The conditions for the development of modern states are impossible without cooperation and integration with other states in various socio-economic areas. The formation and protection of an alternative position in the world by a number of countries led to the creation of the BRICS association. Participation in this association is of great importance for Russia in a variety of fields. One of the promising areas of cooperation is the sphere of education in all its aspects, ranging from preschool education to the attainment of various degrees and titles. This article addresses the issue of coordination of the BRICS countries in the field of education.

The basis for determining the indicators of the education systems and the principles of their comparison was the similar data from the international organizations UNESCO, OECD and Eurostat. As a result of studying the principles of collecting statistical data and methodological materials for comparing the education sector indicators in these international organizations, a certain vision of the database of the BRICS countries has been set. On the one hand, this base should not contradict international practice; on the other hand, the chosen indicators should be used by all countries of the BRICS association. Following this study, a proposal on the principles of information collection was made, as well as a proposal on the main indicators for education indicators comparison in the BRICS countries.

The basis for cooperation between the education systems is a harmonized system of concepts and definitions, which allows unambiguous interpretation of such fundamental terms as education, educational program, educational institution, student, entrant, acceptance for study programs, graduates, graduations, personnel of educational institutions, expenses for education, etc.

In parallel with the harmonization of the education system terminology, it is necessary to harmonize statistical indicators that can quantify the education system at all levels. As arule, observation units of education statistics are institutions that provide educational services at all levels of education to both individuals and legal entities.

This article presents the results of a comparative analysis of the legislative approaches to the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the BRICS countries and the Eurasian Economic Union. During the analysis, regulatory legal acts and draft laws, including material on judicial practice, of the Russian Federation, China, India, Brazil, the Republic of South Africa, the Republic of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia were studied. The use of a comparative-legal method makes it possible to develop recommendations about the development of legislation on the circulation of cryptocurrencies within the BRICS countries. The assessment of the experience of EEU countries, and especially that of the Republic of Belarus, has great importance since the Russian Federation is a member country of both the EEU and BRICS. Comparative analysis was achieved by taking into account such key points as the existence of a regulatory framework, regulation of transaction taxation and counteracting the legalization of profits from crime. The results of the analysis are presented for each country separately and then systematized in the form of an analytical table. Based on the analysis, three approaches to the regulation of cryptocurrencies are identified: conservative, liberal and neutral. The study of the experiences of the BRICS and EEU countries allowed the authors to conclude that these countries need to formulate similar requirements for the regulation of cryptocurrencies so as to avoid the migration of investment and capital to other countries which have a more liberal approach.

This article provides a comparative analysis of the features of the national legislation of the BRICS countries that regulates the issues of legal responsibility for environmental offenses. The authors consider aspects of the normative consolidation of the rights and obligations of citizens in the field of environmental protection, the types of legal liability and the applicable sanctions for violations of environmental standards provided for by the national legislation of all BRICS countries. The study of the environmental legislation of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) reveals a number of general and specific directions in environmental policy with the aim of enriching the said countries with positive experience, overcoming difficulties in the organization of environmental management and environmental protection, the prevention of possible errors in the context of global economic and environmental crises, and making recommendations for environmental improvement. Improving the legislation of the BRICS countries in the field of legal liability for environmental offenses by taking into account the positive experience of these countries will help increase the effectiveness of prevention and rectification of negative consequences for the environment in both the Russian Federation and the BRICS association as a whole. Consequently, a comparative legal analysis of national environmental legislation of BRICS countries suggests that the general principles of responsibility for environmental offenses are inherent in all these countries, despite their fundamental differences in history, culture and geographical location.

Around the world, parliaments, governments, civil society organizations and even individual parliamentarians are taking measures to make the legislative process more participatory. A key instrument of such measures is e-democracy. In the 1980s, a number of pilot projects on electronic voting and online discussions were introduced. However, only since 2000, with the active development of the Internet, has considerable interest in utilizing electronic initiatives to advance democracy emerge.

Today, researchers warn that despite all the talk about “e-democracy,” the circle of actual decision makers is likely to remain as small as it has been heretofore.

In this article, the author analyzes the pros and cons of electronic initiatives in the BRICS countries, Europe and the Russian Federation, and provides practical information for improvement.

The author suggests that the next step needed to improve civil activity in filing legislative initiatives is the application of a regular mechanism to establish the possibility of organizing the process of civil legislative initiative nomination and the collection of signatures in electronic form, in particular via the Internet, with the possible use of crowd sourcing technologies.