Legal Regulation of State Security: a Review of Modern Trends in Foreign Legislation

Abstract

Reviews of modern trends in foreign legislation and a general overview of normative legal acts that embody the attitude of the state to the concept and attributes of state security have always been and still remain relevant from both practical and theoretical viewpoints. The authors stress that legal regulation of state security is a basic factor for the development of state policy in every modern society. They study some problems connected with the break-up of the Soviet Union and analyze the prerequisites that later influenced the development and adoption of independent criminal legislation in the countries under review. The authors also examine key trends of state security policy as well as military, political, economic and other domains of ensuring state security. They present a list of key approaches to the goals of nation strategy of protecting certain subjects against external and internal threats. They also offer a general description of normative legal acts that reflect the attitude of different states to the concept and attributes of state security, study the common features and the differences of some crimes against state security (high treason, espionage, subversion, sabotage, disclosure of a state secret, loss of documents containing a state secret, and some others).