Mining in the Procrustean Bed of Entrepreneurship: Expectations and Prospects

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

In the present article the author turns to the study of the topical for the modern Russian legal reality issue – the possibility and conditions of recognition of mining as a permitted activity. Widespread phenomenon in the absence of a formed normative concept inevitably generates a scientific debate, fueled by haphazard attempts of the legislator to pointwise regulate the emerged and constantly complicating legal relations. The author of this article proposes to turn to the definition of mining: due to the specificity of the very type of activity, the legal science is forced to get involved in the initially alien technological areas in an attempt to find systemic, legally significant signs. Initially high variability of doctrinal approaches requires correlation with the legislative vision of the emerging picture of mining. In this regard, the article provides an analysis of both the current legal acts related to the regulation of the turnover of digital assets and digital currencies, and recent legislative attempts to recognize the phenomenon of Russian mining. The article provides a significant enrichment of the foreign experience of friendly states in terms of regulation of mining activities – both in terms of developing an acceptable definition, and in terms of legal consequences of the legalization of the phenomenon. Finally, the key issue of the article should be considered as the author›s attempt to consider the possibility of giving the mining activity in the Russian Federation the properties of entrepreneurial activity. The comparison of the adopted in the civil legislation paradigm of entrepreneurship and the new phenomenon – mining – made it possible to conclude that, despite the specificity of this activity, it has all the signs of economic activity. The author shows the need to develop clear criteria for the purpose of giving this activity entrepreneurial properties, as well as to distinguish mining as an economic activity, which has the properties of investment, and mining as an activity directly aimed at profit making.