Журнал ЗАКОН

Alexander SERGEYEV, Head of the Civil Law department of the law faculty of the Saint Petersburg State Economic University, answers the questions of Yan Piskunov, Chief Editor of LAW magazine.

At the recent G8 summit the Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that the country was developing a plan to counter off-shore companies, and that the Council of the Federation was considering a draft bill aimed at achievement of that goal, in particular allowing to reveal ultimate beneficiaries. Draft bill No. 196666-b, referred to by the President, visibly tightens the state financial policy by introducing additional measures to control the outflow of capital abroad. On June 28, Federal Law No. 134-FZ On the Introduction of Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation with a View to Countering Illegal Financial Operations was signed by the Russian President. One of the most controversial and resonance provisions of the law remains the introduction into the law on legalization (money laundering) of proceeds from crime of the concept of the ‘beneficial owner’ (in addition to the already-existing concept of ‘beneficiary’), as well as the mechanism to identify beneficial owners. We asked the experts to evaluate the described innovations. What legal risks they might involve?

Viktor NAUMOV, managing partner of the St. Petersburg office of Dentons international law firm, answers the questions of Vladimir Rumak, Chief Editor of LAW magazine.

The article deals with current issues of the legal regime of personal data and specific features of its implementation in various sectors.

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Keywords: personal data, information security, privacy, secrecy, confidentiality, security of the person

The article is dedicated to analysis of the main international regulations governing legal regimes of confidential information, as well as peculiarities of confidentiality of information regulation in certain national legal systems.

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Keywords: information, privacy, secrecy, international law

Each year information is becoming a more economically valuable asset. Its major difference from other assets is the ability of rapid spread and repeated replication. For example, in case of employment data on production processes, customers and suppliers of the previous employer is likely to become known to a new employer. If the Company fails to take appropriate measures to former workers rendering them unable to share such valuable information, the leak may cause significant harm to the business. The Russian legislation prescribes a special institute of information constituting trade secret, which is designed to prevent leakage of commercially valuable data. The article discusses in what cases and how the company can effectively protect its own commercially valuable information and sets examples of judicial practice.

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Keywords: trade secret, know-how

The article presents a detailed analysis of recent legislative initiatives in the field of copyright protection on the Internet, in particular the so-called counter-piracy law recently approved by the Council of the Federation. The authors carry on analysis of bills through the lenses of foreign experience on protection of intellectual property rights on the Internet and in view of the Russian realities.

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Keywords: copyright protection, Internet, counter-piracy measures, intellectual property, provider, website

The author of the article considers civil proceedings (in general, jurisdiction courts and commercial courts) of a particular case as a communicative system of information processing. Indissoluble unity and dialectical relationship of its content (inside) and formal (external) features, along with the observed electronization of social communication, determine the author’s prediction of transition to the electronic form of civil procedure, vested with advantages specified in the article.

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Keywords: information, civil proceedings, modernization, electronic justice

The author investigates the most controversial moments of the recently published draft Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Commercial Court of the Russian Federation on the responsibility of directors, that became subject of considerable debates in the legal and business community.

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Keywords: corporate law, corporate governance, accountability, Director, Board of Directors, losses, conflicts of interest

Whether it is possible of a participant in common ownership, consistently producing non-removable improvements in the common property, to increase his share in the right to such extent that it will lead to termination of property rights of other participants?

The article contemplates problems associated with the modern use of Soviet trademarks, not protected by the law in the past. The author analyzes solutions to issues of existing monopoly of certain producers, in particular recognition of the Soviet trademarks entered into universal turnover and lost their discriminatory capacity, cancellation of their registration as acts of unfair competition and / or abuse of rights, nationalization, transfer of the Soviet brands in the regime of collective trademarks and introduction in their respect of the right of prior use.

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Keywords: Soviet trademarks, nationalization, disclaimer, prior use, collective trademarks

The article substantiates the necessity of referral in the course of legislative fixation of administrative proceedings goals to the concept implemented in the existing norms of the Russian Federation Code of Civil Procedure in the Code of Administrative Procedure of the Russian Federation. Rules of the Code of Administrative Procedure shall apply to all administrative matters, regardless of their legal jurisdiction and arbitrability.

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Keywords: administrative proceedings, objectives and goals of legal proceedings, generally recognized standards of justice

The role of comparative law in development of legal systems has been steadily increasing in the era of globalization. The author explores the origins and mechanisms of application, in the course of unification of law, of this method of legal knowledge, which attains particular importance in private international law dealing with legal collisions and misunderstandings in interpretation of institutions of various national legal systems.

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Keywords: comparative law, comparative analysis, comparative science, international private law, unification

The article reveals proof of existence in the tax legislation of terms of both civil and tax law, matching concepts of civil law. The author emphasizes that the practice of application of tax law, containing civil terms, often requires a broad interpretation of such rules, as well as civil qualification of transactions for tax purposes.

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Keywords: terms of civil law, terms of tax law, interpretation of tax law, civil qualification of transactions for tax purposes

In recent years the construction of abuse of rights has been increasingly used by courts for invalidation of transactions. In practice it leads to unnecessarily broad judicial discretion in assessing the conduct of parties thereto. The author criticizes this approach, points to significant legal risks it gives rise to, including those due to the relevant innovations of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

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Keywords: invalidity of transactions, nullity, challengeability, abuse of law, evasion of law

The article highlights various legal means of state support of innovation on special territories established to promote innovation. The author analyses the Russian and foreign experience in creating and implementing public support of such entities.

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Keywords: innovation, investment, technology park, business incubator, cluster, special economic zones