The article discusses the problem of axiological foundations of constitutional development and proves the predominance of values-oriented types of constitutions. The results are presented of the quantitative content analysis with respect to the component values of constitutional texts. The Constitution of the Russian Federation is considered in comparison with the constitutions of other countries in the world. Some predictions are made of the forthcoming constitutional reform in Russia.

The article studies the origin of the term «constitution» and analyses the status of Constitution as the Basic Law of the country. The author provides a multifaceted analysis of the Constitution of the Russian Federation as a legal act of the highest power. The essence of the Constitution is examined and its content is considered in detail. The ambiguity of definition of constitution is revealed. The basic functions of constitutions, their essence and properties are considered. The Constitution is viewed as a political and ideological document. Attention is paid to the bases of legal status of man and citizen, state and personality interrelationships, social state. The author points up both the features of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and its similarities with the constitutions of advanced democratic countries.

The article examines the relationship between the business sector of the Russian economy and the Russian authorities. Certain aspects of the state-legal regulation of this segment of the country's economy were mainly determined not by European rules of the evolution of the national economy but by Russian mentality and traditions, historical paradigms and the views of certain social strata. The study highlights some characteristics of the development of private enterprising in the late 19th century Russia. The conclusion is made that the state officials' gradual renouncing their "business assets” even in the distant regions of the country was only a matter of time.

The article focuses on the comparative analysis of the ways of law and the power transfer in the Torah, the New Testament and the Koran. The author addresses such issues as transfer of judicial and legislative functions from God to man, the process of forming people's sense of justice and obedience to law as well as their ideological and legal bases of existence. The aggregate of these issues may be considered as elective delegation of power which became the first organization of political power in the genesis of human civilization.

Based on the analysis of criminal legislation of a number of foreign states, the authors revealed some regularities and standard approaches in the design of the mechanism of criminal law protection of subsoil use from criminal invasions. The basic criteria have been pointed out for characterizing the specificity of establishing the liability for the infringement of subsoil legislation in different countries. On the basis of the revealed criteria the authors built a system of approaches to the design of the mechanism of criminal law protection of mineral resources, identified the place of Russian Criminal Law in this system and showed its prospects.

This article deals with one of the acute problems of criminal law enforcement - categorization of abuses of authority - as timely investigation and prevention of the categorized types of abuses of authority result in raising the public's confidence and trust in law enforcement bodies. Some problems of the procedure are considered, such as criminal laws competition and delimitation of offenses (Part 3 of Art. 17 of the Criminal Code) and legal actions which formally contain the elements of crimes (Part 2 of Art. 14 of the Criminal Code). The precise identification of the boundaries of abuse of authority associated with the use of violence or threat of violence, use of weapons or special means, inflicting hard damages is a prerequisite for categorizing the offense according to Part 3 of Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The article analyzes the efficiency of the penalty system and its criminal law value in the operating Criminal Law of Russia. The practical value of the penalty system in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation consists in both providing the optimum punishment for criminal acts and preventing crimes thus reducing their rates. The article also considers the role of penalties and some theoretical aspects of legal regulation of the system of penalties for offenses against public morality. It is proved that the penalty system needs changes in connection with criminal law reconsideration of offenses against public morality and the practice of penalty enforcement.

The article is devoted to philosophical reflection on punishment and execution of punishment as a public assessment of the evil inflicted by man. In the process of its historical development humanity has worked out an imprisonment as the most appropriate form of punishment which is universal and takes into account a particular prisoner. The paradox of today is that social democratization does not only decrease, but increases the number of crimes. The author cites various aspects of punishment which are quite urgent under the conditions of modern democratic freedoms accompanied by the growth of crimes in the most developed countries each year.

This paper aims at clarifying the nature, tasks and other aspects of a forensic characteristic of a particular type of crime. The author reveals the essence of a long-term discussion on the nature of forensic science and forensic characteristic, its status among the methods of investigation of certain types of crimes, as well as its relation to a criminological characteristic.

The article considers one of the most debated issues in scientific legal literature - judicial discretion at resolving cases on compensation for moral damage. The author surveys scientific literature on approaches to the concept of judicial discretion. One of the types of discretion of the court - situational discretion -is considered in detail including the cases of determining the amount of compensation. The author analyses the category of reasonability and fairness of judicial discretion, restrictions of judicial discretion, legality of assessment criteria of the inflicted moral damage.

The paper deals with the study of the nature and characteristics of illegitimacy of the act under Part 1 of Art. 170.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This article was introduced by the so-called anti-raider law (Federal Law of 01.07.2010 № 147-FL) which was the first to establish criminal liability for falsification of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Based on material grounds of illegitimacy of criminal falsification of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities the author examines a number of characteristics of this crime and raises the problem of discrepancy between the features of the subject and the objective side of the crime.