The article describes the issues of preserving and strengthening traditional cultural, spiritual and moral values implemented in the constitutions of BRICS countries on the cases of Russia and China. Russian Constitution with its amendments of 2020 aims at constitutionalizing cultural and moral values, implementing them to the current legislation, and creating economic, political and social conditions for their enforcement. Also, the article examines the activities of non-governmental organizations in the People’s Republic of China with the focus on their contribution to preservation and amplification of cultural and moral values enshrined in the Constitution of China.

The article presents the transformation of the concept of ethnicity, which is evident in many countries across the world in the context of changing world order. The author demonstrates the tendency to accept poly ethnicity and multiple faces in modern states, including the BRICS countries. Also, the author examines various approaches to defining ethnicity that exist both in legal science and in other social sciences. Using the example of the BRICS countries, it is shown that the legal recognition of ethnic identity, language and cultural differences occurs at the level of national constitutions since these categories are essential for recognition and awareness of each citizen and each national society in existing multinational states. The author proves that the formation of constitutional and legal norms taking into account the essence of ethnicity will contribute to the sustainable development of multinational states.

The wave of new economic trade sanctions in the world needs the comprehension of the grounds and potential consequences of this phenomenon. The author summarizes the annual reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measurers for 2015–2022. Also, the paper explains why the “broken windows theory” is relevant to unilateral economic sanctions imposed by developed countries against developing countries. Analyzing the results of voting in the UN for non-specific country sanction issue resolutions, the author proves that the developed countries and European developing countries except Russia usually support economic sanctions as a policy tool which is unlikely for non-European developing countries. The increase in multi-regionalism facilitated by imposed or potential economic sanctions is a factor which could lead to the collapse of the unilateral system of international trade regulations under the WTO scope. Finally, the paper offers to unblock the Doha Round of WTO negotiations through a switch from multilateral agreement ideology to plurilateral agreement ideology, starting from signing an in-depth and comprehensive anti-economic sanctions agreement initiated by the BRICS member states.

This study is devoted to a comparative analysis of different models of the risk-based approach used in tax administration in the BRICS countries. The risk-based approach is widely recognized as the fundamental basis for defining and legally consolidating the tasks of tax administration bodies in modern conditions. According to this approach, the objectives of the tax administration are to identify, prevent and minimize threats to tax security in the course of the implementation of the full range of administrative functions in the tax sphere, as well as to work towards overcoming the consequences of the realization of threats. The authors propose the following points for conducting a comparison of the BRICS countries using tax risk assessment: the implementation of risk assessment in the practice of tax administration and the quality of its legislative regulation, the impact of risk indicators on the behavior of taxpayers and the impact of risk indicators on the effective implementation of tax control measures. In general, there is a high degree of similarity among all aspects of the risk-based approaches adopted in the BRICS countries. However, the methods of implementation and levels of legal certainty in laws differ from country to country.

This article analyzes the legal regulation of the extradition of persons for criminal prosecution or execution of a sentence in the BRICS states. The legal and technical features of the national legal regulations governing extradition in Brazil, India, China and South Africa are analyzed. It is noted that each of these nations (with the exception of Russia) has adopted a special law on extradition, which regulates in detail all procedural aspects of international cooperation in the field of the extradition of criminals. In addition, the legal regulation of the extradition of persons for criminal prosecution or execution of a sentence in the BRICS candidate states is also analyzed. In particular, this study provides both a general description of the countries’ legislation (the different legal systems) and an assessment of the national legal regulations governing extradition in each of the BRICS countries, including such countries as Iran, Argentina, Algeria, Bahrain and the UAE. The mechanisms of interstate and interdepartmental cooperation are deeply described. Furthermore, the prospects of international legal integration of the BRICS states in the field of extradition are assessed, taking into account the possible entry of the candidate states into the BRICS group. Following an analysis of the national legislation of both the BRICS member states and the BRICS candidate states, the idea of creating and adopting a “BRICS Convention on Extradition” is proposed.

This article is devoted to the legislative regulation, court practice, and criminal policy in the field of genomic security within the jurisdiction of the BRICS countries. Researchers examine China’s experience with national legal regulation on matters related to genomics, the legal practices regarding genomic security in India, and the legal experience with genetic regulation of South Africa. For the longest time, the Chinese model of legal regulation had remained in its infancy; however, the high-profile case of a biologist named He Jiankui, who genetically edited the human genome, raised ethical issues that necessitated urgent legislative settlement. As a result, amendments were introduced to the criminal and civil codes and stricter state control was established over the research activities of scientists and the licensing of clinical trials. In South Africa, for instance, tribal genomic sovereignty is protected by local laws. Nevertheless, the free circulation of genetic data is a cause for concern, licensing control by the South African government is not adequately developed, and there is a lack of sufficient knowledge and training among scientists.

The largest emitting countries in the world are predominantly developing countries, including the BRICS countries. The general principle of “climate justice” asserts that the largest emitting countries should take the lead in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The legal implications for the implementation of climate change mitigation efforts play an active role in the implementation and establishment of the carbon exchange concept in the context of the carbon trading system. The urgency of listing on the carbon exchange is driven by the precautionary principle of global carbon accounting, which aims to avoid the risk of carbon leakage. The purpose of this research is to examine the obligation of emitting countries to make ambitious efforts towards reducing their greenhouse gas emissions while also upholding the basic principles of accountability and transparency. Offsetting the amount of carbon emitted by each country is largely calculated based on carbon credits purchased. In order to prevent double counting, carbon exchanges have the responsibility of recording the sale of carbon units with certificates issued under a “polluter pays” system.

Responding to global climate challenges, states are pursuing mitigation and climate adaptation policies, which requires involvement of all actors ranging from global institutions to the public. This article aims to evaluate green waste practices of nongovernmental organizations in terms of the possibility of incorporating these practices into climate mitigation and adaptation policies. The study focuses on two nongovernmental organizations that have been involved in waste management for more than 10 years and has examined the online posts of these organizations to determine the prevalence of nine green waste practices, as well as subscribers’ interest in them. The posts are classified using modern machine learning methods. To train a machine learning classifier, we used a dataset for detecting mentions of green practices in social media posts. The study demonstrated that environmental nongovernmental organizations engage hundreds of people in green practices aiming to reduce anthropogenic climate impacts or adapt to climate change. The often-mentioned practices (separate waste collection, recycling, and other adaptation activities such as promoting responsible consumption or refusing purchases) can be included in governmental policy. Subscribers are aware of ways to reduce consumption and manage wastes responsibly and they can share their experience with the communities gaining the support of the government. The proposed recommendations are related to broad engagement of grassroots initiatives in climate policy implementation.

The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention) was signed in February 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, and currently has 172 parties. China acceded to this Convention in 1992, became the 67^th party, and was elected a member of the Standing Committee in 2005. Wetlands conservation in China has achieved some positive results, but it still faces serious challenges. China’s wetlands level is much lower than the world average (global wetlands level is 8.60%), and the wetlands area per capita is only ¹/₅ of the world average. Until 2022, China lacked legislation to protect wetlands; the article’s objective is to analyze the recently adopted Chinese legislation in this area. Ultimately, the authors conclude that it is necessary to strengthen legal standards in China to contribute to the conservation and restoration of global wetlands.