Legal education in the contemporary world is changing. The main influences are linked to developments in transportation and communication and the enmeshing of diverse economies embraced by globalization. Law schools confront more mobile and more ambitious students who wish to experience different jurisdictional practices, to serve the increasingly global business community and to be more competitive. This research examines the modifications required in legal education as a result of globalization with specific reference to law schools in the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Research on higher education, and legal education in particular, has been growing in recent years, yet there is still a gap in the study and comparison of the specifics of legal education within the BRICS countries. This research makes an attempt to analyze and contrast the current goals, objectives, structure and quality of higher legal education in Brazil, Russia, India and China. The specifics of law schools have been studied over the past twenty years in correlation with economic, cultural and education trends in BRICS and globally.

Based on research literature, practitioner literature and legislative sources, this paper outlines common and special features of lawyer training in BRICS. The prime similarity of the legal education systems in BRICS are global education trends and the influence of the U.S. and UK education systems. Each BRICS country experienced an “explosion” in the popularity of legal education and, consequently, the urgent need to reform the education process in order to attain better quality and affordability. The result of these reforms, taking place in each country from 1950 to today, has become the growing differentiator of the educational institutions, turning them into “elite” and “mass” law schools.

The facets of legal education in Brazil, Russia, India and China are attributed to their national policies as well as the historical development of the educational institutions and their perception of what specific lawyer skills and competencies are demanded by the legal market and national population. We conclude that the structure and quality of legal education as well as the requirements and monitoring tools vary in each country. These are dependent on several factors: the specific country’s ideology, its economic development, its proximity to an “Eastern” or “Western” model, its ability to learn from foreign education systems and its attempts at self-identification in the global educational space.

в его статье утверждается создание новой концепции сдерживания, которая полезна для банков и государственных политиков для борьбы с элитной отмыванием денег. В документе предлагаются идеи, позволяющие улучшить наше понимание проблем коррупции, местных дел и отмывания денег. Эти идеи синтезируются из современного мышления и текущих исследований, принимая теорию заговора. Данные свидетельствуют о том, что схемы мошенничества с участием синдикатов коррупции стали неразрешимыми либо из-за влияния, то ли из-за влиятельных людей, вовлеченных в коррупционные скандалы, что затрудняет реализацию антикоррупционных положений. Поэтому, безусловно, необходимо предусмотреть предостережение и рассмотреть анализ структурных сил, которые выявляют логику преступных форм и поведения. В документе также отмечается, что установление законов о борьбе с отмыванием денег и создание агентств по борьбе с отмыванием денег (строгое соблюдение законов) могут эффективно предотвращать хищнические действия финансовых посредников в содействии методам отмывания денег. В совокупном анализе основной экономической модели преступности результаты исследования обеспечивают значительную поддержку ряда постулатов теории заговора о преступности. К ним относятся эффект сдерживания в отношении преступников, таких как недобросовестный местный бизнес-персонал, развратники и отмыватели денег. В совокупном анализе основной экономической модели преступности результаты исследования обеспечивают значительную поддержку ряда постулатов теории заговора о преступности. К ним относятся эффект сдерживания в отношении преступников, таких как недобросовестный местный бизнес-персонал, развратники и отмыватели денег. В совокупном анализе основной экономической модели преступности результаты исследования обеспечивают значительную поддержку ряда постулатов теории заговора о преступности. К ним относятся эффект сдерживания в отношении преступников, таких как недобросовестный местный бизнес-персонал, развратники и отмыватели денег.

This paper proposes a method for measuring sustainable development as a means of the implementation of the Global Goal 16 of the United Nations Agenda. This method is the primary attempt to quantify the quality of the rules of the judiciary and access to a court in order to monitor sustainable development in the area of justice. In the recent years, the U.N. drew attention to the fact that qualitative changes should be evaluated through quantitative indicators.

The authors’ methodology is based on the fair trial standard formulated by the European Court of Human Rights based on the interpretation of Article 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as well as the public services standard of the Russian Federation. This indexing method helps to assess the current level of legal guarantees in the rules of legal proceedings and draft legislation, and to establish their compliance with the fair trial principles. Indexing the access to justice has another positive effect – it helps to monitor the local situations and every level of the judicial system.

Putting this method into practice will encourage avoidance of the adoption of bills that might reduce the level of legal guarantees and will assist attempts to monitor its dynamics. It could promote the introduction of effective procedures and better access to court, ensure the improved accountability of all public justice institutions at all levels and support overall societal wellbeing.

The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) provides for the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities (ILCs) in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). States Parties are obliged to take legislative, administrative and technical measures to recognize, respect and support/ensure the prior informed consent of indigenous communities and their effective involvement in preparing mutually agreed terms before accessing genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge or utilizing them. Within the ambit of contemporary debates encompassing indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, this paper examines the effectiveness of the percolation of the legal intent of international law into existing or evolving domestic laws, policies or administrative measures of the Parties on access and benefit sharing. Through an opinion survey of indigenous organizations and the competent national authorities of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the findings indicate that the space, recognition and respect created in existing or evolving domestic ABS measures for the rights of indigenous communities are too inadequate to effectively implement the statutory provisions related to prior informed consent, mutually agreed terms and indigenous peoples’ free access to biological resources as envisaged in the Nagoya Protocol. As these bio-cultural rights of indigenous peoples are key to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, the domestic ABS laws need reorientation to be sufficiently effective in translating the spirit of international ABS law and policies.

The author considers the essence of the establishment of legal rules as the will of the State that forms the structure of social relations. Based on an instrumental approach, the author examines the establishment of legal rules and the rules of law in their interaction with social activity, which allows subjects to “find themselves” in the legal system. Thus, the structures of public authorities, establishments and enterprises are created, their goals and order of activities are determined, as well as the competence and powers of officials, and legal statuses are secured; consequently, the participants, objects, terms of starting, changing and terminating legal relations concerning society are determined, too. Hence, the law influences the content of social relations, which is activity. In general, the results of the activities of individual and collective subjects of law reflect social relations, and social relations need legal regulation. At the same time, social relations may appear not only as activity, they may also appear in a passive form as legal statuses, social institutions. They are also regulated through legal rules, and in that case legal influence is carried out through the establishment of legal rules. It is able to predict the legal forms of subject activities through the establishment of legal rules. The author puts forward a legal definition of the establishment of legal rules as a purposeful influence on public relations, which is to regulate by means of legal rules. Distinctions of legal regulation from legal influence are established. The legal means expressing external factors in reference to the subject’s will correspond to the establishment of legal rules. However, by analyzing a list of normative acts we can conclude that legal means should be established more logically. It is necessary to consider the dialectics of relationships between purpose and means in the field of rulemaking processes, since dialectics is of a two-way determinative nature.

The terms “atomic law” and “nuclear law” are regularly being (to a certain part as synonyms) used in both scientific and popular literature to refer to a body of legal norms, governing peaceful uses of nuclear energy and ionizing radiation, as provided by sources of international law (“international atomic law,” or “international nuclear law”), national legislation and a complex body of unbinding norms (soft law). Further, several other variations of these terms are also regularly used (such as “atomic energy law,” “nuclear energy law,” “international nuclear law,” “law of the atomic/nuclear energy,” etc.). This contribution aims to identify the origins of this terminological labyrinth and to deal with the perception of these terms in the legal scholarship. Further, this contribution deals with the recent perception of these terms in the legal science of major States, using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. This article aims to clarify the existing terminology, which is to large extent being used in the literature without an appropriate explanation. The author pleads for a consequent use of the term “nuclear law” (droit nucléaire, yadernoe pravo, Nuklearrecht, derecho nuclear, diritto nucleare) and presents arguments for such conclusion.

The 10^th BRICS Academic Forum, consisting of scholars, think tanks and non-governmental organizations from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, took place in Johannesburg, South Africa on 28–31 May 2018. The event was hosted jointly by the BRICS Think Tank Council (BTTC) and the South African BRICS Think Tank (SABTT) with the support of the South African government and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) as the SABTT custodian and coordinator.

 Under South Africa’s direction as chair of BRICS, participation at the Academic Forum was extended to other African countries as part of the Africa Outreach Initiative: Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Gabon, Namibia, Uganda, Togo, Rwanda and Senegal accepted invitations. Participants commended the efforts made by China during its turn as chair of BRICS to promote BRICS cooperation and suggested working together to strengthen the three-wheel-driven areas of economy, peace and security, and people-to-people exchanges.

 For the final four days of May, Johannesburg became a vibrant intellectual capital offering for the Academic Forum participants much debate and discussion, plenary sessions and side events all united under the theme “Envisioning Inclusive Development Through a Socially Responsive Economy.” The 2018 Academic Forum focused on the topics most important for the BRICS group ranging from peace and security, energy, gender relations and health to regional integration. The Forum was a complete success with broad consensus and submitted a list of recommendations for the consideration of the leaders of BRICS.