Private Interests Research Articles

Theft, a “Multi-faceted” Crime Against Property

Vakhtang Batonishvili's Law Book indicates that theft can be of various sorts and “multi-faceted”. The ancient Georgian law addresses some similar crimes against property, robbery, piracy, and theft. In all three cases, property was appropriated. Unlike robbery and piracy, theft was not an overt act of violence. Following the legal norms of the old Georgian law, different types of theft can be tentatively classified into the basic, qualified, and privileged composition of the crime. Qualified theft was usually tried in the Court of the King and the thief was sentenced to death or facial mutilation. The main component of theft was the punishment in the form of property compensation, which was determined by the value of the stolen item. The annals of law provide information about the manner of compensation of double, triple, five times, or seven times for that which the thief contributed. The payment of seven times was mostly prescribed, from which a double share of the compensation was given to the victim, and the rest to a specific official, or the state, in general. Based on the above, most of the norms on theft in the old Georgian law are aimed at protecting private and public interests. The private interest was satisfied by the transfer of two parts of the payment of seven times to the owner of the thing, while the rest belonged to the state.

Balancing the Right to Privacy and National Security Interests in the Digital Age

In order to protect national security, the states widely use secret surveillance measures and monitor electronic communications, which poses high risks of arbitrariness and abuse of power. Modern technologies enable the states to collect and process personal data on an unprecedented scale. Therefore, the most important challenge in today’s world is to determine how to protect national security and prevent serious crimes without violating human rights. 
 The judgments of the European Court of Human Rights provide guidance in terms of balancing the right to privacy and security interests. The present article aims to discuss the development of the case law of the European Court and the legal safeguards for protecting the right to privacy when the state carries out secret surveillance measures.

Капитализм и социализм в изменившемся мире: парадокс конвергенции

The current dramatic confrontation between East and West can be seen as a continuation in a converted form of the struggle between two opposing social systems, capitalist and socialist, in the twentieth century. The article deals with the problem of convergence of capitalist and socialist elements, paradoxically received external impulses as a result of the rivalry between the two world systems, as well as under the influence of globalization. Modern society, being a complex system, cannot develop successfully, by locking itself into some single, uniform type of organization. It needs the combination of market institutions, focused primarily on private interests, with planning, focused on the public interest. Planning is not yet socialism, but its necessary however insufficient condition. Another necessary condition is a policy that limits the moral flaws of capitalism, and facilitates the spiritual and moral improvement of society.

The purpose of administrative ensuring the balance of interests in the field of environmental regulation

The article examines the purpose of administrative maintenance of the balance of interests in the field of environmental regulation. Systemic, structural-functional methods and the method of comparison were used for the research. The topicality of the topic is due to the need to increase the effectiveness of the legal regulation of environmental protection, environmental safety, and nature management. In the context of current environmental legislation, the purpose and tasks of legal regulation are considered. It is noted that the subject-objective basis of administrative-legal regulation, which is expressed with the help of the concept of the idea of law. The latter acts as a legal idea of administrative and legal regulation in the field of ecology and forms the subject- objective basis of content and research. It is noted that the specification of the concept is manifested in the understanding of the balance of interests as a planned result of the coordination of the public interest of protecting the natural environment with basic public interests (economic well-being of citizens, security, and others), even with private interests. Protection of the public interest should have the ultimate goal of protecting the rights and freedoms of a specific person and citizen of the state. The purpose and planned result of the reconciliation of interests is to ensure basic public interests, ensure the subjective environmental rights and legitimate interests of citizens, and protect them from the misconduct of powerful subjects of administrative law in the field of legal regulation of environmental protection. The administrative-legal maintenance of the balance of interests in the field of environmental regulation is defined as a system of organizational, material and procedural administrative-legal means, with the help of which, in the process of realizing the public interest of environmental protection, basic public interests are ensured, the rights and legitimate interests of individuals and legal entities are ensured and protected.

კანონიერი ნდობის პრინციპი კანონიერების პრინციპის პირისპირ

Two important institutes of administrative law will be discussed in this paper, namely, the principle of legal reliance and the principle of legality, their origin, their place in the General Administrative Code of Georgia, their relation to the constitutional principles and to other principles of public law. The issue of conflict between these two principles takes significant part in the paper. The aim of the paper is to analyse the grounds for the principles of legal reliance and legality, the established caselaw related to them and to reveal significant challenges often faced by an administrative body, in the case of conflict between the mentioned principles. Herewith, the paper will present those problematic issues, which are related to the coexistence of the mentioned institutes, also, the ways for their solution and recommendations. Keywords: the principle of legal reliance, the principle of legality, protection of reliance of interested party, revocation of act, collision of principles, proportionate and fair decision, conflict of public and private interests.

Como a pandemia da covid-19 levantou novas questões éticas e legais em relação à propriedade intelectual

The book “Saúde & propriedade intelectual”, edited by Marcos Wachowicz and Ângela Kretschmann, provides a comprehensive view of the complex ethical and legal issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and intellectual property in the context of global health. It is a work that explores the critical intersection of intellectual property and public health, with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. The book examines ethical issues arising from the pandemic, particularly the conflict between private economic interests and the preservation of people’s lives. It emphasizes the need to rethink intellectual property in biotechnology, considering its social function and pointing to the necessity of balancing public and private interests within the patent system. The work also delves into the Brazilian National Public Health System and international negotiations regarding the intellectual protection of genetic resources, along with the challenges of patenting medicines in resource-constrained countries. Due to its wide coverage, this publication is essential reading for academics, public health experts, legal professionals, and anyone interested in the intersection of intellectual property and public health.

Theoretical and legal analysis of the conceptual and categorical apparatus in the field of human rights limitation: differences between related concepts

The article examines the relationship between the concepts of «restriction of human rights» and «discrimination». It was established that the study of differences in the essence of these concepts is extremely important in the context of law-making and law-implementation concepts of modern society.
 The state of scientific research on the topic and the most common approaches to the interpretation of the concepts of «restriction of human rights» and «discrimination» are analyzed. Their doctrinal understanding is revealed and the main legal features are indicated.
 It has been found that the restriction of rights can arise in the form of necessary restrictions to ensure general well-being or national security and other demanded social values, while discrimination is aimed at violating the equality and dignity of a person, according to certain characteristics, in order to weaken the legal position of certain social groups Two approaches to defining the concept of «restriction of human rights» have been identified. According to the first, the restriction of human rights is characterized by the understanding of such a restriction as narrowing, reducing the opportunity to enjoy certain social benefits, with the aim of ensuring the realization of the rights of other people, health protection and protection of the territorial integrity of the state. According to the second approach, the limitation of rights is considered as the establishment of certain frameworks, prohibitions, responsibilities, imposition of additional duties in order to ensure the necessary balance between public and private interests. Two approaches to defining the concept of «discrimination» have been identified. Representatives of the first approach define discrimination through actions that violate the principle of equality and affect human dignity, representatives of the second approach reduce discrimination to differences in human rights and freedoms.
 It was established that «restriction of rights» is a mechanism by which the state can regulate the behavior of citizens in the interests of national security, public order or ensuring the safety of other people, which may include the establishment of additional duties, prohibitions, responsibilities, etc. On the contrary, «discrimination» is aimed at certain social groups and consists in the violation of their equality and dignity, manifested in the restriction of access to various opportunities, services or resources based on personal characteristics.

Понятие и содержание частноправового режима

Introduction. As an element of legal regulation, private legal regime is a legal category, the concept of which is regarded ambiguously in doctrine and depends on the general understanding of the category «legal regime». Socio-economic, political changes in society are accompanied by changes in the nature of social relations, requiring proper legal regulation in the area of private interest protection.
 Methods. On the basis of the analysis of definitions of legal regime formulated in the theory of law, a generalised approach to the understanding of private legal regime was developed. The application of formal legal method made it possible to reveal the concept and specific features of the private legal regime. The system-structural method was used to determine the significance of legal means (ways, methods, principles, types of legal regulation) in the structure of private legal regime. The application of modelling enabled to reveal the effectiveness of private legal regulation of public relations.
 Results. The concept and essential features of private legal regime are identified; the model of private legal regime as a variable combination of a complex of legal means determining the orientation of private legal regulation of property and personal non-property relations based on equality, autonomy of will and material independence of their participants is defined.

Civil substantive and procedural legal means of securing reparations for Ukraine

The subject of the study is the forms of reparations for damage and the procedural means of obtaining them within the institutions which constitute transitional justice and which should comply with international standards. The purpose of the article is to determine the directions for institutional changes in the procedure and peculiarities of compensation for damage caused to individuals by the armed aggression of the russian federation, primarily in national courts in the context of legal institutions of transitional justice. To obtain the results of the study, the author used general scientific and special legal methods, in particular, analysis, generalisation, and comparative legal analysis.
 The conditions for balanced fulfilment of transitional justice tasks in the context of fair reparations for victims have been investigated. The legal means aimed at obtaining reparations for damage caused as a result of armed aggression have been considered. The author identifies the types and role of legal immunities and amnesties as means of reconciliation, their conditions of implementation and application in relation to the effectiveness and availability of reparations for gross human rights violations and war crimes. The forms of reparations that should be guaranteed to victims for the relevant crimes have been investigated.
 The results of the study are a new special approach to determining the relationship between substantive and related procedural legal means of transitional justice that may affect reparations at the national level. The role of amnesties and immunities as legal incentives and means of influencing the effectiveness and accessibility of reparations to victims has been identified and generalised. The provisions on ensuring a balanced ratio of private and public interests in the implementation of transitional justice elements have been further developed. The author identifies areas for a balanced combination of legal means and increasing their effectiveness to ensure the goals of transitional justice.
 The results of the study can be used in educational, law-making, law interpretation and law enforcement processes, in particular in civil proceedings in Ukraine. Practical significance lies in the possibility of applying the results in determining procedural ways to protect the rights of victims.

The Basic Income Paradigm and Its Impact on Human Development Opportunities

The actualisation of research interest in the issue of basic income is driven by growing inequalities in various aspects of people's lives and the unfair distribution of material and social goods in capitalist states. Providing a basic income opens up opportunities to enhance social guarantees and the standard of living for citizens.
 The article examines the ideological paradigms of the social consequences of implementing basic income. It is shown that in capitalist states, this payment, judging by numerous experiments, is being implemented in transitional forms. Its introduction serves as one of the adaptive mechanisms for capital to adapt to the modern conditions of profit extraction. The antagonistic interests of ruling classes and the majority of citizens, as well as the fragmentation of the private interests of the latter, do not allow the widespread implementation of basic income in full accordance with its fundamental criteria. The main criteria include universality – payment to all citizens, unconditionality – payment regardless of employment and other characteristics of the economic and social status of individuals, and regularity – payment throughout the entire lives of basic income recipients.
 The possibility of adhering to the fundamental criteria for providing basic income is justified in the implementation of a socialist paradigm for the development of modern states. It is demonstrated that in contemporary Russia, an evolutionary resolution of accumulated contradictions and a phased implementation of a new socialist development paradigm are possible. This could potentially be a chain of humanitarian transformations, conditioned by the circumstances that have emerged. The beginning of this transformation has already been initiated after February 2022 with the expansion of state ownership in key economic sectors, the introduction of state planning within them, the demand for new personnel prioritising collective and state values to address these issues. All this does not contradict the development of market sectors of the economy, oriented toward individual citizens' needs and the development of their diverse personal potential, as well as servicing state ownership in key sectors and facilitating comprehensive international economic connections.
 Sociological research conducted under the author's guidance has shown that potential recipients of basic income in Russia confirm their intentions to develop their human potential and consider it advisable to conduct experiments on the provision of basic income.
 In conclusion, it is concluded that the introduction of basic income, in conjunction with other instruments of socialist evolution of Russian society and the state, represents an opportunity for the development and realisation of human potential in our country.

Wealth Enclaves in the Russian Economy: Actors and Institutions

The article reveals the actors whose activities led to the emergence of the phenomenon of wealth enclaves in the Russian economy, and it identifies the institutions that support their long and sustainable existence. It is shown that this phenomenon is typical for countries with emerging markets and it is an unintended result of following the recommendations of the Washington Consensus, which provided for double liberalization. The model of successful modernization of the economy carried out by the Asian “tigers” was a sample. In their case the state played a decisive role in choosing strategic development priorities. In the case of the Washington Consensus priority was given to the private sector and deregulation of the economy meaning a significant reduction in the role of the state. Russia followed the “recipes” proposed by consensus. We found that the collision of the import of institutions in the form of the adoption of the recommendations of the Washington Consensus with counter institutional projects built on the recombination of historically established informal institutions led to the specific Russian version of wealth enclaves. A specific feature of Russian wealth enclaves is their embeddedness in the vertical of power, which is viewed as a pyramid of mixed residual property rights to competitive assets mainly in the resource sector. This “mixedness” is realized not at the formal level, but at the level of real property rights. Top entrepreneurs with political connections are characterized and it is shown that their private interests determine the choice in favor of maintaining “closedness” from the national economy and integration into global value chains. At the same time, actors of political and administrative decision-making, including those at the highest level, demonstrate loyalty to such strategies of large entrepreneurs as co-owners of real residual property rights. They are interested in maximizing the commercial results of enterprises in the resource sector, which act as donors to both the federal budget and development projects.

Адміністративно-правове гарантування прав та законних інтересів громадян україни у сфері публічного управління в Україні

The article is devoted to the problem of administrative-legal guarantee of the rights and legitimate interests of Ukrainian citizens in the sphere of public administration in Ukraine. Special attention is devoted to the analysis of the rights and legitimate interests of a person in the field of public administration as a subject of administrative and legal guarantees in Ukraine. It has been established that the source of guaranteeing individual rights in the field of public administration is the state. Other institutions of the state acting as subjects of administrative and legal guarantee of the rights of the individual in the field of public administration, broadcasting his will, endowed by the state with special competence, effective means of guaranteeing the rights of the individual. The article analyzes the peculiarities of the combination of public interest and private legitimate interests of individual individuals, the theory of the dualism of private and public interest within the framework of subjective public law, presents an analysis of the category "public legitimate interests", and the structure of subjective public rights. It was found that the category of subjective law in the public legal sphere is wider than the category of subjective public law. Particular attention is paid to the types of subjective public human rights, since their satisfaction is the most important subject of administrative and legal guarantee by the state, in particular through the mechanism of judicial control. Special attention is devoted to the analysis of public-civil, public-political, public-social rights. Positive and negative public, general and special rights in the researched area are singled out. It was noted that the practical implementation of administrative and legal guarantees of individual rights requires the involvement of a wide range of state institutions endowed with the necessary competence to create conditions, implement means aimed at guaranteeing the possibility of implementing individual rights and, if necessary, their protection. The features of guaranteeing the legal rights of a person, the system of such guarantees are characterized. It is emphasized that while guaranteeing a wide range of legal opportunities, the state should focus on developing a clear mechanism for countering the abuse of law in the field of public administration in wartime conditions.

(Ne)ustavnost obaveznog članstva u Privrednoj komori

The paper analyses the constitutionality of mandatory membership in the Chamber of Commerce, introduced by the legislation in force in 2015, through the analysis of the positions expressed in the proposal for constitutionality assessment submitted by 47 members of parliament, the decision of the Constitutional Court on this issue and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights related to for freedom of association. In particular, three key constitutionally relevant issues that arise in relation to the constitutionality of mandatory membership fees in the Chamber of Commerce were highlighted and addressed. First, is the freedom of association defined differently in the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia and the ECHR? The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia guarantees the right to stay out of any form of association, unlike the Convention, which does not guarantee this right explicitly and directly. This raises the question of whether the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia guarantees a higher level of the right to negative freedom of association than that guaranteed by the Convention? Second, does the Chamber of Commerce meet certain public law criteria and what are the consequences of the direct legal statement that the Chamber protects the private interests of its members, instead of public law interest? Third, in the present case, can the standards of ECtHR decisions Sigurður A. Sigurjónsson v. Iceland and Chassagnou v. France be applied to the disputed legal issue?

Aspects of implementing the principle of proportionality in the execution of a decision on a search permit for a personʼs home or other property

Trust in the state is an urgent problem for the countries of Central-Eastern and Eastern Europe. Since building partnerships between the state and society is possible only if the principle of procedural fairness is observed, restriction of a personʼs right to inviolability of housing or other property in criminal proceedings is one of the most pressing problems of modern Ukrainian legislation. The purpose of the study is to highlight certain legislative and enforcement aspects of the procedure for executing a decision on permission to search a personʼs home or other property that do not comply with the requirements of the principle of proportionality and create problems for ensuring a reasonable balance of private and public interests. Empirical, general, heuristic, and special legal methods of scientific knowledge were used to achieve this goal. It is established that the insufficiently regulated by the legislator issues concerning the determination of subjects authorised to comply with the decision on permission to search a personʼs home or other property, the seizure of property, the impossibility of prompt appeal against such a court decision, create an imbalance between private and public interests in criminal proceedings. It is generalised that the restriction of rights in the execution of a decision on permission to search a personʼs home or other property cannot be conducted if the means of restriction are not commensurate with the goal that the investigator or prosecutor seeks to achieve. A procedural situation in which the principle of proportionality can be violated in favour of not only the public interest but also the private one was modelled, which allowed outlining opportunities for potential abuse by a person, the rights of which were restricted. The study analyses the specific features of implementing such a resolution under martial law and highlights the criteria compliance with which will contribute to the implementation of the principle of proportionality. Recommendations for solving the problems outlined above are proposed. The results of the study will be useful not only for improving the relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine and investigative practice but also for the possibility of developing additional guarantees of legitimate restriction of a number of other rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine during the implementation of the decision on permission to search a personʼs home or other property in criminal proceedings

The political economy of land acquisition for development in the public interest: The case of Indonesia

The public interest doctrine has been deployed by successive state regimes in Indonesia to legitimise the forcible acquisition of land for the state and private interests since the colonial period. This article examines how the government of Indonesia during the Jokowi presidency, has redefined the meaning and scope of ‘public interest’ in the context of land governance in Indonesia, resulting in an escalation in social conflict and contestation over rights to use and access land. We employ a critical political economy approach to demonstrate how this redefinition of the ‘public interest’ has provided legitimacy for the national government’s actions in forcibly acquiring land using a comparative case study of tourism development in East Nusa Tenggara and a dam construction project in Central Java in Indonesia. While the national government has argued that these ‘development’ projects benefit local communities, the empirical evidence challenges these claims. This article contributes to the land governance literature by examining the specific role of state institutions. In contrast to the liberal conception of the state as a neutral agent whose function is to balance diverse and conflicting interests over land in society to achieve common goals, the experience in Indonesia shows that the state is in fact the largest and most powerful procurer of land for capital investment in the country. Instead of benefiting the local communities, these state-sponsored development projects are more likely to serve the interests of politico-business elites.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ НОВОЇ СИСТЕМИ ЦІНОУТВОРЕННЯ В ДОРОЖНІЙ ГАЛУЗІ ТА ШЛЯХИ ЇЇ УДОСКОНАЛЕННЯ

ntroduction. The new approach to determining the cost of road works and services is adapted to international standards of costs formation in the road sector, and the changes provided by the pricing system will be implemented by all participants of the road sector. Problem Statement. The necessary conditions for new construction, reconstruction, repair and maintenance of public roads financed from the budget are to ensure that their cost is determined in accordance with the principles of market pricing and using free prices, timely and correct settlements, as well as meeting all deadlines and high-quality road works and services. That is why the pricing model, taking into account its peculiarities, needed to be improved and brought in line with modern European norms and standards. At the same time, the approach to determining the cost of future investment projects for new construction, reconstruction, repair and maintenance of public roads should be based on uniform rules and methods that are formed taking into account state, territorial, public and private interests.

IPR of Lays variety potato – Is it a matter of public or private interests?

Learning outcomes The objectives of the case study are to provide an overview of intellectual property rights and intellectual property rights in Indian context; understand the intellectual property rights implementation and challenges for implementing it in emerging economies; understand what would be the best approach that companies can adopt when the companies face backlash in such circumstances; and explore the scope for redefining the intellectual property rights in the changing global environment. Case overview/synopsis In December 2021, the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPV&FRA) in India revoked the plant variety protection (PVP) certificate granted to PepsiCo India Holding (PHI) for its Lays variety potato (FL-2027, known as FC-5). The FC-5 variety possessed low moisture content which made it suitable for making potato chips. The controversy started with Pepsi suing the small and marginal farmers of Gujarat for alleged patent infringement and cultivating the patented variety. Pepsi’s legal suit against nine marginal potato farmers in Gujarat initiated the dispute over how intellectual property (IP) rights are used to intimidate small, marginal farmers and its infringement of farmers’ rights. But, on the other side, the interesting aspect was how IP infringement could be a setback for the companies that made the capital investment to develop the variety. The case study discusses the backlash Pepsi faced due to this IP rights legal suit and the punitive aspects of IP rights (IPR) law. Moreover, in the context of the global pandemic, the case study helped discuss the need to redefine the intellectual property rights regime keeping in mind global welfare. Complexity academic level The case is intended for use in postgraduate-level management courses in agricultural marketing, agribusiness, international business and economics. This study can help management students understand how IPR is defined, the apparent complexities associated with it and the adverse effect of it on small and marginal farmers in emerging economies. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 5: International business.

Класичний античний поліс: владна державна група і особливості обміну та привласнення об’єктів

The article continues the series of publications about the universum evolution of the Ancient Greek sub civilization of the Antique civilization and is devoted to the characteristics of the structure of the power-holding group, the exchange of its essential forces for those of the polis civil community, as well as the struggle of its actors for the appropriation of the centralized excess, surplus and necessary product and the corresponding contradictions. The rise and development of polis democracy allowed the inclusion of representatives of various social clusters and actors of various forms of appropriation in the permanent composition of the power-holding group, and a significant complication of the latter’s composition and structure. The power-holding group becomes an aggregated actor of the mixed social-individual appropriation, and the interaction of the corresponding forms of object appropriation mainly corresponds to the complex network interconnections between this group’s traditional, socio-economic and functional sub-actors. The role of primary driving force in the evolution of the power-holding group is performed by the contradictions between its socio-economic sub-actors, whose transformed form are the contradictions between functional sub-actors. The use of the potential of the labor theory of value and the general theory of value makes it possible to define the conditions and contents of the equivalent and non-equivalent exchange of humanized and objectified essential forces between the power-holding group and the civil community in the polis, as well as the general public, synergistic public, power-proprietary and exploitative components of the centralized excess, surplus and necessary product. Despite the obvious progress, the power-holding group failed to achieve a level of complexity and self-organization adequate to the existing civil community of the polis, since the effectiveness of the mechanisms of realization of general public and synergistic public interests was inferior to that of the realization of private, clan and corporate interests.

Freedom of expression and the metaverse: on the importance of content creation for the emergence of a complex environment

This research analyzes the importance of the freedom of expression in the creation of the metaverse, in a context of increasing power of Big Techs in the digital environment. As its results, technical knowledge related to many areas and creativity are fundamental for the creation of the metaverse. Thus, its creation must be democratized. Public policies ensuring ways to access content creation must be developed, and such a democratization must be based on freedom of expression. And limitations to the exercise of such freedom must not be subjected to private interests of huge corporations, nor moderated solely by technological tools. Methodology: hypothetical-deductive method of procedure, with a qualitative and transdisciplinary approach, and a bibliographic review research technique.

Explaining mobilization for revolts by private interests and kinship relations.

Mobilization for revolts poses a significant challenge for rational choice theory because revolts are vulnerable to free-riding, which disincentivizes rational actors from mobilizing. Strong, informal relations such as kinship ties have been identified as factors that can shift the rational calculations of individuals and lead to mobilization for revolts. In social networks that are polarized by the presence of mobilized individuals, such as rebels, and actors opposing the mobilization effort such as the elite, kinship relations have not only a bridging effect but also a diverging one. Building on Tullock's private interest theory, we develop a framework in which kinship relations determine the extent of individual's payoffs and costs of mobilization for revolts against an elite. We posit that distant kin of the elite expect high payoffs of mobilization for revolts and face the lowest costs of mobilization for revolts by virtue of their position in the network of kinship relations. Using a unique, hand-collected dataset that reconstructs a revolt in Basel, Switzerland, in 1691, we test our framework and contribute to a better relational understanding of the mechanisms that lead rational actors to mobilize for revolts. Our analyses show that mobilization for revolts is mainly driven by distant kinship relations to the ruling elite rather than close kinship relations to the rebels.