Introduction. The article contains the analysis of democracy in today’s environment under the influence of the ideology of new liberalism and globalism pursued by the governments of the EU, subject to the migration and civilizational factors. Materials and methods. The research methodology includes general scientific and specific methods of investigation into political and social phenomena and tendencies such as systematic and structural analysis, the synthesis of social and legal studies, comparative legal methods, etc. The article is aimed at studying the perspectives of the future development of democratic institutions in terms of economic, political, demographic and confessional transformations. Research results. As a result of the analysis, the authors conclude that under the influence of the recent political and demographic transformations, the European democracy as a universal remedy for all political troubles has turned useless in the modern political environment facing the challenge of mass migration and the destabilizing effect related thereto. In addition, political regimes existing in Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as in the post-Soviet countries can be described as democratic to a very limited extent on the basis of such criteria as separation of power, rule of law, civil rights and freedoms, fair elections, etc. As far as Islamic civilization is concerned, despite certain formal democratic characteristics existing in some Islamic states, such states could hardly be called truly democratic. Discussion and conclusions. It is required to revise the key criteria for democracy subject to recent political, economic, social and demographic transformations, paying special attention to the importance of the civilizational and religious factors for democratic developments in the countries of Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Introduction. The article explores democracy as an indicator of the «quality» of the culture of peace, the whose conceptual framework is defined in the documents of the UN and the UNESCO. The internal organic nature, interdependence and interconditionality of the culture of peace and democracy is revealed. The consideration of peace, development and democracy as the integral parts of a single whole but not as autonomous elements provides a holistic approach to the concept of “the culture of peace». The culture of democracy is one of the most important factors in building the culture of peace. Many politicians and analysts rightfully called the end of the twentieth century «the time of democracies,» since democracy involving in its orbit an increasing number of states is acting as a world-wide process now. Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the research is based on the general scientific and special methods of cognition of political and social phenomena and processes: the method of system-structural analysis, the method of synthesizing socio-legal phenomena, the comparative legal method, the formal-logical method, the statistical method. Results of the study. In the development of the culture of peace the role of the state is extremely important, it has the primary responsibility for ensuring respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, for establishing democratic principles and achieving harmony in relations between society, man and environment, for affirming creative cooperation among all partners of civil society. Democratization is a complex and fragile, often hardly manageable process in which democratic romanticism alternates with a gloomy rigid false democracy, progressive progress with discouraging retreat, acute contradictions between political and socio-economic rights, between freedom and justice. Direct democracy in the form of referendums is not always effective, since the relapse of anti-democracy that can come from both the incumbent authorities and the leadership of political parties and the media, no matter how independent and objective they may consider themselves, is constantly manifested in societies with unsettled democratic traditions, unsmoothly running democratic mechanisms, confrontation between the legislative and executive powers and the weak political culture of citizens. Discussion and conclusions. Democracy based on a system of values connecting peace and civil responsibility as well as through teaching people to be tolerant - non-aggressive behavior, the antipode of violence - affects fruitfully on the «culture of peace». Democratic citizenship, harmony and social reconciliation based on a sense of responsibility and the primacy of common interest act as a cementing factor in the formation of such a behavioral model.

Introduction: The coming centenary of the October Revolution markedly stirred up the academic environment and gave impetus to a rethinking of old and emerging problems related to the revolutionary past. The study of issues related to revolutionary legality and revolution expediency in the context of the establishment of the Soviet legal system and the realization of law has a long tradition in national historiography. However, these studies are usually focused on either the problem of their theoretical comprehension or on the use of relevant legal norms in the repressive policies of the Soviet state. The actualization of the perception of these principles by the public mind at the present time has just begun. Materials and methods: From the standpoint of cognitive and historical-anthropological approaches, the author analyzes the factors of the paradigm shift of legal understanding in the course of the revolutionary events of the first decades of the 20th century. Based on a wide range of sources, diverse in origin and orientation, the vector of the development of a new legal understanding is established and the defects of legal consciousness determined by this process are revealed. Research results: The application of the system method to the study of the basic characteristics of transforming legal understanding allowed the author to conclude that the content and structure of the legal understanding and sense of justice of a significant part of «ordinary people» in the first years of Soviet power were diametrically opposed to that new legal ideology that was broadcast «From above», and the change in the basic constant of «law» to «violence» occurred quite slowly and was of a temporary nature. Discussion and conclusions: In the conditions of the Civil War, V.I. Lenin formed a new concept - a concept of proletarian (Soviet law) and revolutionary legality, in which the legal content of law was replaced by ideological content. Based on the class nature of law, it was viewed as a means of suppressing the minority by the «working majority». At the same time in the event of a real threat to the revolution the possibility of a temporary replacement of law with the so-called «revolutionary expediency» was provided for. The implementation of this concept in practice led to the abolition of many legal institutions and a significant restriction of the citizens’ rights in all spheres of life. Replacing traditional legal understanding with a new ideology based on the class approach, the opposition of legality and expediency, and the justification of violence by the interests of the revolution resulted in significant defects in legal consciousness. In turn the revolutionary practice of the «Red Terror» slowly but surely formed its new type.

Introduction. This article presents an analysis of the energy policy and its legal framework, in particular the 1994 Energy Charter Treaty. The author detailed the financing and possible risks when investing in this sector, noted other multilateral agreements that emerged from it, such as GATT / WTO, “The Treaty of Rome “, the Agreement on the North American Free Trade Area, MERCOSUR, etc. The article raises the question of the importance of signing international multilateral treaties and discusses ways to adopt them. The article also indicates the possibility of transition to renewable energy sources. Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the research comprised the following general scientific and special methods of cognition of legal phenomena and processes in the field of international trade law: the method of system-structural analysis; method of synthe-sizing social and legal phenomena; comparative legal method; formal-logical method; statistical method. Results. As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that for multilateral energy cooperation it is necessary to rely on an appropriate interstate agreement, which should be based on mutual political views. The article also notes that  the condition for the inevitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources should be the guarantee that the negative social and economic consequences of such a transition will be minimized. The issue is raised that regional integration based on the norms and rules of the World Trade Organization, strengthening the role of regional reserve currencies is a factor of strengthening competitiveness, security and fi-nancial and economic stability. Discussion and conclusion. It is proved that for the signing of a multilateral, let alone legally binding international agreement, certain political prerequisites, an open “window of opportunity are required, “; the need for effective energy is analyzed; the importance of providing for energy law as a separate branch of law and legislation is indicated; the importance of an energy policy as a source of stability of the sovereignty and integrity of the state, of maintenance and development of the spheres of social and economic provision and welfare of the population is substantiated.

Introduction: the article explores the issue of development of administrative law in the context of political and social changes in Russia. Materials and Methods: the article analyses the development of Russian administrative law in the context of political, economic and social change, and the effect of such change on the subject matter of administrative law, which leads to the following results: Results: Russian administrative law is being reformed with regard to the present day challenges and the international experience of legal regulation. However, modernisation of administrative law must be based on the foundations formed in the earlier years. Changes in the scope of social relations governed by administrative law must be justified and well-founded. Emphasis on the development of administrative procedural law does not exclude further development of the substantive part thereof, for instance, the institution of administrative liability. Legislative amendments must be preceded by elaboration of the “new” administrative law concept. Discussion and Conclusions: Changes in the structure and content of the areas of law occur under the influence of political, economic and social changes. Administrative law as an area of law, an area of legislation and of legal studies, is no exception. However, monographs and textbooks do not pay sufficient attention to the fact that at the present stage of development, administrative law possesses not only a managerial, but also regulatory function, with the latter being not only significant in scope but also quite material in importance. Undoubtedly, this should affect the understanding of the essence and the subject matter of administrative law. At the same time, any change in the system of this area of law, be it extension or narrowing, should have both an academic and practical foundation and work towards increasing the efficiency of legal regulation. This goal must also be served by the much-needed partial modernisation of the administrative liability institution. Therefore, actualisation of approaches towards institutions forming the subject matter of administrative law appears to be one of the most important scholarly tasks at this time.

Introduction: Growing migration flows require states to use effective methods to protect national labor market. Their use is based on the principle of employment priority for own citizens of the receiving country. Therefore, the states use different methods to coordinate the flows of labor migrants in a quantitative and qualitative way. In various countries the implementation of this approach differs. They may include a quota system, a scoring system, bans, testing and other ways of employee selection. A comparative study of regulating methods adopted in Russia, Britain and the United States has made it possible to identify their common features based on the unity of objectives solved by receiving states, as well as their peculiarities that allow assessing the effectiveness of each method of national labor market protection. Materials and methods: The methodological basis of the research consisted of the following general scientific and special methods for legal phenomena and processes analysis in the sphere of international labor law: the method of system-structural analysis; method of synthesis of social and legal phenomena; comparative legal method; formal-logical method; method of comparative law. Results of the study: The results of the study showed that the methods of regulating labor migrants' flows in Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States have common features that describe this process: their role is to select specialists with higher professional and business qualities. The similarity of methods in use is determined by the unity of tasks that the states receiving migrants have to resolve. The key task among them is the protection of  the national labor market. At the same time, the methods of protecting the labor market used by states have a different content. Thus, the implementation of protective mechanisms takes various forms (scoring system, setting quotas). The comparative analysis has shown that in this country the state regulation of external labor migration is not based on accurate forecasts of the state and needs of the labor market. It seems that the reason behind this situation is the absence of such criteria for the selection of immigrants as age, education, skill level, etc., although they are used in foreign countries. In this regard the Russian Federation should take into account the positive experience of the United Kingdom and the United States in using certain mechanisms of selective labor migration. Discussion and conclusions: Intensity of migration flows in Russia and around the world as  well as a global migration crisis makes it necessary to address the foreign experience of legal regulation of external labor migration, since it may also be useful for Russia. It seems that the scoring system used by the UK for selection of foreign workers and the mechanism for attracting entrepreneurs and investors contributing to the economy of the country developed under the Program for the granting permanent resident status to investors operating in the United States may become effective methods of economically oriented migration policy in our country.

Introduction: The article looks into an important event in the Italian political life – the constitutional referendum held in December 2016, The referendum was initiated by the government of Matteo Renzi (Democratic party). This reform is the most ambitious one in the entire Republican history of the country not only in quantitative terms (number of amendments to the Constitution), but also in qualitative terms (changes concerning the powers of the Senate). Materials and methods: the paper presents a theoretical analysis of the main provisions of the constitutional reform initiated by Matteo Renzi, a potential impact of proposed changes and causes of the failure of the referendum. Research results: the Renzi-Boschi Constitutional reform was primarily focused on changing (truncation) the powers of the Senate and its membership number. According to the reform, the senators were not only “suspended” from participation in the law making process on current political issues, but the Senate at large was deprived of the right of veto, while the government was subject to control only by the Chamber of Deputies. At its core, the Renzi-Boschi reform increased the power of the government and the  Prime Minister in particular. In combination with the electoral law (the”Italicum”), which provides for “the award of the majority,” the country was about to experience an authoritarian shift. The reasons for the failure of the referendum lie in the provisions of the draft reform of the Constitution and in the fact that the 2016 referendum was de facto a “vote of confidence” in the Matteo Renzi government and personally in the Prime Minister. Discussion and conclusions: the Renzi-Boschi Constitutional reform in its essence was an attempt to launch the “perestroika” of the Republic and its foundations. The transition from the First Republic to the Second, which began in the early 1990-s is still continuing.