The shortened version of the article in Russian: Vin, Yu.Ya. The concept of “res publica” and its reception in Byzantine law: transliterations.
Bulletin of the Volgograd State University. Series 4, History. Regional studies. International relationships. 2022. V. 27, No. 6. P. 310–338
DOI: 10.15688/jvolsu4.2022.6.20. 

The problem of reception of the concept “res publica” is complex and multifaceted. It has been thoroughly studied in relation to the period of the Middle Ages. The task of the author is to demonstrate, that the possibilities of applying the information approach to the field of cognitive surveying to reveal the content of receptions and LatinGreek transliterations of the concept “res publica” with the help of the Expert System “Byzantine Law and Acts”. The comparisons of Greek translations and compilations with their Latin prototypes of Byzantine law prove: their compilations did not necessarily follow their prototypes in conveying the notion of “res publica”. It, as a rule, was replaced by other Greek concepts and word-combinations. For them, as well as their Latin prototypes, a certain semantic ambiguity is evident. Accordingly, the mediaeval Byzantine jurists felt the need to use the direct reception of the Latin concept “res publica”, in particular “rei publicae causa”. It served as the subject of attention and professional lawyers used this concept to interpret and explain the content of the sources of medieval Byzantine law. Noticeable discrepancies in the recording forms of the identified receptions and Greek transliterations of the concept “res publica” are probably due to individual characteristics of Medieval Byzantine lawyers and their professional qualifications. The direct borrowings of the concept “res publica causa” or its transliterations, revealed in medieval Byzantine law monuments, were purely terminological in most cases. It, if it is admissible, may be considered as a kind of cultural phenomenon.

Achieving farness in the internal activities of business corporation requires a combination of both organizational and contractual mechanisms, which is due to the dualistic (statutory and contractual) nature of the business corporation. Effectively applied for asset allocation the principle of proportionality cannot fully guarantee fairness in the implementation of management activities, since consolidation of corporate power is required for managerial decision-making. The exercise of power functions by majority shareholders may lead to infringement of the investment interests of minority ones. The solution to the problem is the redemption of the share by the business corporation at the request of the stockholder upon the occurrence (non-occurrence) of certain circumstances, which can be considered as the redemption of an unspecified rent in advance. Despite the existence of special rules in corporate legislation governing the repurchase of shares at the request of a shareholder in order to achieve fairness it is advisable to fix the general rule on the right of a shareholder of a business corporation, taking into account the conditions provided for by law and the charter, to demand the repurchase by a business corporation of his shares in case of violation by the corporation of his reasonable investment expectations.

Due to the change of the traditional procedural structure of the complete three parties of prosecution, defense and trial, criminal trial in absentia may result in the neglect of the rights protection measures due to the absence of the defendant in trial, and thus further impacts several principles and norms under the due process. Based on the criminal procedure system and even the reform of the entire judicial system, the discussion on the criminal trial in absentia should not be confined to the basic frame of normal bench trial paradigm by due process, the possible adverse consequences should not be taken as the inevitable argument for criticizing the system, but rather a rational and neutral position, return to the original point of the system, seek the basic principles involved in the criminal trial in absentia, and respond to many doubts that the absent defendant’s rights are bound to fall, and thinking dialectically on this basis, from the two dimensions of system function, value presetting and perfection of existing specifications, deduces and sums up the internal logic of this system in its normative construction, system operation and internal and external harmony, focusing on strengthening the rights protection of the defendant at the times.

In this article, the author examines the status of state-owned companies as claimants under the 1965 Washington Convention on the settlement of investment disputes between States and nationals of other States and the competence of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes to consider claims of the stateowned companies. The paper considers possible limitations of the right of action of the state-owned companies, reflected in the so-called “Broches test”. As a result of the analysis of the case law of international investment tribunals the author concludes that the right of recourse to international investment arbitration shall in any case be available for the state-owned companies which perform a commercial function. In addition, the author proposes an algorithm for determining whether a state-owned company, which is authorized to exercise elements of state power, has the right of action.

In the article the problematics of formation of legal values, formed in different historical stages and in different states, but having both general regularities and the features conditioned by the level of socio-political, economic, spiritualcultural, moral development, development of democratic institutions of power, civil society and the rule of law are considered. The complex understanding of the process of formation of legal life and legal field in society and state is generalized and formulated. We analyze the existing approaches to the understanding of the process of legal regulation and their evaluation in the general system of legal values through the prism of such philosophical and legal phenomenon as justice.

The article contains the research on social and legal foundations of criminal law prohibitions related to the field of state registration of corporate rights and real estate rights. A public wrongfulness of falsification of public registry is evaluated through analyzing blanket norms of criminal law and norms of sector-specific laws. The conclusion is made that nowadays a protection of order in the field of state registration of rights is provided by criminal law in conjunction with administrative and civil law.

Following L. Fuller and W. Perdue, the author tries to find a philosophical, historical and utilitarian justification for a positive interest in recovering damages due to a breached contract and, using comparative and historical methods of scientific analysis, comes to the following conclusions. The model of positive interest is not an attribute of the contract only, it attributes the protection of the subjective right of claim. The violated right can be not only a party to the contract, but also a delinquent, while the losses will reasonably be calculated according to the model of positive interest (for example, recovery of losses caused by unfair intervention in other people’s contractual relations). Such a view calls into question the practical expediency of the considered division of models for the recovery of damages, and encourages us to evaluate the object of the encroachment — whether there has been a violation of a subjective right.

Historically, the transformation of a tort into a contract in English law is marked by the ability to recover damages according to the positive interest model. This happened in parallel with the recognition by the legal order of the doctrine of counter provision.

Functionally, if we draw a parallel with the domestic legal order, the counter provision in the common law system implements the idea of compensation, the form of the contract, signaling the onset of legally binding relations, as well as the achievement by the parties of mutual certainty of relations. Compensation, the required form and certainty, according to the hypothesis put forward, are the political and legal set that in the historical context signals the presence of a subjective right and justifies the reasonableness of the creditor’s expectations, which opens the door for the implementation of the positive interest model in the recovery of damages in case of breach of contract.

The article describes the history of development of the idea of freedom of labor from the times of existence of the Ancient Eastern states until the moment of origin of the complex of legal rules, which will form the branch of labor law in the future. The specifics of genesis and further evolution of freedom of labor are researched within the framework of the conducted work. In addition, the role of the considered subject and attitude of it in each of the indicated historical periods are characterized. In the conclusion of the article the author formulates the following periodization of the development of the idea of freedom of labor: 1) the period of denial of freedom of labor; 2) the period of contempt for freedom of labor; 3) the period of corporate restrictions on freedom of labor; 4) the period of absolute freedom of labor; 5) the period of rationalization of freedom of labor.

The study considers the conceptual problem of transforming the content of one of the principles of the institution of tax liability — the independence of its execution — in the context of its development in the information environment and in the conditions of the active use of modern digital technologies in the implementation of tax relations.

It is proved that in the modern realities of the digital transformation of taxation in the field of legal regulation of the principle of independence of the fulfillment of the tax obligation, two interrelated trends are realized: firstly, the delegation of the obligation to calculate taxes to the tax authority not only in relation to individuals, but also for organizations and individual entrepreneurs; secondly, there is an expansion of the list of powers of tax authorities related to the fulfillment of the obligation to pay tax.

The author analyzes various novelties of the tax legislation of the Russian Federation from the point of view of the use by the legislator of the principle of independence in regulating the tax legal relations of the digital era. In conclusion, it was concluded that digitalization leads to a gradual reduction in the number of taxpayers’ tax obligations, which is implemented primarily by imposing them on both the tax authorities and other participants in tax legal relations.

The study is devoted to identifying the importance of moral norms in the formation of a regulatory framework in the digital economy. Objective: to determine the role of moral norms in the era of the digital economy in law. Results: the importance of moral norms as an effective criterion for determining the admissibility and justification of a new legal norm is proved. Moral norms should be used when establishing rules of conduct in connection with digital objects and the user agreement. The law of the digital economy does not need the formation of new principles of ethics or other in connection with the introduction of digital technologies.

The relevance of the study is due to the importance of the question of the legal nature of such a young institution as an experimental legal regime. The author presents theoretical developments in the field of studying the constitutionality of experimental legal regimes, their relationship with the norms of the Constitution of Russia, dedicated to regulating the principles of a legal, democratic, federal state, support for competition, free use of one’s abilities and property for entrepreneurial and other economic activities not prohibited by law, the unity of economic space on the territory of the Russian Federation, the inadmissibility of restricting constitutional rights and citizens’ freedoms, legality and equality of all before the law. The article analyzes the relationship between the experimental legal regime and the partnership of entrepreneurs and authorities. An attempt is made to analyze the correlation between the experimental legal regime and the delegation of public powers to private individuals. The author, appealing to the judicial practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, concludes that the experimental legal regime is based on the articles 1, 3, 8, 19, 29, 34, 55 and 75.1 of the Constitution of Russia.

In the course of the study, it was revealed that justice in the activities of a notary is, in a narrow sense, in his impartiality, and in a broad sense, in the purpose of the institution of the notary itself and the features of the mechanisms used to implement the main goals of the notary. The main feature is its dualistic nature, on the one hand, the notary acts on behalf of the state when performing notarial actions, on the other hand, he primarily respects the private legitimate interests of the citizens and legal entities who have applied, so that legal ignorance cannot be used to their detriment. The notary acts as a kind of “buffer” and a guide between the law and the persons to whom this law applies.