character of the considered phenomenon and to the need of developing effective measures to deter this process.

. The article considers some issues of qualification of murders. Special attention is paid to the issues of multiplicity at legal assessment of murders involving the commission of other crimes. The severity of the issue is due to the existing differences between the norms of criminal legislation and the existing court practice. The present situation does not allow to qualify such crimes in strict accordance with the law, because the current version of part two of Article 105 of the Criminal Code is compiled with legal defects permitting two ways of interpreting its contents. The main task of the conducted research is the quest for a solution to this problem.

Securing a number of basic provisions in the field of direct democracy, the Constitution provides for the need of detailing the standards of federal laws. These laws, along with the relevant provisions of the Constitution created the basis for the relative autonomy of the system of law and legislation norms of objective suffrage regulating public relations related to the realization of citizens rights to vote and to be elected and to participate in the referendum. Analyzing Russian law, international law and jurisprudence, the authors examine particular realization of electoral rights of suspects, accused and convicted. The article presents statistics on the election campaign in detention centers for the period from 2011 to 2013, and makes suggestions of improving the existing legislation.

The article considers the features of proving in cases of moral damage compensation, particularly concerning evidence data. These features are conditioned by a specific kind of rights violated by a defendant, i.e. non-material goods, personal and other non-proprietary or proprietary rights. The evidence data should include all legal facts which constitute the basis of the moral case and objections to it and can be linked to material law standards. For instance, the claimer evidencing moral damage should prove physical and moral sufferings which may influence the sum of compensation. Besides, the evidence data should provide a connection between the moral damage and the event or act that caused it.

The article considers the content of a right to housing under the Constitution, the participation and credentials of state and local bodies in providing this right and basic indices reflecting the current situation in its implementation. The statistical data of 2010 housing stock are provided. The most acute tasks are designated and the main indicators of achieving the goal of modern state housing policy are revealed.

Society develops according to its own objective laws and globalization is one of them. Globalized processes generated integration which gradually covers more and more spheres of the EU member states activity, ranging from economy to political integration. This process was preceded by a number of the factors which finally brought positive results. At the same time globalization is not a panacea from crises which by recognition of the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso the European Union endures today.

This article considers the problems of the notion of warehouse as a professional keeper and its varieties. The demands to warehouse as a professional keeper were identified. Like any other subject of contractual relationships warehouse has its own rights and responsibilities concerning storage and services related to the storage of goods (things). The services possess a number of features, increased responsibility of the warehouse is one of them as it is associated with the storage of goods (things). This article gives an example of a department warehouse which is considered as professional keeper.

This article describes typical inquiry situations developing at the initial stage of the investigation of firearms and ammunition thefts. The grounds for classifying these typical situations are identified and justified. Based on the research the meaning and tasks of inquiry situations are defined. The author argues that the solution of these problems is in timely performed investigation and search operations.

The article gives a criminal law characteristic of offenses under Articles 277, 295, 317 of the Criminal Code. The author studies the features of correlation and the problems of qualifications of the specified offenses and their location in the Criminal Code. The analysis of modern Russian practice of implementing these norms reveals legal contradictions, gaps and different degrees of efficiency of the articles under study. For improving current legislation the author proposes to merge articles 277, 295, 317 of the Criminal Code, withdraw them from Section X «Crimes against the state» and locate in Section VII « Crimes against person», thus making a single rule that would eliminate contradictions and reflect the principles and foundations of the criminal law rather logically and in full volume.

The author considers the problem of using e-mail as a means of electronic interaction of participants in civil law relations. The conditions are determined to ensure the reliability of transmitted electronic messages, which includes identification of the performer, examination of the sender's or receiver's decision-making authority, detection of the authenticity of electronic message content.

At the state level the protection of minors’ rights is implemented in multiple forms, through various mechanisms, bodies and organizations. However, the violations of child’s rights have become especially popular in the last few years. Among them of special attention are the crimes related to the abuse of children. It should be noted that at the investigation of such crimes the detection of forensically significant information presents certain complexity. This article discusses the content of forensically significant information on ill-treatment of children in the family