State Courts Research Articles

Optimization in Territorial Partitioning to Improve the Performance of a Common Building Maintenance Service Contract: A Case Study of a Public Agency in Paraná State, Brazil

All public administration contracts must be evaluated in order to improve their performance while respecting the limits established by laws and regulations. The purpose of this article is to apply an approach to improve the performance of a common building maintenance service contract for the Paraná State Court of Justice (PRCJ), which has a total built area of ​​544 283,79 m² in 224 buildings distributed over 161 counties, by optimizing the territorial partitioning of Paraná State. To partition the state into 14 regions, a binary integer linear programming (BILP) mathematical model is applied to the facilities location problem (FLP) in three scenarios. The results show that Scenario 3 (in which the location of the 14 maintenance offices and the configuration of their areas of activity were optimized) is the best in terms of minimizing the distances traveled by maintenance teams. In this scenario, the total distance traveled would be 9 775 km per day (instead of the current 11 150 km), achieving savings of around 12,3% when compared to the current solution. With this solution, in addition to the distance, the direct and indirect costs associated with the displacement of work teams and the time spent on their corresponding trips would be minimized. Furthermore, the users of maintenance services could be served more quickly, resulting in a higher number of services and greater satisfaction for the target audience of the contract.

Sustainability Index as A Proposal for Socio-Environmental Evaluation of The Performance of The State Court of Justice of Alagoas-Brazil

Purpose: Analyze sustainability in the socio-environmental management of the judiciary, from the perspective of indicators defined by the National Council of Justice (CNJ) and propose a sustainability index for the socio-environmental management of the PJ. Theoretical framework: Indicators are present in everyone's lives, they are everywhere. They are considered a management tool. Models for assessing sustainability through specific indicators and indices have been the subject of study in several studies, from the perspective of different dimensions. Method: Application of the methodology proposed by Calório (1997), combined with Daniel et al (2001), Sobral, Almeida and Gomes (2012), Faccioli and Gomes (2021) and adaptations, with 21 indicators in the environmental, economic and social dimensions in 9 categories defined by the CNJ aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The Sustainability Index, its classification and scenario analysis are obtained. Results and discussion: An index and model aimed at evaluating the socio-environmental sustainability of the judiciary is presented, in which the general sustainability index - IS0-100 was 20.24%, a level considered bad and classified as a pessimistic scenario, pointing out a warning for the economic and environmental dimensions, in the categories: paper, disposable cups, electricity and mineral water, due to expenses/consumption. The indicators consumption of returnable packaging for mineral water (IA9) and expenditure on mineral water in returnable packaging (IE8) presented the highest level of unsustainability (0.0%). Implications of the research: This research demonstrated that the methodology can be applied to the Judiciary sphere, in the Courts of Justice, and that it has implications in the form of monitoring, and can be used as a parameter for evaluating sustainability in socio-environmental management and contribute to decision-making. Originality/value: The literature is silent in relation to socio-environmental management in the judiciary with the SDGs, there is a lack of studies to assess sustainability. Thus, the knowledge developed in this research fills a gap by proposing a Sustainability Index for this sphere of power.

A Multimethod Exploration of the COVID-Era Transition to Virtual Hearings in Child Welfare Court Cases.

To promote open and safe access to court hearings for families and professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, juvenile and family courts across the United States shifted towards virtual hearings in child welfare cases. Drawing on findings from a four state court observation study conducted pre and post emergence of the pandemic, as well as from a national survey of court professionals and a survey of parents, we reflect on the experiences of courts and court participants with virtual hearings in child welfare cases and specific impacts on hearing quality. Findings indicate that despite stakeholder perceptions, there is little difference in the quality of hearings with respect to judicial engagement and discussion. Differences were found however, in the attendance of fathers and relatives at hearings, with less fathers and relatives attending virtual hearings. Parents had mixed experiences with the virtual hearing process. Professionals noted challenges, as well as strategies for overcoming challenges, to engage parents and ensure their access to virtual hearings.

Article: Assignment and Bundling of Antitrust Claims as an Alternative to Collective Consumer Compensatory Redress in Croatia

Over the last decade, there has been a proliferation of mass antitrust damages cases before national courts of Member States. The procedural landscape varies very much, however, a number of MS have some form of compensatory and/or injunctive collective tool for consumers and other categories of victims from antitrust violations. Croatia has no such system in place, so the purpose of this article is to analyse the potential and limits of assignment and bundling of claims as an alternative to a full-fledged collective compensatory redress mechanism. The paper identifies advantages and possible disadvantages and limitations of this tool. The author argues, that while the general rules of contract law offer wide discretion and possibilities to organize a ‘collective’ action for damages though mass assignment, it falls short of consumer protection measures. competition law, assignment of claims, collective consumer protection, antitrust damages, EU, Croatia

The prospects of litigation to secure maternal health in Nigeria: Does SERAP v Attorney-General Lagos have any value?

Blood transfusions play a crucial role in addressing obstetric complications such as post-partum haemorrhage and anaemia that contribute to maternal deaths. The right to health guaranteed by numerous international human rights instruments, national constitutions and legislation obligates governments to ensure that women have access to interventions to prevent maternal mortality. In 2020 a health policy in Lagos State, Nigeria, providing that, in the event that patients are likely to need a blood transfusion, such as pregnant women, spouses and relatives are required to donate blood as a condition for accessing maternity and health services in government-run health facilities, was the subject of a High Court ruling. The judgment declared the policy to be a breach of some human rights guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution, legislation and international instruments that the country had ratified. Additionally, the judge noted that the policy contributed to maternal deaths. Consequent to the above, this article explores the contribution of human rights litigation and the ensuing verdicts to the protection of maternal health globally, and in light of these evaluates the value of the judgment in particular. A few national and international cases involving other countries that depict the strides that have been made in the use of human rights litigation to protect maternal health are presented to enable an appreciation of the extent to which human rights litigation has been used to support maternal mortality reduction efforts. A critical appraisal of the Lagos State court's decision with a view to determining its potential to contribute to maternal mortality reduction efforts in Nigeria and elsewhere is then embarked upon. The finding is that despite certain flaws identified in the judgment, it makes a valuable contribution to the protection of maternal health and, by extension, the reduction of maternal mortality in Nigeria.

CHALLENGES IN FORMALIZATION AND DOCUMENTATION IN CUSTOMARY COURT SYSTEM IN ACEH, INDONESIA

Abstract: The customary justice system in Aceh, Indonesia, aims to resolve minor disputes within the community through consensus. Essentially, the resolution of customary disputes is informally conducted without formalization and documentation. However, as the legal landscape and society evolve, government regulations now require the formalization of dispute resolution through customary courts similar to state courts. This article discusses the challenges of formalization and documentation in the customary courts in Aceh, Indonesia. The article identifies three primary challenges to formalization and documentation in customary justice: first, the belief among some customary leaders that the case resolution process does not require formality and documentation due to infrequent complaints from the parties involved. Second, there is a lack of training among customary leaders in the formal legal process. Third, there is insufficient awareness and promotion of the formalization of customary justice. The article argues that formalizing customary justice is not merely a matter of regulatory compliance but requires socialization and training for customary leaders to implement formalization and documentation effectively.

The Herchel Smith Intellectual Property Lecture 2022*The UK courts' striving for consistency with international decisions in patent law

The Patents Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court (before that, the House of Lords) have all and for many years stressed the need for consistency with decisions of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO. They have also taken account of decisions of the national courts of other EPC member states on many occasions in pursuit of consistency, in relation to validity but also infringement. This lecture will consider: how this has been done; when it has worked well and less well; how it can and should work if the EPO (in particular) changes or develops its law differently from the UK; and how that fits with the law of precedent. It will also consider the issues that may arise with decisions under the UPC.

Сurrent discussionsons the jurisdiction of disputes with a religious component in the practice of the Supreme Court

The dynamics of social relations in the religious sphere today is of epoch-making importance, which in turn leads to the involvement of the state in church affairs. Due to conflicts and gaps, obsolescence and imperfection of national legislation, there are attempts to replace the norms of canon law with the norms of positive law, as well as attempts to resolve canonical disputes through the mediation of the latter. That is why the Supreme Court plays a crucial role in preventing such situations. It is the Supreme Court that currently bears the burden of responsibility for extending the judicial jurisdiction of national courts to disputes with a religious component.
 It is also important to formulate the conceptual principles that the Supreme Court implements when determining the jurisdiction of a dispute; this approach should not be based on the example of only one case, but should have universal features and be a guide for national courts.
 In this context, it should be noted that such an approach, in particular, may be the differentiation of relations with a religious component on the basis of the primary (basic) and secondary (derivative) relations, as emphasized in the dissenting opinion of the Supreme Court judges. Accordingly, it can be postulated that if relations arise from the religious sphere and then formally acquire other legal features, then in the event of a dispute, the latter is subject to consideration by a church court, not a state court. If relations arise on the basis of positive law (purchase of a land plot for the construction of a temple, lease of a building used as a place of worship, etc.), then such relations cannot be transformed into religious relations only because of this component.
 The above naturally raises the question, if we take as a basis the thesis that relations with a religious component should be resolved in national courts only on the grounds that they guarantee a person the right to a fair trial (access to court), what results do we expect? The question of whether a court can move a former nun into a monastery cell is not rhetorical, since the court of first instance did so, but isn’t such a court decision an interference by the state through the court in church affairs? Whether such decisions will not undermine the delicate balance of separation of church and state is a question that we have yet to answer.
 Obviously, one of the tasks of the Supreme Court in resolving disputes with a religious component is the progressive secularization of judicial practice.
 We must also recognize as a general observation that the normative approach to resolving disputes with a religious component is not very helpful and effective, and may even lead to false conclusions. In this sense, the comprehensive, combinatorial and interdisciplinary approaches, etc., are helpful.

Striking a balance: the interplay of CJEU rulings and international human rights obligation with national constitutional identities

The article examines approaches to the interaction of decisions of the Court of the European Union (CJEU) and international obligations in the field of human rights with the constitutional identity of states. Attention is focused on the concepts of “national identity” and “constitutional identity”, their relationship, and the introduction of the concept of “national identity” into the European legal order after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty (1993). Attention is drawn to the fact that the primary law of the EU does not contain the concept of “constitutional identity”, but this term is widely used in the decisions of the constitutional courts of several EU member states. In these decisions, the constitutional courts raised the issue of the protection of the constitution and constitutionality in the EU member state given the harmonization of legislation and/ or ultra vires decisions.
 The article notes that the concept of constitutional identity is broad, it covers the historical, political, cultural, and legal identity of the state, as well as the connection of national law with the international and autonomous legal order of the EU. The idea of constitutional identity is dynamic and constantly evolving due to the continuous development of the states themselves.
 The analysis of various approaches to this interaction based on the German Federal Constitutional Court, Hungarian Constitutional Court, and Italian Constitutional Court was carried out. It is noted that the interaction of CJEU rulings with constitutional identities is based on the principle of primacy of the EU law, and international human rights obligations are based on the conventional feature of the “obligation of uniform interpretation” and universal standards while ignoring the constitutional tradition of the states. It means that CJEU judgments have a higher legal force than national court judgments, while international human rights obligations should become precedents for subsequent national court judgments, not lowering the national standards of human rights protection.

ECHR rules for determining the presence of sufficient balancing factors for the admission of the testimony of a prosecution witness who did not appear in court

The article examines the legal position of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the existence of balancing factors for accepting the testimony of a prosecution witness who did not appear in court.
 It is substantiated that when the accused was not given the opportunity to question the witness during the investigation or during the trial, the European Court of Human Rights states a violation of paragraph 1 and subparagraph «d» of paragraph 3 of Article 6 of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. It is shown that the given approach is not strictly categorical and the European Court of Human Rights allows the possibility of using the testimony of a witness who did not appear at the court session and was not questioned at the stage of the pre-trial investigation.
 It has been established that, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights used the rule of the three-step test, one of the criteria of which obliges national courts to establish: whether three were sufficient balancing factors, including important procedural guarantees, which compensate for the difficulties which compensate for the difficulties with which faced by the defense as a result of accepting unverified testimony as evidence.
 It is well-founded that national courts are obliged, when faced with the problem of non-appearance or anonymity of witnesses, to consider t6he possibility of using alternative measures that limit rights to a lesser extent than accepting testimony of witnesses, to consider the possibility of using alternative measures that limit rights to a lesser extent than accepting testimony of witnesses as evidence. It is emphasized that when national courts recognize alternative measures as inexpedient and allow witness testimony to be announced, they violate paragraph 1 of sub-paragraph «d» of sub-paragraph 3 of Article 6 of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
 The conviction of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights is emphasized: the presence of sufficient balancing factors should be investigated not only in those cases in which the testimony of an absent witness was the only or decisive basis for the conviction of the accused, as well as in cases in which it was not possible to establish whether relevant indications are the only or decisive. At the same time, the amount of balancing factors necessary for the trial to be considered fair will depend on the importance of the testimony of the absent witness: the more important these testimonies are, the more weighty the balancing factors should be. Examples of additional guarantees that prevent violations of the mentioned legal norms are given.

Account of events, by definition, involves an understanding of the actors

What could justify the paper on evidence in international commercial arbitration? What is so peculiar about this instance of the realisation of the law that it explains the autonomy of the subject of evidence when it takes place in international commercial arbitration? Isn't the general theory of evidence applicable to the demonstration of reality in a certain type of proceedings – arbitral proceedings – whenever they concern commercial and plurilocalised disputes? These are the central questions around which the text will gravitate. We will emphasise what we believe to be the determining factor in the development of a praxis that does not cause a break between the general theory of evidence developed for civil cases tried in state courts and the central vectors of evidence as known in international commercial arbitration: the context of the exercise of jurisdiction.

«Отложенное правосудие» в рамках третейского разбирательства

The article explores the issue of giving substance to the concept of “justice” within the law protection system in the Russian Federation. The author considers the so-called “broad” and “narrow” approach to understanding the category of “justice” and favors a narrow understanding. The article proposes a novel concept of viewing enforcement in the context of arbitration protection as the initial step in the state court’s fulfillment of its justice function culminating in the state’s judicial oversight of the arbitral award.

The International Court System: A Solution to the Crisis in Investor-State Arbitration?

Most known investor-state disputes are referred to a form of international arbitration known as investor-state arbitration (ISA) or investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). The rest are referred to domestic arbitration or litigation before the courts of host states. The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is the largest ISDS institution, having handled 829 out of 1190 cases by December 2021. However, in recent years the ISDS regime has faced challenges that have reached crisis proportions. States have responded to these challenges in different ways. For example, during 2014 the European Union (EU) intended to provide for ISDS in its anticipated trade agreements with the United States of America and Canada. In preparation the EU held public consultations wherein the public was invited to comment on whether ISDS could be used in these agreements. Over 90 per cent of the voters rejected the inclusion of ISDS therein. In response the EU abandoned ISDS and created a bilateral Investment Court System (ICS). The final death knell for ISDS in the EU came in 2018 and 2021 when the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that ISDS among EU states is unlawful and incompatible with its legal order. This paper aims to assess the legal nature of the ICS, as well as whether the ICS can resolve the challenges that face ISDS worldwide. The paper concludes that firstly, the ICS is a hybrid of a court and a tribunal; secondly, that the ICS fails to fully address all the challenges faced by ISDS. It is a work in progress that must be interrogated further and be improved upon over time.

Analysis of Decision of Surabaya State Court Number 916/Pdt.P/2022/PN. Sby on Interreligious Marriage Review of DUHAM Positive Law and Maqashid Shariah

Interfaith marriage is a new phenomenon that has surfaced in Indonesia with the circulation of court decisions that allow interfaith couples to marry, one of the most recent being the Surabaya court decision Number 916/Pdt.P/2022/PN.Sby. In his decision, he ordered the Department of Population and Civil Registry of the City of Surabaya to record interfaith marriages in the register. While the basis used by the plaintiff included, among others, Article 27 of the 1945 Constitution, Article 10 Paragraph 1 of Law Number 39 of 1999 concerning Human Rights, Jurisprudence. The main problem in this writing is the extent to which interfaith marriage arrangements are viewed from the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Positive Law, and Islamic Law with the Maqasid Syari’ah approach. The writing method used is normative research with descriptive qualitative processing and analysis. The results of this study conclude that interfaith marriages are invalid by looking at the current conditions, referring to the Al-Qur’an Surah Al-Baqarah verse 221, Al-Mumtahanah verse 10, and Al-Maidah verse 5.
 Keywords: analysis, court decision, interfaith marriage

The Compatibility of the Substance over Form Doctrine with Tax and Investment Treaties: A Case Study of Lone Star v the Republic of Korea

Abstract In late August 2022, the Lone Star tribunal concluded one of the latest awards in tax-related investment treaty disputes (the tax-related claims account for almost USD 1.5 billion of the total of almost USD 4.7 billion claimed in compensation). It also is the first award in which the tribunal dealt with the application of the substance over form doctrine (SOFD) by tax authorities and courts of the host state to prevent the abuse of a double tax treaty (DTT), and the impact of the refusal to accord the claimants the benefits under the DTT via a domestic (Korean) SOFD on the investment protection standards under the bilateral investment treaty (BIT). The Lone Star tribunal implicitly considered the Korean SOFD to be a suitable rule to prevent abuses of the Korea-Belgium DTT and thus compatible with the BLEU-Korea BIT. This article critically analyses the tribunal’s methodology and reasoning in reaching that conclusion. Notably, the article highlights the need to consider the principle of an abuse of rights while examining the compatibility of a SOFD with a BIT and a DTT. Such an approach could enhance the rule of law in the interpretation of tax and investment treaties in other similar cases. It is also in accordance with the principle of systemic integration. The article argues that it is increasingly more important to properly understand the concept of economic substance insofar as denial of benefits (DoB) clauses in investment treaties and principal purposes test (PPT) in tax treaties appear to specifically prevent abuses of those treaties by arrangements with no or insufficient economic substance. Global and regional tax developments, including the implementation of anti-base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) rules, as well as Pillar Two rules (global minimum tax of 15%), strengthen the need for a comparative research on economic substance under tax and investment treaties. Such research may reveal that a convergence in denying benefits under DTTs and BITs will enhance the rule of law and increase legal certainty in tax and investment domains.

The Monopoly of Economic Justice: Judges versus arbitrators

The article explores the relationships between state economic courts represented by judges and arbitration courts as a manifestation of the conflict between public and private justice. The consequences of changes in state policy after the arbitration reform of 2015–2017 are discussed. Firstly, through the lens of Bourdieu’s perspective, the key factors influencing the emergence of a negative attitude in the judicial environment towards private justice are analyzed. Secondly, the establishment of the specialization of a particular subgroup of judges from the appellate instance of arbitration courts, who year after year deal with cases related to arbitration courts, is examined. During the empirical part of the research and interviews with judges from the appellate instances, it was found that their primary reference point, in addition to the law and personal convictions, is the orientation towards the higher court — the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, where one judge largely determines the courts’ policy towards arbitration courts. Judges exhibit normative isomorphism, as similar experiences and practices prompt them to adopt similar strategies to protect their field from private justice. The article is the result of qualitative research based on interviews. Based on the assumption of the homogenization of the judicial sphere and judges’ defensive tactics to protect their field from external, private courts using institutional analysis and Bourdieu’s theories of fields and capital, the conclusion is drawn that judges of state courts tend to accumulate symbolic capital. This allows them to act as the only possible interpreters of legal norms — monopolists of justice. Through the lens of isomorphism theory, the conclusion is drawn that state courts implement the practice of coercive isomorphism, which has no other goals except forcing private courts to mimic state courts.

The Environment: The Most Critical Global Issue, the Role of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and States in Advancing International Environmental Law

The misuse of land accounts for 11% of carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to the warming of our planet. The United Nations has warned of a climate hell. In a separate report, the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization pointed to an 80% probability of recording temperatures more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for at least one year within the next five years. Air pollution affects physical, mental, and emotional health, reducing brain oxygen levels, leading to impulsive decisions, and increasing impulsive behaviors, which disrupt adaptation to the environment. According to medical research, air pollution can lead to increased anxiety, stress, violence, aggression, reduced cognitive ability, learning, and concentration, depression, and certain psychosomatic and mental disorders. The environment is the world's most critical issue because it encompasses water, clean air, dense forests, soil preservation, sustainable urban development, smokeless factories, planned mining, efficient use of seas, and pure oxygen for everyone to breathe. If rulers do not have the environment, where will they rule? International law, once confined to regulating relations between states and in the context of warfare, has made significant progress thanks to the expansion of international relations, opening new horizons for the global community. Among these advancements is international environmental law, a set of international rules aimed at preventing pollution and protecting the environment. Scientific advancements and the creation of new technologies have put the environment at greater risk, making its protection a more serious concern. Over the past four decades, international environmental law has emerged as an essential part of the public order of the global community, increasingly linked to the work of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The ICJ, as the primary judicial body of the United Nations, plays a crucial role in environmental protection and the development of international environmental law. The findings suggest that states also have significant obligations and responsibilities in protecting and advancing international environmental law. States must safeguard the environment from all forms of pollution, destruction, and other threats, and refrain from posing threats to the environment of other countries. The constructive cooperation and engagement between the International Court of Justice and states, within the framework of environmental diplomacy and adherence to international commitments, can have a significant role in protecting the environment and advancing international environmental law.

The specifics of the interpretation of non-performance or improper performance by medical or pharmaceutical employees of their professional duties, taking into account the practice of the ECHR.

Aim: To find out the specifics of the interpretation of non-performance or improper performance by medical or pharmaceutical employees of their professional duties, taking into account the practice of the ECHR. Materials and Methods: This article is based on the analysis of the international legal acts, the practice of the ECHR, national judicial practice, court statistics, criminal and medical law legal doctrine, official statistics of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, analytical data based on the results of cooperation with the "Main Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine". Dialectical, comparative, analytical, synthetic and system analysis research, hermeneutic methods were used. Results: In each specific case it is necessary to establish whether there is non-performance or improper performance of professional duties by medical or pharmaceutical employees, the result of which is the failure to fulfil his direct professional duties, provided for by regulatory and legal acts, job instructions, qualification requirements and standards of treatment. The patient's right to health care is not ensured by the guarantees provided for by national legislation, so patients file complaints with the ECHR. Conclusions: A single approach to the interpretation of such terms as "non-performance or improper performance by a medical or pharmaceutical employee his professional duties" is a guarantee of the uniformity of their enforcement and the formation of stable judicial practice in this category of criminal cases.

A comparative analysis of achieving access to constitutional justice with the mechanism of notifying the Court of Justice of the European Union

As a comparative analysis regarding the holders of the notification to the Constitutional Court and the holders of the notification to the Court of Justice of the European Union, we mention the fact that in both situations, the national court is the main promoter and the one that has the role of filtering the request for addressing the superior courts. We specify that other procedural subjects can invest the court either with an exception of unconstitutionality or with a request for a preliminary decision, for example the prosecutor or the parties in the pending case. In order for the referral with an exception to the constitutional court to be admissible, a series of cumulative conditions must be met. If one of these conditions is not met, the exception of unconstitutionality cannot pass the admissibility test, so the national judge will no longer proceed to the stage of analyzing the merits of the formulated exception. On the other hand, the request for a preliminary ruling must refer to the interpretation or validity of Union law, and not to the interpretation of the rules of national law or to factual issues invoked in the main litigation. Furthermore, the Court can rule on the request for a preliminary ruling only if Union law is applicable to the main case. From another perspective, the attribute of determining whether there is a contradiction between the national law and the treaty of the union belongs to the national court. From a distinct perspective, the Constitutional Court showed, among other things, that to the extent that the priority recognized to Union law is limited, in the Romanian legal order, by the requirement to respect the national constitutional identity, that it has the task of ensuring the supremacy of the Romanian Constitution on its territory. The effectiveness of the cooperation between the court and the national courts established through the preliminary reference mechanism would be compromised if the result of an exception of unconstitutionality before the Constitutional Court of a member state could have the effect of discouraging the national court, seized with a dispute governed by this law, to use the possibility or as the case may be to fulfill the obligation resulting from article 267 TFEU to address to the court the questions regarding the interpretation or validity of certain acts of the said law.

Дары и придворные церемониалы в «Записке» (Рисала) Ибн Фадлана

The article shows the role and importance of gifts by the embassy of Ibn Fadlan, prepared for the nobility of the Oghuz and the ruler of the Volga Bulgars Almysh. The delegation considered necessity, the importance and value of gifts for the Oghuz. Attention was paid to cases of gift exchange. The nature of presents and their mutual exchange, common to all medieval societies, is also revealed. Тhe schedule of reception of Ibn Fadlan’s embassy corresponded to the ceremonial of meetings and preparation for them for delegations of foreign states by the court of the Samanid states. The rules of etiquette were borrowed by the Samanids from the Abbasids, going back to the traditions of the Sassanids. The similarity of the ritual of the meeting of the delegation by the ruler of the Volga Bulgaria Almysh with the etiquette of the Samanids is noted. The described regulation corresponds to the practice adopted in the Caliphate and among the Samanids, which means a long and deep acquaintance of the king of the Volga Bulgaria with palace traditions accepted in the Islamic world.