Legal Sphere Research Articles

The main advantages of using alternative methods of resolving disputes and conflicts in the public legal sphere

The article analyzes issues related to the advantages of using alternative methods of resolving public legal disputes and conflicts. It is pointed out that the modern judicial system, acting as a separate branch of state power, occupies a special place in the system of the state mechanism and, accordingly, has its own competence in this area. However, like any system of state institutions, it is not without common shortcomings, the totality of which significantly reduces the judicial system's ability to provide resolution of the entire range of legal disputes and conflicts that cannot be resolved by the parties without the involvement of a professional "third party". In particular, it is pointed out that the inefficiency of the judicial system, long terms of consideration of cases, banal red tape, formalization, incomplete consideration of real legal interests, not always proper execution of court decisions, substantial court costs, etc. can be attributed to such shortcomings. All these shortcomings act as a factor that pushes a wide range of people to find new ways to resolve disputes and conflicts, bypassing state court procedures. At the same time, we are actually talking about the fact that the factor of the birth and quite dynamic development of alternative methods of resolving disputes and conflicts, including public legal ones, in various states are, on the one hand, significant shortcomings of the existing judicial systems, and on the other hand, the real advantages of the above-mentioned private dispute resolution systems. It is noted that the advantages of alternative methods of resolving disputes and conflicts, including in the public legal sphere, are caused by the shortcomings inherent in the official judicial system. It was the shortcomings of the latter that prompted an intensive search for alternative methods and became a factor in their further dynamic widespread use. At the same time, alternative dispute resolution has its own special advantages regardless of the weakness of the functioning of the state court. It is noted that the factor of saving public funds, which is discussed in the context of the introduction of alternative resolution of disputes and conflicts, quite often acts as a driving force for the introduction of new approaches and innovative solutions. At the same time, the system of alternative resolution of disputes and conflicts has a number of other advantages, which are primarily aimed at ensuring the legitimate interests of the parties, at implementing a relatively comfortable procedure for resolving legal disputes and conflicts. After all, a properly organized process of applying the entire set of various forms, methods and methods due to their above-mentioned advantages will relieve the judicial system, create appropriate conditions for access to justice for other subjects, promote legality and law and order, reduce conflict between the parties, create conditions for more guaranteed and comfortable observance and implementation of the legal interests of the parties, improvement of the situation with the execution of court decisions, introduction of innovative approaches within legal practice, will contribute to the development and implementation of new techniques and methods of legal technique, harmonious development of the legal system, etc.

Современное общество как среда и детерминанта развития правовой культуры (опыт теоретико-правового анализа)

Introduction. Appeal to questions concerning the state and basic directions of development of legal culture of modern society requires the establishment of factors of social development, which have an essential influence on the formation of law, determine the state, directions of modification and features of functioning of the legal sphere. Transformations of modern society and its legal culture are considered as interdependent processes and as factors of legal life of modern society. Transformations of modern society and its legal culture are considered as interdependent processes and as factors of legal life of modern society. Methods: The study uses the general scientific logical methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalisation, as well as special methods of legal research: formal-legal, historical-legal and comparativelegal. Results. The tendencies of social development, which characterise modernity, determine the features of the state of modern state and the specifics of the evolution of the legal system of a modern state, have been identified. Determinants of state-legal development in the conditions of modernity are: globalization and the connected with it changes of a social device; transformation and crisis of the value bases of public life; updating of cultural sphere; prompt development of techniques and computer technologies and a number of others. The effect of these factors is the change the content and form of law, the conditions and opportunities for legal interaction. Translation by means of the law of system of social values of the corresponding stage of civilization development, legalization of a significant part of social relations, social importance of effective legal communication both at a level of the separate society and world community define a social role of legal culture and necessity of scientific comprehension of the given socially-legal phenomenon. The conclusion about the growth of urgency of such directions of scientific researches as a substantiation of national idea and national values; characteristics of the system of social regulation and management in modern society; mental bases of legal culture; informative, communicative, active aspects of the legal culture of modern society.

The technology triad: disruptive AI, regulatory gaps and value change

AbstractDisruptive technologies can have far-reaching impacts on society. They may challenge or destabilize cherished ethical values and disrupt legal systems. There is a convergent interest among ethicists and legal scholars in such “second-order disruptions” to norm systems. Thus far, however, ethical and legal approaches to technological norm-disruption have remained largely siloed. In this paper, we propose to integrate the existing ‘dyadic’ models of disruptive change in the ethical and legal spheres, and shift focus to the relations between and mutual shaping of values, technology, and law. We argue that a ‘triadic’ values-technology-regulation model—“the technology triad”—is more descriptively accurate, as it allows a better mapping of second-order impacts of technological changes (on values and norms, through changes in legal systems—or on legal systems, through changes in values and norms). Simultaneously, a triadic model serves to highlight a broader portfolio of ethical, technical, or regulatory interventions that can enable effective ethical triage of—and a more resilient response to—such Socially Disruptive Technologies. We illustrate the application of the triadic framework with two cases, one historical (how the adoption of the GDPR channeled and redirected the evolution of the ethical value of ‘privacy’ when that had been put under pressure by digital markets), and one anticipatory (looking at anticipated disruptions caused by the ongoing wave of generative AI systems).

Correlation Between EU Ac Quis, Domestic Law and International Law in Light of Legal Governance of the European Patent with Unified Effect

Problem setting. The article is devoted to detection of the legal nature of the relationships between EU Member States’ domestic law and newly-created system of patent law governance, which comprises the Council Regulations 1257/2012 on implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection and № 1260/2012 on implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection with regard to the applicable translation arrangements as well as the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court. The subject of this research are the potential challenges the enforcement of the EU law may pose to the Unified Patent Court, along with enforcing Contracting State’s domestic law and international treaties, binding to the Contracting States as well as potential threats that can emerge after the Unified Patent Court becomes operational, especially the threat of legal fragmentation in terms of patent relationships. Profound analysis of the rules, that set the procedure of using different types of legislation while hearing the patent disputes cases has been made. The legal opinions of the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning the autonomous judicial bodies and their influence on the EU law have been presented. Potential threats to the EU legal system’s integrity and possible ways of deterring them have been outlined. Comparisons between recent and previous legal problems concerning the field of the EU law integrity have been made. The main arguments of the Court of Justice of the European Union have been studied and the most durable ones have been stressed as the milestones of the future Unified Patent Court legal practice. Conclusions about the importance of domestic and EU law correlation in light of patent legal sphere have been made. The drawbacks of current EU legislation and the need for the Court of Justice of the European Union to reconsider its positions have been mentioned. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The problems of compiling EU rights and national rights of EU member states in the context of their use by EU institutions, as well as other bodies, in particular the ECHR, as well as the question of fragmentation of patent law, were raised by the following EU researchers: Kristof Krenn, Giuseppe Martinico, Jorg Polakiewicz, Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, Steve Peers, Douwe de Lange, Tatiana Komarova. Purpose of the research is to conduct a profound analysis of the problem concerning the use of EU law and other legal sources by the Unified Patent Court during its future legal practice and to study the bonds between the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Unified Patent Court and Contracting Member States and their role in the creation of the new legal framework. Article’s main body. The analytics of the EU patent law harmonization has been an object of attention of many researchers so far. For instance, Reto M. Hilty and the collective of authors, who studied the problem of enforcement of law, that forms the so-called «patent package», explicitly paid their attention to the question of jurisprudence fragmentation, the point of which is that as soon as the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court comes into force, several judicial bodies will cover the territory of the Contracting Member States with their jurisdiction simultaneously. Apart from the national courts, that will deal with the patents, issued by the domestic authorities, the following bodies will execute their functions: the Unified Patent Court on cases concerning the European patent with unitary effect, the Court of Justice of the European Union by issuing its preliminary opinions on the compatibility of the Unified Patent Court’s actions with the EU law and the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office by deciding on the administrative lawsuits. The problem of jurisprudence fragmentation entails a vast amount of problems, the answer to which can only be given by means of judicial practice. If we turn our view towards Article 7 of the Council Regulation № 1257/2012, we will notice that this article gives the European patent with unitary effect the meaning of property, that should be equally recognized throughout all the Contracting Member States. This aspect leads to an important conclusion, that will be discussed later in this paper. Conclusions and prospects for the development. To sum this up, it’s worth noting, that the beginning of the Unified Patent Court’s functioning, as well as the moment when the legislation, created by means of enhanced cooperation mechanism, comes into force, will certainly become a remarkable event both to the EU institutions and the Unified Patent Court, since it has the potential to become a strong incentive to reconsideration of current approaches to the cooperation between the EU and international judicial bodies.

Directions for improving legislative regulation in the context of legalization and digitalization of IT business on the Internet

The main strategic goal of the development of the information society in Ukraine is to speed up the development and implementation of the latest competitive information technologies in all spheres of social life, in particular in the Ukrainian economy, which will increase the competitiveness of Ukraine, labor productivity in all spheres of the economy, the degree of development of the information infrastructure, in particular the Ukrainian segment of the Internet, increase the participation of knowledge-intensive products that contribute to the improvement of the quality and accessibility of education, science, culture, and health care through the introduction of information technologies, expand human opportunities to gain access to national and global electronic information resources, create new jobs, improve working conditions and human conditions .
 Today, the use of information technologies in the Ukrainian market is an integral part of conducting any business. Accordingly, the rapid development of the field of IT technologies is observed. However, as is usually the case in our country, legislation and the legal sphere do not keep up with the pace of development of society and business in particular. Thus, a situation has arisen when, with maximum demand for the development and activity of companies in the field of information technologies, the legal regulation of this field is minimal. Of course, this state of affairs in the Ukrainian business environment repels even the small number of investors who could bring income to the country’s economy.
 The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that the existing trends in the development of IT entrepreneurship do not sufficiently ensure the prompt provision of the necessary information for the creation of an effective management system. The existing scientific and methodical approaches to the formation and development of IT entrepreneurship have a weak degree of development and clearly cannot be used to form an effective system of infrastructural support for the development of entrepreneurial structures.

The Possibility and Necessity of the Human-Centered AI in Legal Theory and Practice

Objective: the paper aims to define the problems juridical theory and practice face with the progress of AI technologies in everyday life and correlate these problems with the human-centered approach to exploring artificial intelligence (Human-Centered AI).Methods: the research critically analyzes the relevant literature from various disciplines: jurisprudence, sociology, philosophy, and computer sciences.Results: the article articulates the prospects and problems the legal system confronts with the advancement of digital technologies in general and the tools of AI specifically. The identified problems are correlated with the provisions of the human-centered approach to AI. The authors acknowledge the necessity for AI inventors, as well as the owners of companies participating in the race to develop artificial intelligence technologies, to place humans, not machines, into the focus of attention as a primary value. In particular, special effort should be directed towards collecting and analyzing high-quality data for the organization of artificial intelligence tools development, taking into account that nowadays, the tools of AI are as practical as the data on which they are trained are effective.The authors formulate three principles of human-centered AI for the legal sphere: 1) a human as a necessary link in the chain of making and executing legal decisions; 2) the need to regulate artificial intelligence at the international law level; 3) formulating “a taboo” for introducing the artificial intelligence technologies.Scientific novelty: the article manifests one of the first attempts in the Russianlanguage scientific literature to outline the prospects of developing humancentered AI methodology in jurisprudence. Based on an analysis of special literature, the authors formulate three principles of including artificial intelligence into juridical theory and practice according to the assumptions of a human-centered approach to AI.Practical significance: the principles and arguments the article advances can be helpful in the legal regulation of artificial intelligence technologies and their harmonious inclusion into legal practices.

Sharenting and Children’s Privacy Protection in International, EU, and Czech Law

The digitalization of social relations has brought some new and hitherto unknown phenomena. Real life has been extended, into the world of cyberspace. This world is often referred to as the virtual world, but in reality, by its consequences for our lives and the legal sphere, it is no less real than the physical world. A significant part of family life has been affected by this phenomenon. Photos, videos and other information that used to be available only to immediate family members are now shared publicly on the internet through social networks. Young children are particularly affected, with parents publicly sharing information from their private lives. This practice is referred to as sharenting. As a result of sharenting, children in the Internet environment often effectively lose their status as subjects and become mere objects. This object is then handled by the child’s closest relatives – parents, i.e. the people who should naturally look after and defend the child’s best interests. The problem is that parents are not aware of both the legal framework and the possible factual negative consequences that sharenting can have for a child’s life and childhood. The key question that I seek to answer in this article is to what extent the current legal framework can respond to sharenting. The aim is also to assess to what extent is such sharing information about children legal and where the boundaries of permissible or justifiable disclosure of information about a child on the Internet lie. Finally, the question is also how the child affected by sharing can defend him/herself against its negative consequences. Sharenting is addressed by the EU, international and national law. As far as national law is concerned, in my article I focus primarily on Czech civil and family law. Sharenting concerns the protection of privacy as a fundamental human right, but also freedom of expression, which is why the European Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (international dimension), the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (EU dimension) and the Czech Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms (national constitutional dimension) are explored as well.

Media as an institution of legal informing the population of Russia

This article is devoted to the current issue of legal informing the population through the media. At the present stage, information law is in its infancy and this explains such a variety of terms with the use of which, experts try to determine its content. The article analyses the concepts of various approaches to the definition of the concept of ‟information law”. The main subjects of legal regulation in information law, as well as information relations as a basis in information law, are determined. The connection of information law with the mass media is argued. Applying the main idea of defining the institutions of information law, based on the analysis, the author formulates the category of ‟the institution of legal informing the media”. Particular attention is paid to the concept of legal culture, as the degree of maturity, education of a person, its way of thinking and norms of behaviour in the legal sphere. The content of the legal culture of society is determined, which includes the legal awareness of a person; its beliefs and attitudes in the field of law enforcement; the nature and level of legal activity, as well as legal behaviour. From the foregoing, the author comes to the conclusion that it is advisable to determine the place of legal informing the media in the system of law as a legal institution in the field of information law.

The Prohibition of Torture and its Implications in the European Legal Sphere

The prohibition of torture as a human right is part of the ius cogens system of international law. Prohibition is derived from the necessity of maintaining the physical and mental integrity of persons, which is embedded in humanity itself. The following article analyses the prohibition of torture in the European human rights framework. The study analyses the universal United Nations Convention against torture, legislative framework of the Council of Europe with its European Convention on Human Rights, and framework established by the European Union, respectively.

Revitalizing Justice: Empowering Juvenile Sexual Offenders through a Restorative Approach in Indonesia

Sexual offense is a serious crime which could pose significant negative impacts on personal level and community. When committed by minors, sexual offense becomes a much more complicated problem and raises many different intricacies. Despite being a popular topic within the legal sphere, restorative justice in Indonesia still has research gap, particularly on the focus of applying restorative justice measures for juvenile sexual offenders. The purpose of this research is to address this research gap and analyze the potentials of using the restorative justice approach to deal with sexual offense cases committed by minors, with the focus of impacts, recovery, and preventing future recidivism. Using the normative legal research method his research dives into the Indonesian legal system to uncover the legal problems that may hinder or discourage people from using this approach, despite the potentials benefits it possesses. Through the statutory approach, this research finds the links within the relevant laws and regulations that may or may not support the use of restorative justice approach to deal with juvenile sexual offenders. The analysis of this finds that the restorative justice approach is indeed beneficial and can help Indonesia in dealing with this issue by not only focusing on delivering justice and recovery the victims, but also holding offenders responsible without sacrificing their youth development and their future.

Intergenerational Justice as a Lever to Impact Climate Policies: Lessons from the Complainants’ Perspective on Germany’s 2021 Climate Constitutional Ruling

AbstractClimate litigation based on the constitutional rights of future generations is an emerging and promising approach to enforcing long-term policies based on intergenerational and climate justice. In Germany, a high-profile constitutional judgment triggered by climate activists ruled that the German climate policy infringes future freedom rights. Based on an assessment of legal opportunity structures and interviews with key actors, this research finds that the complainants utilised the opportunity to facilitate a strong public perception of intergenerational injustice set by the Fridays for Future movement. While the court’s response in the form of the intertemporal effect doctrine is ambiguous and does not constitute clear fundamental rights of future generations, the complainants reached their strategic goal to directly influence policymakers and draw public attention to the issue of climate protection as an intergenerational responsibility. An interplay of four different legal arguments and numerous actors associated with the climate movement was crucial to triggering this outcome. These findings from a sociolegal bottom-up perspective are of great relevance as they show that impactful climate litigation through intergenerational principles relies on the strategic utilisation of the cultural context beyond the legal sphere.

Significance and special features of legal communication: foreign experience

Legal communication plays a very important role in understanding law and legal discourse, promoting human interaction. Legal communication is defined as the process of exchanging or disseminating ideas, information, views or opinions, transmitted electronically or by means of gestures, speech or written speech, and it relates to legal aspects and is binding in nature. It is noted that it is necessary to understand the main features of legal communication in order to be able to participate effectively in it. The purpose of the article is to reveal the significance of legal communication and its special features in the legal sphere of interpersonal interaction, using foreign experience. Legal communication has proven to be a key aspect of the legal profession, as it covers a wide range of communication methods used in different legal contexts. It requires a high level of professionalism, attention to detail, objectivity, clarity and accuracy, timeliness, confidentiality, consistency, etc. Legal professionals need to know the ins and outs of legal communication to be effective in their work, from drafting legal documents to presenting arguments in court. By following these features, legal professionals can ensure that their communication is truly effective, appropriate and in the best interests of their clients. Legal communication is an important tool for achieving the desired results in court proceedings, ensuring compliance with the law, and maintaining the trust and respect of all parties involved. In general, clear and concise legal communication is essential for the proper functioning of the legal system, protection of the rights and interests of clients. Legal communication helps to establish and maintain the coherence of the legal system, optimize legal processes and procedures, ensure compliance with legal requirements, and promote honesty and fairness in the legal system. Legal communication also plays a crucial role in ensuring access to justice for everyone. Effective communication of legal concepts and procedures can help individuals to understand their rights and responsibilities, and to navigate the legal system with confidence. When legal concepts and requirements are communicated clearly and consistently, everyone is held to the same standards, regardless of their background or status.

Взаимодействие со СМИ как важная составляющая профессиональной коммуникации юриста

The negative consequences of the legal sphere mediatization are considered. Concrete examples demonstrate the mistakes that journalists make when covering the legal professionals’ activities, including forensic experts, in the mass media, as well as the bias of reviewers while estimating forensic linguistic expertise. As one of the possible ways to overcome these problems, it is proposed to pay attention to the interaction of professional lawyers with journalists, as well as to use PR technologies with the involvement of IT tools in the study of media materials.

Interaction of the Prosecutor's Office with Religious Organizations

The object of the study is the social relations that arise during the interaction of the prosecutor's office, law enforcement and other state bodies with religious organizations, and the impact of this interaction on the prevention of offenses. The author examines such aspects of the topic as the impact of the activities of religious organizations on the legal situation, the impact of cooperation with them of the prosecutor's office, law enforcement and other state bodies on the prevention of offenses, the specifics of the implementation of the directions of interaction of the prosecutor's office with religious organizations. The subject of the study is the materials of law enforcement practice, the norms of legislation on the prosecutor's office, the legislation of foreign countries regulating these public relations, the positions of scientists formed on the issue of interaction with religious organizations of state and, in particular, law enforcement agencies. Despite the separation of religion from the state proclaimed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, there is obviously an increasing influence on the legal situation of religious organizations, as well as the presence of significant potential for preventing crimes, especially in the field of terrorism and extremism, which is especially relevant in the modern situation. In this regard, there is no doubt that the Prosecutor's office and other law enforcement agencies need to cooperate with them in the field of crime prevention. At the same time, the current legislation does not contain the necessary regulation of such cooperation; scientific study of the issue is also insufficient. Filling this gap, the author of the article, exploring the legal aspects of the implementation of the interaction of the prosecutor's office and other law enforcement agencies with religious organizations in the legal sphere, identifies the directions and forms of their interaction, which is the novelty of the study. The conclusion is formulated about the need to consolidate the duty of interaction of the Prosecutor's office with public and religious organizations in the Law on the Prosecutor's Office, its directions and to consolidate in the order of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation the forms of interaction of the Prosecutor's Office with religious organizations, which is a special contribution of the author to the study of this topic.

Constitutional rights and duties of youth: problems of implementation in Modern Russia

The subject of the research of this article is the analysis of the problems of the realization of the constitutional rights and duties of the younger generation in modern Russia. The object of the study is youth as a special social group. The author notes that young people play a key role in the development of any country, but face a number of barriers in the implementation of their constitutional legal status. The following groups of problems are considered. In the socio–economic sphere – difficulties with employment, obtaining housing, health protection. In the political and legal sphere, there is a low political activity of young people, obstacles to youth initiatives. Special attention is paid to the factors of legal nihilism and social passivity among young citizens. The paper emphasizes the complex of the problems under consideration. It is noted that the implementation of the constitutional status of youth in modern Russian conditions is becoming particularly relevant and of scientific and practical importance due to the reasons identified in the conclusions of this work. The conclusion is made about the need for a systematic youth policy that unites the efforts of authorities, civil society and the youth themselves. There is a significant probability of an increase in the risks of restrictions on the socio-economic rights of young people in the light of anti-Russian sanctions and a special military operation in Ukraine. The necessary task is to minimize the risks of destructive impact on the legal consciousness of young people, to improve education in order to strengthen patriotic education, legal culture.

Социолого-правовые концепции компромисса

Between modern humanities, as is known, there is a close relationship. Often the same phenomenon is simultaneously in the field of view of representatives of several fields of knowledge. In this regard, in some cases, legal scholars, before considering specific state-legal problems, it makes sense to turn to the achievements of philosophy, political science, economic theory and other sciences. The information gleaned from them can become an important part of the methodological basis for conducting serious and in-depth legal research in the future. Based on this, the author of this article made an attempt to refer to the provisions of the sociology of law, reflecting the nature of compromise as a complex social phenomenon. With their help, he tried to clarify the reasons and trace the process of its penetration into the legal sphere. The material presented in the article seems to be able to expand the ideas of modern legal scholars about the nature of legal compromise and act as a foundation for its further study.

Intelligence artificielle et application non contentieuse du droit : une réactualisation du problème du design institutionnel de Lon L. Fuller

Cet article propose de rapprocher les enjeux normatifs engendrés par l’intelligence artificielle dans la sphère du juridique à la problématique plus fondamentale du « design institutionnel » de Lon L. Fuller. L’optimisation des ressources étatiques promise par le déploiement de l’intelligence artificielle s’opérera en contrepartie d’une application « non contentieuse » du droit plus préventive et unilatérale, autrement dit managériale. En scindant le concept de la gouvernance étatique en ses ramifications « juridique » et « économique », Fuller entendait conjuguer celle-ci et celle-là dans un projet aspirant à la cohésion et au bon fonctionnement sociétal. Une réactualisation des écrits « fullériens » permettra de situer la portée de l’intelligence artificielle au sein de cette classification et offrira un éclairage favorable à l’élucidation des enjeux normatifs soulevés par l’intelligence artificielle étatique.

Прогресс геномики человека с позиций правового подхода

The article reviews the prospects of development of human genomics primarily from the standpoint of the impact of the progress of the natural science knowledge on the legal sphere. The author analyzes the danger of technological dehumanization of an individual and opportunities for legal combating of this process.

Dialogic Analysis of Discourses Mobilized by Defendants Accused of Femicide in Jury Trial

ABSTRACT This article aims to analyze how discourses of defendants accused of femicide in Jury Trial are axiologically constituted. Based on Dialogic Discourse Analysis (DDA), two murderers’ testimonies taken in the 2018-2020 triennium were analyzed. Considering the extralinguistic dimension of utterances, results point out that: a) in the Jury chronotope, defendants’ discourses present as defensive-victimistic-accusative; b) in the ideological legal sphere, their discourses are made hybrid as intimate-everyday, moral, and legal; c) in the specific situation of discursive interaction, discourse materializes as pro-formahierarchical-bivocal, while permeated by dialogical relations with the law. In the linguistic dimension, both stylistically and compositionally, murderers tensely express negative images of the women victims, describing them as traitors, deceitful, jealous, hysterical, provocative, maladjusted, and aggressive, among others. They build up images of themselves as victimized and disturbed men who had been provoked to act.

The Right to the Truth as an Enabler for Missing Persons Efforts

AbstractThe right to the truth is often mentioned in conjunction with missing persons cases and is recognized for its propensity to function as an enabling right, helping victims and families to claim their rights. While families, survivors, communities, specialist agencies, NGOs and international organizations readily invoke the right to the truth, the terminology used in the context can be ambiguous, overlapping, mandate-driven or strategic. This contribution reflects on the applicable legal spheres, use of approaches and practices in the context of missing persons investigations and claims made towards the realization of the right to the truth. The article clarifies the legal landscape to underscore what is meant by the right to the truth and how it may function as the starting point for the realization of other rights in the context of missing persons. Further, it examines and dissects conceptualizations of missing persons and resolution efforts; and identifies what actions help realize the right to the truth and to what extent. It argues the merits of a broad definition of missing persons while urging those engaged in solving missing persons cases to be candid in respect of the truth-seeking aspect they may be able to advance. This is by no means a trivial inquiry, for families of the missing rely on the assistance of the law and relevant agencies to further the realization of their right to the truth.