Professional Lawyers Research Articles

Comparative Analysis of Regional Elite of The Communist Party and «Just Russia»: Social Characteristics and Channels of Recruitment

The article presents a comparative analysis of the socio-demographic characteristics and recruitment channels of the regional political elite of CPRF and «Fair Russia». The study uses heads of regional party branches as a political elite group that holds key positions in party structure and selects candidates for all levels of elections. The empirical data includes 170 representatives of the party elite. The analysis showed differences in the age structure of the party elite. The largest demographic group of the Communist Party is people over 60 years old, in «Just Russia» the same group is between the ages of 40 and 50. During the last years, CPRF begun management reform and system renewal of staff policy by young party leaders, in contrast to «Just Russia» where the system of elite recruitment is rather random. The representation of women in the elite of both parties is insignificant and amounts to 9% in the Communist Party and 11% in the «Just Russia». The study traces an increase in the share of professional lawyers among the younger generation (25-40 years old) of regional elite in both parties. Finally, we have identified significant differences in the key recruitment channels of elite groups. About 50 per cent of persons from CPRF were appointed to the elite position because of their long and active party work. In «Just Russia», the key recruitment channel is large and medium-sized regional business.

Обзор некоторых поправок к Конституции Российской Федерации

On March 14, 2020 , the Law of the Russian Federation on the amendment to the Constitution of the Russian Federation from 14.03.2020 N 1-FKZ (hereinafter — the law on the amendment), or rather its article 3, which provides for the entry into force of the amendments themselves to the Basic Law of the country, as well as several related issues, was officially published and entered into force. After only two days — March 16, 2020 was the Conclusion of the constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (hereinafter — CC RF), "On compliance with the provisions of chapters 1, 2 and 9 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation pending its entry into force the provisions of the Law of the Russian Federation on the amendment of the Constitution" (hereinafter — the Conclusion). The proposed amendments affect a number of issues that are socially significant and therefore require detailed study, such as: fixing additional social guarantees for the population in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, setting the maximum number of presidential terms that a single person can hold, fixing requirements for persons applying for a number of positions, introducing a rule on the State Council, the possibility of checking the compliance of laws with the Constitution of the Russian Federation before they are signed by the President, etc. Even when the text of the original Bill was published, it caused quite a lively discussion not only in the society of professional lawyers, but also among those who do not have special knowledge in the field of law. Without trying to analyze in detail the entire text of the amendment Law (this would require writing a whole book) and without claiming absolute truth of the statements made, we will still try to consider its most interesting and controversial points, including relying on the Conclusion given by the constitutional court of the Russian Federation.

Challenges of Higher Education Curriculum

Education is an important factor which helps in bringing about social change. The factor of education being exogenous to reveal communication affects its structural components and facilitates the process of socials change Higher education began during the period of Britist Rule to educate member of elite group and professional lawyers, doctor, teachers etc. We will have to involve the instruction of higher education in planning for developments of there regions. In order to meet the challenges of new agenda of reform a considerable degree of residence dedication and imagination is needed.

The use of case methods in environmental law classes to increase the interest of law students in environmental protection and environmental management

A person is in close contact with the natural environment throughout his life. In the interaction of nature and man, an important role is played by the preservation of ecological balance in the conditions of continuously growing needs of society. Environmental culture has a beneficial effect on the degree of development of the level of legal and environmental awareness in the society, as well as compliance by the members of the society with the requirements of environmental protection legislation. In the conditions of the rule of law, there is a great need for professional lawyers who are able to assist in the environmental and legal education of a person throughout his life. In order to raise the level of environmental and legal culture of the society, in our opinion, a special role should be assigned to professional lawyers, for whom this should be part of their professional activities. Within the framework of this research, we have proposed and implemented a case methodology on the subject of environmental law for law students.

“Who are the Judges?” or the Russian Judicial System and Statistics

This article reveals the reasons that impede the effective functioning of the Russian judicial system. An interdisciplinary study was conducted using statistical data on the education of judges, work experience, and the gender composition of the judiciary. The level of judges’ workload and the volume of processing were analyzed. The statistical data of sociological surveys concerning the judicial system of Russia and the attitude of the population and professional lawyers to it are considered. The study formulated a number of conclusions. So, the problems associated with the recruitment of judges have been identified. It has been established that the apparatus of courts becomes the forge of judicial personnel, that is, "the judicial system begins to reproduce itself." A hypothesis that explains the features of “pre-trial prejudice” in Russian courts is formulated. It was revealed that the excessive workload of domestic courts is a serious obstacle to the implementation of quality justice. The conclusion is made that the above reasons underlie the lack of effectiveness of legal proceedings and impede the administration of justice in accordance with the principles of impartiality and independence.

LEGAL BASIS OF REPRESENTATION OF LAWYERS OF SEVERAL PARTICIPANTS IN TRIAL PROCEEDINGS

The article contains a study of the legal sources for the regulation of the professional lawyers’ activities. The authors are considering the representation of several individuals in one trial by one lawyer. The authors are also considering problematic aspects of the representation of a number of persons by one lawyer in the presence of procedural complicity. The article describes certain differences between the national Rules of Ethics for Lawyers and the General Code of Ethics for Lawyers of the European Union. The authors propose ways to improve the national settlement of this issue and provides further prospects for research in this area.

The phenomenon of judge law or the “Hohfeld case” revisited

The article examines the still disputed phenomenon of the so-called judge law. This term implies the ability of judges “to make law” besides the national legislative body. Although the proponents of judge law were often accused of trying to destroy the paradigm of supremacy of legislative acts over all other legal acts, including court decisions, the judge law ideology never questioned the crucial importance of normative acts, emanating from national legislative bodies. The problem of these acts is that they – more often than not – do not reflect the real social conditions, a particular judge is confronted with. In many cases, a judge cannot rely on legislative acts, because – in terms of the French Code Civil – the necessary normative provisions are non-existent, fuzzy, or insufficient. Nevertheless, any judge has to properly adjudicate a case at hand if he/she is eager to circumvent the accusation of denial of justice. According to Hohfeld professional lawyers, including judges, are usually not coherent while using the fundamental legal concepts, such as “contract”, “property”, “business”, “corporation” etc. In practical life it means the following: either one can depict his or her interests in the terms of “rights” or he/she is simply legally non-existent.

Legal Professionalism and the Ethical Challenge for Legal Education: Insights from a Comparative Study of Future Lawyers in Greater China

AbstractThis article uses data gathered from a survey that probed the career orientations and values of more than 1,000 law students in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei to examine the legal professionalism of future lawyers being trained under different legal education systems in Greater China. Our findings suggest that these future lawyers have a “materialistic” career orientation, although those studying in a system whose legal education goal is to train professional lawyers are more inclined to pursue professional legal ideals, and those trained in a system that emphasizes legal ethics are more likely to pursue public interest issues. On the basis of the findings, we argue that legal education systems in Greater China, while different in their traditions, share the same need to strengthen legal professionalism by according greater emphasis to legal ethics in their respective law school curricula.

Актуальные вопросы квалифицированной юридической помощи на постсоветском пространстве

Modern processes of regulation of the legal market in Russia and other post-Soviet countries take place in the context of the right to qualified legal assistance. The authors used a set of such comparative legal methods as synchronous and intra-system comparison, as well as problem-chronological and formal legal methods. The paper focuses on the definition of qualified legal assistance and its criteria. The research involved a group of entities that provide qualified legal assistance: public authorities, civil society institutions, i.e. bar, notary, legal clinics, public associations, etc., commercial organizations, and individual lawyers. The comparative legal analysis featured qualified legal assistance in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. A key aspect of the right to qualified legal assistance is the state system of legal aid. The article describes Russian and Belarusian models. The authors believe that there is no appropriate definition of qualified legal aid and that the bar holds the dominant position in the professional lawyers' community. Some countries of the Eurasian Economic Union preserved Soviet experience of bar associations. These countries demonstrate some specific traits of advocacy activities. For instance, institutions of legal consultants function as an alternative to the bar. The Republic of Armenia declared legal practice a business activity. The Republic of Belarus legally regulates specialized bar associations, e.g. legal counseling and law firms that specialize in a particular branch of law. As for free legal assistance, Russian model proved to be more advanced than that of Belarus, as Russia has no statutory mechanisms for obliging legal firms to provide free legal assistance at their own expense. In addition, Russia has a wider range of population categories entitled to receive free legal aid. Another advantage of the Russian free legal aid system is a detailed regulation of the status of legal clinics.

The automatic influence of advocacy on lawyers and novices.

It has long been known that advocating for a cause can alter the advocate's beliefs. Yet a guiding assumption of many advocates is that the biasing effect of advocacy is controllable. Lawyers, for instance, are taught that they can retain unbiased beliefs while advocating for their clients and that they must do so to secure just outcomes. Across ten experiments (six preregistered; N = 3,104) we show that the biasing effect of advocacy is not controllable but automatic. Merely incentivizing people to advocate altered a range of beliefs about character, guilt and punishment. This bias appeared even in beliefs that are highly stable, when people were financially incentivized to form true beliefs and among professional lawyers, who are trained to prevent advocacy from biasing their judgements.

ROLE OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICE QUALITY AND COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVENESS IN PREDICTING RELATIONSHIP COMMITMENT AMONG PROFESSIONAL-CLIENT IN LAWYER SERVICES

Globally, judicial sector regarding its relationship commitment has been discussed in few studies. In South-Asian context, service sector has been explored mostly with commercial industries like banks, restaurants and academic. However, professional industries like lawyers, doctors and brokers have rarely investigated by marketers to understand its relationship commitment with their clients considering their core antecedents. In such service industries, technical and functional service quality attributes along with communication effectives enhance client’s satisfaction. Moreover, it examined trust and relationship quality of service provider that impact client-lawyer relationship commitment. Structured questionnaire was designed for collecting a sample of 220 clients who had/have encountered civil cases at district bar Faisalabad, Pakistan. Results of structured equation model shows that professional service quality and communication effectiveness promote relationship commitment among clients and professional lawyers. Also relationship quality mediates the relationship of service quality, communication effectiveness and relationship commitment. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed. Keywords: Relationship Commitment, Professional Service Quality, Relationship Quality, Communication effectiveness, professional services JEL Classifications: M310, M130 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/irmm.9387

The role of legal clinics in the training of professional lawyers

The article considers the main stages of development of the "legal clinical movement" of Ukraine, analyzes the legal regulation of legal clinics, reveals the importance of the legal clinic as the main tool for practical training of future lawyers. Higher education institutions can and should help future lawyers to acquire the necessary practical skills. This, in turn, seems almost impossible without the functioning of legal clinics in law schools. As for the legal status, the legal clinic is not a legal entity. It can have its own stamps and forms with its own name, as a structural unit. A legal clinic can use the property of the higher education institution on the basis of which it was established. In most Ukrainian universities, the legal clinic is organized in the form of legal advice, which has the right to provide free legal aid to the poor. The work in the clinic is carried out by senior students, who are usually involved on a competitive basis. The legal clinic has the right to provide free legal aid. It should be remembered that for the provision of free legal aid there are centers of free legal aid, and legal clinics should take on only those cases that are of interest to students in terms of education, because it is the educational function is basic in the clinical movement. in a legal clinic, it is valuable for students because it helps future lawyers to form a high level of legal awareness and legal culture, promotes the acquisition of professional legal skills, and, making informed decisions in accordance with applicable law, to solve client problems. The legal clinic helps students to develop such necessary skills as the ability to think critically, sociability, the ability to establish justice, high moral and volitional qualities. The legal clinic is practically the basis for the future. After all, during counseling, students learn all the qualities using a professional lawyer.

Survey for Assessment of a Person's Legal Consciousness: Development and Preliminary Validation.

The results of the development and preliminary assessment of the psychometric properties of the questionnaire of legal consciousness of a person are presented. Theoretical justification is given for the structure of the questionnaire containing six subscales. One scale relates to the individual’s awareness of constitutional rights and freedoms, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of the Russian Federation (personal, economic, political, cultural and social rights). The other five scales relate to the importance of constitutional rights and freedoms for the subject. The content validity of the tool was confirmed by expert assessments of professional lawyers—specialists in constitutional law—and the results obtained with semi-structured interviews (n = 30). The construct validity of the tool was established using exploratory factor analysis and tested by confirmatory factor analysis for student sample (n = 100). Cronbach’s alpha indicated high degree of internal consistency of the subscales. Currently, we continue improving the psychometric characteristics of the measure. The questionnaire obtained as a result of this work can be used to assess the level of a person’s legal consciousness development, and in particular, during the professional personnel selection for the state and civil service. The results of large-scale studies carried out with the help of this tool can be implemented in the activities of public authorities in order to improve the legislative process, taken into account by public organizations and authorities involved in the spread of legal education and legal culture in the framework of state policy on the development of legal consciousness and legal culture.

SIGNIFICANCE OF HISTORICAL AND LEGAL DISCIPLINES IN THE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF LAWYERS

The training of professional lawyers is a multifaceted process that requires the formation of not only highly professional knowledge and skills, but also legal consciousness, legal ideology and legal culture. Professional legal culture allows a lawyer to objectively assess social reality, specific legal relations. A significant role in shaping the professional legal culture of a student belongs to historical and legal educational disciplines. By studying the history of the state and the law of their country, foreign countries, as well as the history of political and legal doctrines, students studying in the field of jurisprudence gain extensive knowledge on the evolution of the state, changing the form of the state, the form of government and the form of political regime. Strong knowledge of the processes of formation of the legal system are the fundamental basis of the professional legal consciousness of a lawyer, which determines the type of his legal culture.

LEGAL EXPERIENCE IN JURIDICAL ACTIVITY: GENERAL-THEORETICAL ASPECT

The scientifi c article is dedicated to the study of theoretical aspects of the category «legal experience», which is insuffi ciently studied in modern legal science, in spite of the fact that a clear understanding of its concept is badly needed because of its great scientifi c and practical signifi cance. The authors have also highlighted the role of legal experience in juridical activity as the fi eld of application of professional lawyers’ practice. Considering the analysis of correlation and infl uence of legal experience on juridical activity, it is worth noting that this problem has no scientifi c elaboration in contemporary theoretical jurisprudence. Based on the study of specialized literature and foreign experience, the authors have submitted proposals concerning improvement of certain types of juridical activity and obtaining relevant professional skills that are of decisive importance in the realization of juridical activity in general. Under the conditions of a modern lawful state formation, the activity of legislators does not always ensure eff ective and timely regulation of social relations, which is caused by a number of objective and subjective reasons (for example, intensive development of public relations, imperfection of legislative technology, etc.). Therefore, legal experience can serve a purpose of development and appropriate functioning of legal system of any society, being basic means of prompt removal of lacunae, contradictions and other shortcomings in law. Therefore, the formation of appropriate professional skills of the subjects of juridical activity is extremely important in a modern state, because without the involvement of scientifi c potential, methods of cognition of surrounding legal reality, it is impossible to form and accumulate legal experience. One of the basic approaches to the study of juridical activity is the approach according to which juridical activity is regarded as a form of legal activity. In real life, many practitioners are involved in the work of educational and scientifi c institutions, thus combining two forms of activity at the same time. Such combination is provided by law as a type and measure of possible professional conduct, which is quite eff ective means of improving professional juridical activity.

ESTATES IN THE ACTIVITIES OF JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS AND PENITENTIARY ESTABLISHMENTS IN RIGHT-BANK UKRAINE (1864–1914)

Right-bank Ukraine became part of the Russian Empire after the second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1792. The integration of these territories into the new administrative, economic and cultural space caused certain difficulties. In the first half of the 19th century, the region had the highest percentage of peasant serfs and the elements and institutions of the non-existent state (including the courts) still existed and kept functioning.
 The defeat in the Crimean War of 1853–1856 imposed on the Russian Empire the need for radical reforms in all spheres of life. The wave-like periods of cooperation-confrontation between the Russian authorities and the local nobility brought about regional provisions in virtually all the reforms, launched by the peasant reform of 1861. The judicial reform and the emergence of new institutions and practices had to resolve existing problems, disputes, and punish criminals legally. The social estate (stanovy) character of the society was reflected in the establishment and activities of the volost courts, as the lower courts. The district courts were a completely novel phenomenon in the legal culture; their functioning was ensured by professional lawyers on the basis of new judicial statutes.
 The purpose of this article is to consider the court practices and functioning of penitentiary establishments in Right-Bank Ukraine (on the example of Volyn province) under implementation of the judicial reform through the prism of social and estate factors, based on the cases of the Zhytomyr District Court and the reports of the heads of local prisons.
 The methodology of the research includes the tools of social history and the so-called "new imperial history" that have helped to trace the adaptation of new legal practices to the socio-ethnic peculiarities of Right Bank Ukraine. The methods of history of everyday life and history of reading have been employed to consider the under-researched component of the penitentiary system of the Russian Empire, namely the libraries and their funds. This component should be attributed to the novelty of the suggested research findings.
 Conclusions. Estate privileges were maintained in the Russian Empire throughout the "long 19th century". Belonging to a higher social status practically made the Polish nobles equal in the rights with the imperial officials, endowed with power. During court decisions and sentencing, an ethnic criterion was not taken into consideration or had secondary significance. Many years of placing the peasants outside the legal field developed a steady arrogant attitude of the power-holders towards the representatives of this social estate. Though the peasants dominated in the social structure of the Empire population, they remained the most prevalent class. Since the early 20th century, some shifts in perception and attitudes towards peasantry were observed.

МИРОТВОРЧА ДІЯЛЬНІСТЬ ООН: ВИТОКИ КОНЦЕПЦІЇ НАГЛЯДОВИХ ОПЕРАЦІЙ

The purpose of the article is to explore the circumstances surrounding the emergence of the concept of UN oversight operations as the initial form of peacekeeping operations and to clarify their role in peacekeeping through the work of such first groups as the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) and the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan. The methodology of the research based on the principles of systemicity, authenticity, historicism, logics. General scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special-historical (historical-typological, historical-system) methods have been used. The events are considered according to their interrelation and in the totality of the revealed historical facts. The scientific novelty is that for the first time the historical aspect of UN involvement in resolving regional conflicts of the second half of the twentieth was explored, since most of the works were written by professional lawyers, political scientists, etc., and thus, due to the specific nature of their research, historical aspects could not be covered in full. Conclusions. In the course of the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the United Nations has developed new methods of peacekeeping. In the late 1940-s – early 1950-s, the concept of UN oversight operations as the initial form of peacekeeping operations was developed by member-states. The creation of this concept gave a significant impetus to the development of UN peacekeeping. The function of the UN observers included: surveillance, daily reports, incident investigations, military installations inspection. Thus, they were the main source of information for the Security Council on the situation in the region. On May 29, 1948, a group of military observers called the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) to monitor the truce was created, which is considered was reference to the history of this crucial and necessary UN activity. In 1949, the United Nations Group on India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) formed. The experience of these first groups became the basis for developing other forms and methods of peacekeeping: missions to find out the facts, plebiscite observations, good-service missions, reconciliation teams, mediators and special representatives, and more. The author draws attention to the fact that regional conflicts mentioned in the article, despite the efforts of the UN, remain unresolved today, so the UN should develop more effective measures for their settlement.

Legal Aid: Existing Law, Policies and Practices in Nepal

Legal aid is a system of providing free or inexpensive advice, assistance, or representation for those who cannot afford to pay for the services of professional lawyers mainly because of a difficult financial situation. The provisions of legal aid to the poor are based on humanitarian considerations and the main aim of these provisions is to help the poverty-stricken people who are socially and economically backward. It can be said that the spiritual essence of the scheme consists in investing law with a human heart to ensure immanence of social justice in the juridical order on the substantive and the procedural planes of law. In this article the author clearly presents the notion of legal aid, its relevance, institutions rendering legal aid services in Nepal and examines the Nepalese scenario, legal provisions, policies, practices as well as the problems of legal aid in Nepal.

Evaluating Anti-Graft Agencies Governance Practices in Nigeria

The Nigerian state has witnessed exponential increase in corruption and various anti-graft agencies have been established by government to curb this malaise which has branded the Nigerian state and its citizens all over the world as corrupt. The agencies have over the years been criticized as not being effective and a militia of government in power in the way they prosecute anti-corruption wars. The study evaluated the anti-graft agencies and their governance practices, their effectiveness in addressing the cankerworm in the country by employing the purposive sampling technique where 400 copies of questionnaires were distributed to professional accountants, bankers, journalist and lawyers. The data collected were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study revealed inadequate capacity of the workforce, non-commitment to integrity, ethical values and the rule of law, lack of openness, lack of transparency and accountability. The study recommends amendment of the extant laws establishing the anti-graft agencies for operational efficiency in prosecution, responsiveness to the constitution and adequate and targeted training for officials.

Legal Status of Cryptocurrency in Indonesia and Legal Analysis of the Business Activities in Terms of Cryptocurrency

Indonesia’s recent development in legal policy toward cryptocurrency is pertinent to ask whether this new investment market has any more risk to throw over Indonesia than how to protect the existing variable parties by overall structural formation. This tendency has prevented the government to implement the machinery of more fundamental keynote of policy. Against this backdrops, this research first analyzes the existing laws and regulations to examine the current legal status of virtual currency in Indonesia with the method of conceptual analysis. Despite the Government’s skeptical stance about economic soundness that cryptocurrency market leads, however, how to protect the various parties in the existing market is a different issue which still needs an urgent attention from policy makers, legal practitioners, judiciary and academic researchers. Therefore, this paper further studies the relevant laws and regulations governing the actual operation of cryptocurrency exchange in Indonesia to discuss the more practical aspects by interviewing an Indonesian cryptocurrency exchange and professional lawyers at Dentons HPRP. Subsequently, the most worrisome legal risks in the industry are diagnosed by interviewing a global cryptocurrency exchanges. This study concludes that BAPPEBTI Regulation No. 5 of 2019 cannot be the good answer to minimize the risk and will only harm bona fide market participants without a good-standing authority.