Introduction. The processes of global international integration have been proceeding at a rapid pace over the past decade. The economies of the states are becoming more globalized and merging into a common market. The nations cooperate more and more actively in the cultural field. Educational opportunities nowadays are virtually limitless. All these phenomena became possible thanks to the powerful international legal framework formed during the previous historical stages which continues to improve. One of the most relevant areas of interstate cooperation is cooperation in the legal sphere, which is based on a set of universal conventions and bilateral treaties on legal assistance. Agreements on legal assistance entered into the practice of interstate relations in the Soviet period, when approaches to their structure and content, the mode of their mutual performance were worked out. The article is devoted to the legal cooperation between the USSR and Yugoslavia, the international legal regulation and to the issues of implementation therof. Such retrospection allowed us to understand the processes of succession in international law, their impact on the current state of legal assistance between Russia and the former Yugoslav republics.

Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study is the dialectical method of cognition of phenomena in the relationship and mutual conditionality augmented by a set of General and particular scientific methods of cognition. The historical method contributed to the restoration of the chronological sequence of the phenomena and facts. The method of actualization made it possible to identify the historical factors that determined the peculiarities of international cooperation in the legal sphere. The method of diachronization made it possible to identify certain successive stages in the development of international legal cooperation between the USSR and Yugoslavia, to compare them, to identify patterns of development.

Results. In the framework of the study, the author found that the relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia were relatively short and unstable. The diplomatic relations between the countries were established only in 1940, after the end of the Second World War, they were almost frozen several times. This led to the fact that the Treaty on legal assistance in civil, family and criminal cases was concluded only in 1962 and was in force until the collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia. This Treaty is of fundamental importance for the legal cooperation of the modern states that came into existence after the collapse of the two Federations. Russia, Serbia and Croatia have been the legal successors of the 1962 Treaty since 1992. During the following decade Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Macedonia also assumed the obligations of the former Yugoslavia for legal cooperation with Russia as the legal successor of the USSR.

Discussion and Conclusions. The international legal framework for the provision of international legal assistance in civil, family and criminal cases between the USSR and Yugoslavia is studied. The role and importance of the Treaty on legal assistance concluded by these USSR in 1962 for the modern practice of legal cooperation between Russia and the successor countries of Yugoslavia are analyzed.

Introduction. The article is devoted to the issues of legal regulation of a prosecutor’s warning about the inadmissibility of extremist activities as an act of prosecutorial response. It is noted that Russian and foreign scientists who study contemporary issues of extremism emphasize both the problems of its occurrence and manifestation, and the possibility of its prevention in various areas of law enforcement. Special attention is also paid to the study of legal tools, the prosecutor’s response in this area of prosecutor’s supervision, the legal regulation of the prosecutor’s warning about the inadmissibility of extremist activities, as one of the actions of prosecutor’s reaction, used in the above mentioned direction of prosecutor’s supervision.

Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study comprises general scientific (analysis, analogy, comparison) and special methods of knowledge of legal phenomena and processes (method of interpretation of legal norms, technical-legal, formal-legal and formal-logical methods).

The results of the study. As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that the use of the prosecutor’s response considered in the paper has a positive effect on the state of law in this area: it is used in a certain area of legal relations; it is a preventive act; it has specific legal consequences (the prosecutor’ appeal a statement about the liquidation of a public or religious association or another organization and the decision to suspend their activities); it can be used along with other acts of the prosecutor’s response (the prosecutor’s view on the inadmissibility of violation of the law). At the same time, the author emphasizing the characteristic features of the legal tool under consideration and its implementation, substantiates the existence of problems in the legal regulation of warning the prosecutor about the inadmissibility of extremist activities as an act of prosecutorial response and the need for changes in the current legislation.

Discussion and conclusion. The effectiveness and necessity of the further application of the act under consideration as an independent type of prosecutorial response acts, as well as the existence of problems in its legal regulation are substantiated. The conclusion is made about the need to change a number of provisions of the current legislation regulating the basis of application, the implementation procedure, the responsibility of the supervised subjects addressed to in this act, and the timing of the prosecutor’s warning about the inadmissibility of extremist activity as an act of prosecutorial response.

Introduction. The paper explores the mutual (bilaterally binding) character of the loan agreement. The conclusion that the loan agreement creates not only the rights of the lessor (traditional approach) but also the rights of the borrower is proved. The educational and scientific literature regarding the subjective rights and obligations of the loan agreement parties follows the opinion that the obligation under the loan contract is unilaterally binding as the lender, who is always a right-holder, creates binding obligations, and the borrower will always be the party bound by these obligations. At the same time it is necessary to differentiate between the monetary loan agreement and the loan in kind agreement in connection with differences in a set of the bilateral rights and liabilities of the lender and the borrower.

Materials and methods. The method of the analysis of the existing Russian legislation and law-enforcement practice and the existing European standards for legal unification is at the heart of the research. The methods of legal modelling and forecasting made it possible to define the need for introduction of amendments to the existing Russian regulations, as well as the need for correcting court practice. The use of these methods permitted establishing the consequences of making changes and adjustments, as well as revealing how closely Russian law enforcement practice would follow the existing European standards. The legal sociological method permits the assessment of social problems from the standpoint of the legislator and the law enforcer. The method of interpretation complemented the comparative legal analysis, allowing us to understand and compare the Russian and European standards. The use of various methods allowed us to formulate the main theoretical conclusions and make our own proposals on the studied field of public relations.

Results of the study. As a result of the conducted research it was revealed that, firstly, the borrower has a system of rights. Consequently, the loan agreement is bilaterally binding. Secondly, the rights of the parties under the loan agreement and the loan in kind agreement differ. In this regard, it is necessary to differentiate the civil legal mechanism for protecting the rights of the parties under the monetary loan agreement from under the loan in kind agreement. The scientific results obtained during the research made it possible to formulate a number of proposals to improve the current legislation.

Discussion and conclusion. It is substantiated that the rights of the parties of the loan agreement can be classified into pre-contractual and contractual; into the rights associated with the creation, execution and termination of a loan agreement; into property and non-property rights. Information rights of the borrower are singled out separately, their classification is developed and justified.

Introduction. The legal regulation of the copyright protection through technical means in the United States of America (hereinafter referred to as the USA) is by far the most developed. This is due to the fact that law enforcement in this area in the USA has been formed for over more than one century and over this time, a lot of experience has been accumulated. At the same time the USA, through the adoption of the Digital Millennium Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, were the first to implement in its legislation the WIPO Internet treaties that established the legal regulation of the use of technical protection at the international level. In this regard legal approaches to regulating the use of technical means of copyright protection are of particular interest both from the scientific point of view and from the point of view of law enforcement. The article is devoted to the study of the legal basis for the use of technical means of copyright protection in the USA.

Materials and methods. The methodological ground of the research include the following general scientific and special methods of cognition of legal phenomena and processes: dialectical, formal-legal, comparative-legal, formal-logical, structural-functional.

Results. The authors found that US law regulates not only the ban on circumvention of technical means of copyright protection, but also establishes exemptions from this ban, which is called «the doctrine of free use of works”, which details the cases when a person has the right on legal grounds to get access to a certain work. The US legislation also defines the criteria according to which the technical means of copyright protection is recognized as such. Two conditions must be met in this regard: effective control over access to the protected work and effective protection of copyright. Analysis of the US current legislation allows us to come to a conclusion about sufficiently effective measures of civil-law protection and the development of the institution of civil liability, which is for offenses related to circumvention of technical means of protection.

Discussion and Conclusions. The «doctrine of free use of works” has been esplored, and cases of its application have been determined. The approaches of the legislator in the USA to the definition of technical means of copyright protection are analyzed. The mechanism and conditions for applying civil liability in the case of establishing the circumvention of technical means of copyright protection are investigated.

Introduction. After the Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917, the revolutionary policy of the Soviet state began to determine the foreign policy priorities of the Soviet state. This circumstance not only violated the stability of the entire international system, but also created significant difficulties for Soviet Russia. After the adoption of the Decree on Peace and the attempt to implement it during the separate peace negotiations with Germany, the Soviet state found itself in complete political and economic isolation. The conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty led to the rupture of diplomatic relations between Russia and the former allies. In the conditions of the beginning of the civil war and foreign intervention, the Bolsheviks were forced to look for any possibilities of establishing international contacts and connections. The most important role in the revitalization of this type of activity during the first two decades of the Soviet government was played by the trade missions, which in a diplomatic vacuum performed certain functions of the official representative offices of the Soviet government abroad. The legal status of the Soviet trade missions from the moment of their formation until the beginning of the Second World War, their powers to protect the political, economic and legal interests of the state are explored in this article.

Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study is the dialectical method of cognition of phenomena in their relationship and mutual conditionality, general and particular scientific methods of cognition, including the historical and legal method; the method of system structural analy­sis; the method of actualization; formal-logical and other methods.

Results. The author analyzed the legal aspects of the establishment, organizational structure and activities of trade missions. It was found that trade missions in foreign countries were established on the basis of the relevant regulatory acts of the So­viet government, and at the initial stage of their activities had a wide range of powers: the right to conclude civil transactions, the issuance of various guarantees to ensure their implementation, procedural functions relating to arbitration and judicial review of disputes, including the conclusion of settlement agreements, etc., which clearly demonstrates that trade missions performed diplomatic, trade and legal functions.

Discussion and Conclusions. The evolution of the legal nature of Soviet trade missions abroad up to the beginning of the Second World War is described. It is argued that the process of forming and developing the powers of trade missions to protect the interests of the Soviet state in the international arena in the economic and legal sphere was shaped by the political situation at the time. The formation and development of the powers of trade missions to protect the interests of the Soviet state in the international arena in the economic and legal sphere is researched. The role and importance of the history of trade missions for the development of the modern system of foreign missions of the Russian Federation, designed to carry out economic cooperation is shown.

Introduction. Legislative regulation of the process of reforming the public service system is accompanied by the emergence of new concepts in the legal field, which do not always receive an unambiguous normative interpretation. This leads to their arbitrary interpretation, reduces the level of enforceability of the adopted acts. One of these concepts with an unspecified definition is the term “other offense” which was introduced into the legal field in 2009, but which has not yet received a clear regulatory definition.

Materials and methods. The study and es­tablishment of the meaning of the concept of “other offense” are based on the legislative acts regulating compliance with the requirements for official behavior of civil servants of the Russian Federation and municipal employees and preven­tion and settlement of conflicts of interest in the state and municipal service. The methodology of the study is based on the general method of cognition - dialectics, and general scientific methods: analysis, synthesis, deduction and induction, comparative legal, systemic, formal logical and other methods.

Research result. The analysis of legal normative acts determining the functioning of the agencies for the prevention of corruption and other offences operating at the federal and regional level has allowed us to establish that other offence is failure to observe requirements for office behavior that makes these concepts as synonymous and identifies the causal relationship between the moral culture of civil servants and the level of corruption.

Discussion and Conclusion. Clarification of the substantive boundaries of the concept of “other offense” allows determining the main directions of work and improving the efficiency of the relevant state bodies in order to implement their prescribed two-pronged, causal tasks - prevention of corruption and other offenses.

Introduction. In this article we aim to identify common patterns and specifications of the state institutions development in the self-proclaimed states in the South-East of Ukraine named Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (the DPR, the LPR).

Materials and methods. For the first time we described the models of public administration and bureaucracy in the DPR and the LPR, and then we compared them with the systems of Russia and the Ukraine using the case study method, classification, comparative legal analysis and best practices identi­fication.

Results of the study. We proved that state-building in the unrecognized states of Donbas moves towards democratization: the role of the armed forces is reduced as well as the concentration of power, and democratic freedoms are expanded. The organization of the public authorities in the self-proclaimed re­publics is similar to the system of the Ukraine (e.g.: unicameral parliament and unitary system), but the public service is built according the Russian model.

Discussion and conclusions. The DPR and the LPR passed legal acts and adopted the system of executive bodies, which are not yet available in Russia. The LPR’s experience in using annual reports of civil servants for their certification, control, analysis of the distribution of official duties, and performance improvement is of significant interest. The service ethics in the LPR is formalized in the Code of Civil Servants’ Conduct which has a higher legal status than the General Principles of Service Conduct that exists in the civil service of Russia.

Introduction. The relevance of the study is caused by the spread of participatory budgeting practices in Russia and abroad. In 2017 the joint project ‘Development of initiative budgeting in the Russian Federation’ of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the World Bank has been launched. More than 50 Russian regions are involved in this project today. In March 2018 the need to develop citizen engagement was reflected in state program of the Russian Finance Ministry ‘Public Finance Management and Regulation of Financial Markets’. Since citizen participation in the budget process is still new, scholars and practitioners take interest in foreign experience, in particular, in the mechanisms used in European countries. Portugal is of a particular interest because the only nationwide practice of participatory budgeting is being implemented there.

Materials and methods. The article is based on the comparative historical analysis and case-study method. Academic articles, thematic books and monographs, official websites of the state and local authorities of Portugal, specialized online-participation portals, reports of foreign experts at the Moscow Financial Forum 2018 were involved as sources. The author also relied on oral information received from the representatives of the Branding and Communication Department of Lisbon during an in-person meeting at the City Hall in June, 2018.

Results. The historical and political context of the development of modern mechanisms of direct democracy in Portugal was identified. The nationwide program, national programs of school and youth participatory budgeting are analyzed. The specificity of the projects, the target audience and the results within each of the directions are described. Special attention is paid to the city of Lisbon, in which several crowdsourcing and participatory practices are implemented.

Discussion and conclusions. The most original approaches that are interesting from the point of view of the procedures used for engaging citizens or specifics of local issues that are presented for discussion in the framework of participatory practices are identified.

Introduction: Statistics have proven that both the European Union (“EU”) and the Russian Federation (“Russia”) suffer from terrorism in its current form. Intensifying partnerships to combat terrorism would be a good idea. This essay envisages to illustrate a common base for cooperation in the fight against terrorism despite of some general differences in policy and structure between the EU and Russia.

Materials and methods: The methodological basis of the research has both an analytical and descriptive nature. As for the analytical nature, sta­tistical, qualitative and comparative analyses were used while researching political phenomena and processes in the sphere of national security and coun­terterrorism. The author also applied the inductive method. The materials observed include the distinct approaches of Russia and the EU in terms of threats to national security including terrorism.

Results: The author reveals there are four fundamental issues which ask for more attention in the EU-Russia dialogue on Freedom, Justice and Security and particularly with regard to the fight against terrorism. Firstly, statistics prove that Europe (EU and Russia) are impacted by modern terrorism, yet not by the same cases of terrorism. Secondly, Russia’s experience in counterterrorism is crucial. Thirdly, the scale ‘freedom’ and ‘human rights’ versus ‘security’ has not the same ratio in the EU and in Russia. Fourthly, the concept sovereignty is differently interpreted by the EU, the EU Member States and Russia. Despite all the differences in views, it is clear that the EU could learn a lot from Russia, as one of the key States with considerable experience in the fight against terrorism. Although the EU and Russia face different forms and problems and the roots of Western European terrorism sometimes have a slightly different origin, this does not negate the fact that they could foster cooperation.

Discussion and conclusion: The governmental approaches of the EU and Russia on national security were discussed as well as the common grounds for cooperation, namely the threat of terrorism. It is proved that both systems have different features and are not always compatible with each other. The following recommendation of setting up an anti-terrorism working group was provided as well as the advice to eliminate the political distrust.