2. The main trends of modern Christology The first wave of a new awareness of Christology in the second half of our century began almost twenty-five years ago in connection with the celebration of the 1500th anniversary of the Council of Chalcedon (451-1951). It is described in the program

ESSAY

on the topic: "The main trends in the development of European law"

Introduction

2. Law of the Council of Europe

3. European legal space

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Law has played an outstanding role in the formation and development of European civilization. The history of European law is the history of legal institutions, norms and ideas that have spread in such a region of the world as Europe.

“Europe,” notes the Swedish lawyer E. Anners, “is in geographically a small piece of land in the vast Eurasian territory. But lawmaking on this limited piece of land has had a significant impact on the motivation for the creation of legal norms, on their form and content almost all over the world. As a rule, this influence was decisive for each country. Behind this process of civilizational development lie the millennial efforts of people who developed laws in the offices, courtrooms and in the working rooms of scientists.

The historical path of European law can be traced not from the Greco-Roman era, as is usually accepted, but from a more distant time, from the moment when a primitive casuistic model of generic (primitive) law began to appear in the archaic pre-state structures of European and non-European tribes, which subsequently changed, improved and gradually transformed into modern model- a synthetic legal system, partly based on the experience of pre-state legal communication, but most of all on a constantly evolving practice.

In the Middle Ages, the foundation of the European legal order was laid, prepared by late antique Roman law, the philosophy and education system of Greek policies. Due to the development of legal technique, law during this period became a much more precise instrument of management through legislation and control of legal practice.

In the late Middle Ages, conditions were created for a more efficient organization of the division of labor and joint work than before; thus, in the field of public order, the prerequisites were formed for promoting natural scientific and technological progress at the beginning of the New Age.

European law - a new legal phenomenon - arose in the second half of the 20th century. The concept of "European law" covers the law of all European organizations, including the Council of Europe (1949), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Western European Union, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ( OSCE) and others. The central place in European law is occupied by the law of three European communities - the European Coal and Steel Community (1951), the European Economic Community (1957) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euroatom) (1957). An important stage in the development of European law was the transformation of the three European Communities into the European Union (EU) (1992), which underwent a major reform in 1997.

European law refers to the law European Union, stemming from the Paris 1951, Rome 1957, Brussels 1965, as well as the Maastricht 1992 and Amsterdam 1997 treaties and acquiring an increasingly clear structure as the legal and political evolution of the EU. It's about about a completely special law, which simultaneously has the features of supranational law and domestic law and which is applied in all EU countries. It differs from classical international law because it forms an autonomous international legal regime integrated into the law of the EU member states, as a result of which this law is directly applied by political leaders and the judiciary of these states. Sometimes European law is regarded as essentially federal law.

The norms of European law represent an extensive legal complex, the enrichment and development of which does not stop for a single day. European law, as a set of certain legal norms, has also become a special legal discipline, which has its main and secondary divisions, its own characteristics, and its specialists.

European law includes two large parts, namely institutional law and substantive (substantial) law.

Institutional European law. It is mainly about the problems of political, administrative and legal organization. These are, firstly, the norms concerning the status, functions and powers of various bodies and institutions of the EU. These bodies are primarily political bodies: the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission. These are also advisory institutions of a political or administrative nature and judicial and supervisory authorities, namely the Court of First Instance, the Court of Justice and the Chamber of Accounts.

Secondly, institutional law includes rules concerning the sources of law in the hierarchy of legal acts within the EU: treaties and agreements, regulations, directives and decisions. It also includes rules governing the combination of the EU legal regime with the domestic legal regimes of EU member states.

Substantive European law. It, as the name implies, includes the essential norms of European law, i.e. norms governing the behavior and activities of individuals and groups in various areas within the scope of the European treaties. Thus, we are talking about a set of norms constituting economic law, the purpose of which is the formation of a single internal market in the entire common territory of the EU member countries with the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital.

Considered as a whole, substantive European law establishes: 1) the rules that determine the regime of economic freedoms that apply to various participants in the economic life of the EU: a specific organization of free movement individuals and property, a ban on discrimination between EU member states, a ban on types of actions that are contrary to the principles of healthy competition, etc.; 2) principles and norms for the implementation of common economic measures and activities in the EU member states.

Substantive European law is connected with the study of the norms in force in the EU, which affect various legal disciplines that fall within the competence of the EU and are integrated with the internal law of the EU countries. In this way, specialized sections of European law gradually formed: European commercial law, European tax law, European social law, as well as agricultural law, banking law, transport law, etc.

Substantive European law is a substantive, effective, daily applied, but sometimes difficult and long-term law of the future united Europe.

2. Law of the Council of Europe

The Council of Europe was established in 1949 by ten Western European states. At present, the vast majority of European countries, or rather 40 states, are members of this organization.

The main goal of the Council of Europe, to which it has been striving for all these decades, is the creation of a single European community based on freedom, democracy, recognition of human rights and the rule of law. The activities of the Council of Europe are aimed at harmonizing policies and adopting general norms in the Member States, as well as the development of a unified law enforcement practice. To this end, it brings together parliamentarians, ministers, government experts, representatives of local and regional authorities, legal associations and international non-governmental organizations at various levels, who can thus combine their knowledge and experience.

S.Yu. Kashkin, O.A. Yadrikhinskaya

The history of the formation and development of the science of European law in Russia

Introduction

European law (law of the European Union) has recently become one of the priority and rapidly developing areas of development of domestic legal science.

This is largely due to the fact that the globalization of the world economy and life in general puts countries, peoples and continents before solving similar problems. They are solved by similar legal methods, one of the main criteria of which is the “comprehensive principle of efficiency” . Therefore, in law there is a tendency for convergence of national legal systems, means and methods of legal regulation, a general trend towards the formation of some kind of global law of Humanity.

It is under these conditions that the supranational law of the European Union demonstrates its practical usefulness, incorporating the best features of international law and the national law of the most developed democratic states of Europe. As a result of "remelting in the pan-European cauldron", a new alloy is being formed - a qualitatively new supranational European law.

European law, which has fundamentally new characteristics, qualities and capabilities, quickly fills the “voids” of legal spaces left by international law and national systems of law. It is officially recognized as an independent legal system. Backed by the strength and dynamics of the European economy, secured by the competitiveness of the euro single currency, protected by the European “rapid reaction forces” and supported by European citizens, this right can, to one degree or another, provide a counterbalance to the hegemony of any one country in the world and very effectively regulate wide circle relations in an increasingly united Europe.

Consequently, it is the law of the European Union that offers the world a very real modern mechanism of “checks and balances”: instead of “unipolar globalization”, it proposes to gradually and naturally build globalization through a number of regional democratic integration associations that are being formed in different regions of our planet. Each of them will have its own supranational law, which will naturally have something in common with the European one, and in some ways, expressing its identity, will differ from it.

It is this right that, within the framework of the world civilizational process, plays the role of an important intermediate stage on the way to universal human law based on universal human values. Even if this never happens, the general vector of world legal development is most accurately expressed today by European law.

That is why the study of European law acquires special importance in the new democratic Russia.

European law as a science is complex. The European Union and the legal system serving it is included in the subject of research of several legal sciences at once. The science of international law studies the European Union as an international organization. The science of constitutional law is interested in the structure and functioning of the European Union. The theory of state and law explores the European Union as a special form of interstate cooperation, on the basis of which a unique "supranational" theory is formed. Specialists in criminal, financial, environmental and other branches of law study the relevant norms within the European Union. In addition, research different sides activities of the European Union are political scientists, economists, sociologists.

Since the beginning of the 90s of the twentieth century, a scientific direction has been developing in domestic legal science, the focus of which is the law of the European Union (European law). The study of the law of the European Union, in addition to its scientific significance, is also an international legal obligation of Russia, arising from the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Russian Federation and the European Communities and Member States of 1994.

The formation of European Union law as a sphere scientific knowledge in Russia was carried out in several stages:

The first stage - the 50s - the beginning of the 70s. The twentieth century is the initial, introductory stage in the study of issues of European integration in the USSR.

The second stage - the middle of the 70s - the end of the 80s of the twentieth century - the formation of scientific views in the field of law of the European Communities.

The third stage - from the beginning of the 90s to the present - is the modern stage in the study of the law of the European Union by Russian legal science.

This periodization is conditional. It is impossible to name clear boundaries of each stage, since in practice they smoothly flowed one into another. However, this periodization has a certain methodological significance. It allows you to identify the features of each period of scientific research of European law, associated with a certain era, to better understand it. state of the art and predict the prospects for its development.

Consider the features of each of these stages.

1. The first stage - the 50s - the beginning of the 70s. XX century - First stage studying the issues of European integration in the USSR

In 1951, the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the first European Community, was signed. In 1957, the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and the European Economic Community (EEC) were formed on the basis of the Rome Treaties. The creation of the European Communities attracted the attention of international lawyers, historians, and economists all over the world, including in the USSR.

The activities of Soviet scientists of this period had a number of features. The development of issues of Western European integration took place, first of all, within the framework of historical and economic sciences and, to a lesser extent, legal science. As academician B.N. Topornin noted, legal problems did not occupy a large place in the works, there was no proper connection between lawyers and their colleagues from related fields.

A feature of the first stage was the strong ideologization of the humanities, which gave rise to clichés of thinking, including in law. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, Soviet jurisprudence and economics from the very beginning took a negative attitude towards the Communities, since they were created by the capitalist states. Scientists have tried to "denigrate" the processes taking place in the West without any analysis. The works published at that time necessarily and constantly quoted the statements of V.I. There was no question of any truly objective research that would be allowed for publication. One cannot but agree with the opinion of Professor B.A. Strashun, who wrote that “science cannot exist in such conditions. We can only talk about literature containing information that is sometimes of interest to science.

The first period spanned two and a half decades, common features which were the ideologization of science, an insufficiently comprehensive and in-depth study of problems, as well as a small amount of study of the legal problems of integration. Nevertheless, each decade of the first period was distinguished by its originality, which was influenced by events taking place in the country and abroad: in the 50s - the beginning of the Cold War, in the 60s - a political thaw, in the early 70s - discharge, and then - new round"cold war".

Since the beginning of the 50s of the twentieth century, in the journals "New Time", " New world”, “Foreign Trade”, “Economic Issues” publishes articles by leading Soviet lawyers, economists on various aspects of the activities of the Communities (reasons for creation, analysis of the activities of the ECSC, EEC, Euratom, relations with associated countries). Dikansky M., Panov M., Lisovsky V.I. devote their works to these problems. , Suslin P. , Viktorov S., Maksimov G. , Gukasyan-Gandzaketsi L.G. and etc.

The goal set by the authors was to show the unviability and reactionary nature of Western European integration formations under capitalism and to oppose them to the progressive socialist integration represented by the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA). Many referred to the work of V.I. Lenin "On the slogan of the United States of Europe". V. I. Lenin wrote that such an alliance as the USE cannot be long and strong, because it does not eliminate the uneven development under capitalism, its inherent antagonistic contradictions and wars. The ideas of V.I. Lenin were an axiom for Soviet science. Therefore, on the examples of Western European integration, domestic researchers tried to prove the truth of the leader's views. The emergence of the Communities was seen as the next stage in the development of capitalism - state-monopoly, in which the state directly intervenes in the economy, "because monopolies no longer divide local, but national and world markets" . The creation of the Communities was presented with the aim of maximum exploitation of the working people, carried out in the interests of American capital. The "Common Market" (as the Communities were called in the literature of that time) was "an alliance of the capitalists of the monopolies of Western Europe and was carried out through dictatorship, violence, arbitrariness."

The ideology manifested itself even in the titles of monographs and articles. Characteristic of them were the following: Lisovsky V.I. "European Coal and Steel Community - a cartel of warmongers", "The Schuman Plan - a weapon of aggression of the American monopolies"; Suslin P.N. "The Common Market is a tool of the monopolies"; Beglov S. "The European Community - a Threat to the Peace and Security of Nations" . Works with similar names are found until the end of the 70s of the twentieth century. As academician B.N. Topornin noted, “not the fault, but the misfortune of scientists was the strictly controlled need to follow the officially recognized dogmas and attitudes, which was practiced even when the conditions for social development changed dramatically” .

Despite the burden of ideology, in the works of Soviet scientists of the first period, within the framework of international and constitutional law, they also covered the legal aspects of the activities of the Communities, attempts were made to give an objective analysis of the constituent agreements, the structure and activities of the main bodies. This trend was especially characteristic of the second half of the 1950s, when the period of political "thaw" began. According to Yu.A. Borko, the first open discussion of the problems of the "common market" was a discussion on the pages of the weekly "New Time" in January-March 1957. In response to N. Molchanov’s article “On the hype around the “common market”, which predicted the collapse of the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bunification, since it allegedly contradicted the real situation, a Letter to the Editor by B. Yurin and V. Alekseev appeared. The authors, agreeing with the political assessment of the "common market", objected to the thesis of its impracticability. After the announcement of the state's official position on the Communities, the discussion ceased.

The largest scientific platform dealing with economic, political and legal problems of European integration was originally the Institute of World Economy and International Relations - IMEMO of the USSR Academy of Sciences, recreated in 1956. Scientists, including those who had recently returned from the Gulag, worked in it. The first school of integration studies in the USSR was founded here. The problem of the "common market" was one of the leading topics at IMEMO. In 1958, 1959 and 1962, three scientific conferences were held with the participation of IMEMO staff, at which a call was made for an objective assessment of facts, analysis of statistics and documents.

The 1959 conference, held jointly by IMEMO and the editors, was covered on the pages of the journal "World Economy and International Relations" on the pages of "MEIMO". The Conference was attended by employees of the Institute and other scientific institutions, university professors and practitioners: Popov K., Varga E., Khmelnitskaya E., Makov M., Suslin P., Blishchenko I., Lyubimova V., etc. The reasons for creating "common market", its legal nature and development prospects. A number of theses were devoted to the unsuccessful attempt to create a European political community.

This conference was sustained in the spirit of the Soviet ideology. Many speakers promoted the idea that the "common market" was created for the struggle against socialism, spoke of the aggravation of contradictions around the "common market" and within it. Nevertheless, the participants boldly opposed each other, thus creating a discussion. So, for example, Varga E. criticized the performance of Popov K. for the fact that he saw only political reasons for the creation of the Communities. Varga E. believed that not only political, but, above all, economic factors were at the heart of the creation of the Communities. The researcher believed that the "common market" is not "the spread of state-monopoly capitalism on an international scale", but "a timid attempt to recreate the free capitalist market" that existed before the First World War. This approach was new for Soviet science.

It should be noted that some researchers referred to the works of foreign scientists, but treated them critically. For example, Blishchenko I., analyzing bourgeois theories, showed in his speech that European scientists “created an atmosphere of deception and falsification of the true intentions of the authors of the“ common market ”. This “counter-propaganda” approach imposed from above was an integral part of the Soviet propaganda machine, which forced scientists dealing with foreign issues to resort to “Aesopian language”, which was quite understandable in scientific circles ... Therefore, a lot had to be read “between the lines”.

The conferences (International Conferences of Marxists) in 1958 and 1962 were organized by IMEMO and the editors of the journal "Problems of Peace and Socialism". Calls were made at the conferences to analyze concrete facts, processes, statistics and documents of European integration. For the first time, the positive consequences of the creation of a “common market” began to be considered, such as the acceleration of scientific and technological progress, an increase in the scale of production, the development of specialization and cooperation in production. It was a bold attempt to go beyond the official ideological framework.

The conferences of 1958, 1959 and 1962 marked the beginning of the study of certain areas of European integration: economic, political and legal. During this period, in addition to IMEMO, research began to be carried out at the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, at INION, VNIKI, and at other scientific institutions in Moscow. It is Moscow that becomes the main scientific center for the study of problems of European integration and law. This is explained by the fact that Moscow scientists had more documents, statistics and literature on the problems of European integration and experienced less ideological pressure than scientists from other cities.

In the 60s of the twentieth century, works were published in which (through the prism of ideology, which was obligatory for that time), a description of the legal system and structure of the Communities was given. The actual problems of studying Western European integration are: the structure, legal nature of the ECSC, the UES, Euratom (Alekseev D.M., Mikhailov A.P., Shebanov A.N., Pletnev E.P. and others), the problem of expanding the EEC - entry England (Rubinin A.E.), relations of the Communities with associated countries (Goncharov L.V., Kirichenko G.A., etc.).

There are works (mostly articles) that analyze the structure and powers of the main institutions of the Communities. Among them, it should be noted the article by Averin D.D. "Court of the European Economic Community". It shows the essence of the "Common Market" - it is "an empire of monopolistic giants that exploit millions and millions of workers." The reasons for the creation of the EEC are explained - the struggle against the world socialist system; strengthening the economic base of the North Atlantic bloc. But, as the author writes, "the EEC seeks to ease the contradictions inherent in imperialism" by introducing common customs tariffs, general policy in the field of agriculture, transport, regulation of the import and export of goods, freedom of movement of persons, labor and capital, etc. The following briefly explains the structure of the Community bodies, their structure, competence. The main part of the work is devoted to the composition, formation and activities of the Court of Justice of the European Community. In this part, the author does not give any political assessments, but only provides information about the structure and powers of the EU Court of Justice.

Article by Professor Keilin A.D. "The Legal Mechanism of the European Economic Community" was published in the journal "Soviet State and Law" in 1963. It also touches on political and legal aspects. It shows the main goal of "imperialist integration" - "the struggle against the world socialist system." The following describes the provisions of the Treaty establishing the EEC - the tasks of the Community in accordance with Article 3, the association of the EEC with overseas territories, the legal mechanism of the EEC. Moreover, the position of the author is obvious: he looks with doubt at the democratic principles of the Treaty establishing the EEC. This is manifested in the initially negative connotation of the definitions used: “supposedly independent”, “the so-called Western European integration”. The above two works reflect the peculiarity of the research methodology: the combination of Marxist-Leninist ideological coloring and phraseology in characterizing capitalism with the method of neutral description of reality.

In 1966, the textbook "Course of International Law" was published, ed. F.I. Kozhevnikov, where information about the European Communities appears for the first time. Communities were considered in Chap. VIII as "organizations under the domination of the imperialist states." Nevertheless, it contained information about the history of the creation of the EEC, the main bodies, their structure and powers.

The activities of researchers of this period were determined by the official attitude of the USSR towards the Communities. In the late 1960s, a special discussion took place at IMEMO to consider a possible alternative to the official policy of non-recognition of the Communities. The meeting, closed to the press, was attended by IMEMO staff and employees of ministries (foreign affairs, defense and foreign trade). Scholars defended the position that European integration is an economic and political reality that should be recognized; the policy of non-recognition of the Communities is detrimental to the Soviet Union's own interests. Ministry officials, on the other hand, believed that recognizing the Communities meant "agreeing with the West's course towards the creation of anti-Soviet alliances."

Ultimately, the proposal to establish diplomatic relations with the European Communities was rejected. Nevertheless, this episode testifies not only to the influence of ideology on the development of science, but also to the fact that science contributed to a change in the official position of the state. The question of recognition or non-recognition of the Communities by the Soviet Union was already considered from the point of view of expediency.

It was during this period that an event occurred that gave rise to a new surge in research on the processes that took place in the countries of the Communities. In the early 1970s, an attempt was made to change the official position of the USSR in relation to the Communities. In 1972, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Brezhnev L.I. in one of his speeches, he stated that “the USSR considers Western European integration as an“ objective reality ”and is ready to enter into cooperation relations with the EU if the latter ... pursues a constructive policy in relations with the Soviet Union” . During 1973-1976, several meetings were held between representatives of the EEC and the CMEA, but the parties did not come to an agreement. And by the end of the 1970s, relations between the Soviet and capitalist states again entered a phase of aggravation.

According to Professor Yu.A. Borko, the first detente undoubtedly favored a more active study of European integration in the Soviet Union and marked the transition to the second stage. Thus, by the beginning of the 1970s, the initial stage of studying the predominantly economic and political issues of Western European integration was completed. The common thing that united the researchers of this period was the dependence on the official ideology, on the works of V.I. Lenin and the official position of the state. Nevertheless, one cannot blindly reject the works of Soviet lawyers of the 1950s and early 1970s. Using the method of hermeneutics, modern experts in the field of European Union law can successfully use the results of these works for their research.

2. The second stage - the middle of the 70s - the end of the 80s of the twentieth century - the formation of scientific views in the field of law of the European Communities

In the early 1970s, the total volume of publications devoted to the problems of European integration somewhat decreased. An analysis of textbooks on international law (edited by professors Tunkin G.I., Lisovsky V.I., Modzhoryan L.A. and Blatova N.T.) shows that they did not contain any information about the Communities. But the change in the official position of the leadership of the Soviet Union in relation to the Communities, of course, provided scientists with the opportunity to take a more serious approach to studying the problems of Western European integration.

From the mid-1970s to the first half of the 1980s, the first scientific publications on the legal problems of the Communities appeared. There is a growing interest (especially in the early 1980s) in scientific work. This is evidenced, among other things, by dissertations of young researchers for the degree of candidate of legal sciences: in 1973 Yu.M. Yumashev, in 1980 Muravyov V.I. , in 1981 Biryukov M.M. , in 1983 Shapovalov N.I. , in 1984 Zimenkova O.N. defend their dissertations. In the 70s - the first half of the 80s of the twentieth century, the following were engaged in the study of the law of the Communities: Maksimova M. (the problem of the expansion of the Communities), Yumashev Yu.M. (legal nature, foreign economic relations of the Communities), Kuzina Z.I. (EEC and associated countries), Shishkov Yu.V. (development of the common market), Olteanu O.M. (legal personality of the EEC, features of the law of the EEC), Ametistov E.M. (Trends in the development of Community law), etc.

It should be noted that articles in periodicals prevailed in the total volume of works at that time. Nevertheless, the diversity of the studied problems allows us to conclude that scientists have already sought to more objectively analyze the integration processes taking place in Western Europe regardless of ideological pressure. According to Borko Yu.A. , the period from the mid-70s to the end of the 80s can be called a time of intensive and in-depth research. It was during this period that a scientific school of European studies was formed in our country, which very successfully applied empirical analysis and an interdisciplinary approach.

From the 70s of the twentieth century. in Soviet legal science, the topic of “supranationality” (“supranationality”) is widely discussed. The term "supranationality" has been used for the first time by domestic researchers since the beginning of the 1950s. However, the origins of this term are not in doctrine, but in political and legal documents. It was first mentioned in 1948 in the Resolution of the European Congress, then in 1950 in the Schuman Declaration, in 1952 in the ECSC Treaty, and also in the draft Treaty of the European Political Community. In the publications of the 1950s, Communities are often referred to as supranational organizations, while the authors do not answer the question: what does the concept of “supranationality” mean? . Famous lawyers V. Kuznetsov, A. N. Talalaev, I. S. Shaban tried to explain the essence of “supranationality” in the 70s. and others.

A.N. Talalaev for the first time defined the formal legal features contained in the concept of “supranationality”: “1. The right of a given body, organization or community to bind its members without their consent and against their consent, by making binding decisions by a majority vote. 2. The right to bind and empower natural or legal persons or government bodies member states directly without translating these decisions into the national law of the states. 3. Giving the right to make decisions referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 to non-representative bodies consisting of international officials independent of the state. 4. The right of the body and organization to intervene in important matters relating to the internal competence of states.

It should be noted that in the future, many researchers (Feshchenko A.S., Shibaeva E.A., Bekyashev K.A., Shumilov V.M. and others), based on the approach of Talalaev A.N., developed and supplemented the provisions about "supranationality". The problem of “supranationality” is still relevant, ambiguous, and causes controversy among researchers.

One of interesting works- monograph by Shaban I.S. "The Imperialist Essence of Western European Integration". Despite the "aggressive" title, it describes the ideas of the unification of Europe (the Dubois plan, the projects of the Duke of Sully, Saint-Simon, etc.); characterizes the essence and goals of the integration of the mid-twentieth century, the legal mechanism (organizational structure) of the Communities, the principles of the common market. The author for the first time analyzed the concepts of Soviet and foreign researchers about the legal nature of the Communities, primarily the ECSC.

Kuznetsov V. in his 1978 monograph "CMEA and the Common Market", analyzing the different approaches of foreign researchers on the issue of "supranationality" and the provisions of the Paris and Rome treaties, comes to the conclusion that both treaties contain elements of supranationality. But it is based not on treaties, but "on a system of very real, material order of relations between their bodies and the governments of member states and national associations of industrialists." In addition, supranationality, according to Kuznetsov V., is characteristic only of integration associations of capitalist countries, which is the "common market". However, supranationality is not typical for associations of socialist states.

Since 1985, with the beginning of the “perestroika” process, science has been gradually freed from the ideological shackles of the totalitarian past. The principles of democracy and publicity are being popularized in society. The Iron Curtain is crumbling. The "new thinking" proclaimed by M.S. Gorbachev during foreign policy The USSR radically changed relations with the capitalist countries - from hostile and hostile to friendly, partner. The economic and political transformations actively carried out in the USSR in the second half of the 1980s met with approval in Europe. At the meeting of the European Council in Rome on December 14-15, 1990, an agreement was reached on financial support by the European Communities for economic reforms in the USSR. To achieve this goal, the TACIS program was subsequently created, aimed at helping the republics of the former USSR in their transition to a market economy system. It is through this program that a number of Russian universities received support in studying the law of the European Union.

In December 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, followed by the collapse of the socialist system. In response, the European Communities issued a series of political acts in which they demonstrated their desire to cooperate with new states, provided that the latter comply with the provisions of international treaties concluded by the Soviet Union.

On the other hand, the state of all spheres of domestic science was affected by the economic crisis in the USSR. Russian science during this period found itself in a difficult position, primarily due to a lack of financial resources. The volume of scientific publications has noticeably decreased. The monographs listed above are almost the only works of this period. There was no stable connection between lawyers, political scientists, economists who studied the processes of European integration.

The Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, founded in 1987, is becoming the main active scientific platform for studying the problems of European integration. spheres of economics, politics, informatics, human dimension, etc. The Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences brought together researchers of European integration processes, among which Borko Yu.A., Butorina O.V., Kargalova M.V., Shmeleva N.P., Krasikova A.A., Shemyatenkova V.G., and others. However, it should be noted that the study of European law was by no means the leading special area of ​​work of this respected scientific institution.

FROM Russian Academy The life of the doctor of legal sciences, professor, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Boris Nikolaevich Topornin (29.12.1929 - 05.07.2005) was connected with sciences. He headed the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences from 1989 to 2004. Topornin B.N. did a lot for the organization of science, being an adviser and a member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences. For a long time he was Academician-Secretary of the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Under his leadership, a huge number of major studies, exploratory scientific projects and programs were carried out. B.N. Topornin published more than 200 scientific papers both in Russia and abroad. He was one of the first in Russia to develop and promote European law, published a textbook and a monograph on the law of the European Communities and European law. He was also one of the drafters of the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation. The formation of a new branch of legal science and the academic discipline "information law" is closely connected with his name.

An important feature of the stage of the mid-70s - late 80s of the twentieth century is the process of rethinking the legal essence of the Communities and its legal system. European associations are no longer recognized as a stronghold of imperialism, an instrument of American influence and cruel exploitation of peoples. An attempt is being made to give an objective analysis of the structure and law of the Communities, their legal nature. Polar points of view are expressed, constructive discussions are born. It can be argued that during this period the law of the Communities, and then the European Union, becomes an independent field of research in legal science.

Scientific life continues in the form of dissertation research. In 1989 he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic: "Foreign economic relations of the EEC (legal issues)" Yury Mikhailovich Yumashev (born in 1943) is one of the leading researchers in the legal issues of European integration. Yumashev Yu.M. – currently Professor, Doctor of Law, Head of the Department of the University – high school Economics, wrote a number of monographs and many articles. Yumashev Yu.M. a comprehensive study of the legal mechanism for regulating the foreign economic activity of the UES was carried out. Particular attention is paid to the mechanism for implementing the powers of the EEC (customs union, common trade policy, general system preferences) and legal means of implementation by the Commonwealth of a common trade policy in relation to third countries and international organizations.

Ivanov M.K. in his dissertation research in 1987 he set the task: to find out the place and role of the law of the Communities in modern international law. He comes to the following conclusions: the formation of the law of the Communities as an independent normative system is an objective trend in international relations and international law; the scope and nature of the competence of the Communities does not separate their legal system from international law; Community law is a regional subsystem of international law.

Thus, during the second period, serious changes take place in our country, which are reflected in the development of science. On the one hand, scientists continued to work under the pressure of communist ideology. As Academician B.N. Topornin noted, even in the early 1990s, there was a “programmed protrusion of contradictions” of Communities in the scientific and educational literature, which, according to the authors, would lead them to collapse. On the other hand, it was during this period that the formation of the legal system of the European Union as a sphere of scientific knowledge begins. Knowledge about the Communities and the legal system of the Communities, originating in the 50s, makes its way in the 70s and early 80s. The first concepts, concepts, theories appear, which are continued in the third period.

3. The third stage - the beginning of the 90s to the present - the modern stage of studying the law of the European Union

In the early 90s. there are two significant events that influenced the subject and content of scientific research. First, in December 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, followed by the entire system of socialism, together with its integration counterweight to the EU - the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. The consequences were not only the rejection of communist ideas, but also the openness of borders, the opportunity to travel to European countries, communicate with foreign scientists, and jointly carry out research. Russian students, graduate students and young scientists got the opportunity to study and gain practical experience in European universities. Secondly, in November 1993, the Treaty on the European Union came into force, marking the emergence of a new integration entity with its own legal system.

The Russian Federation is starting to build new relations with the Communities and with the European Union. In the early 1990s, major economic and political transformations took place in Russia. Russia joined the International Monetary Fund and received observer status in the World Trade Organization. Therefore, our state came up with a new concept of interaction with the EU - partnership relations based on the principles of equality and mutual responsibility. At the meeting of the Heads of State of the European Union and Russia on December 9, 1993 in Brussels, a Joint Declaration on Partnership and Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the European Union was signed. June 24, 1994 on about. Corfu, in Greece, a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement was concluded establishing partnership and cooperation between the Russian Federation, on the one hand, and the European Communities and their Member States, on the other hand. The Russian Federation and the European Union consider each other as strategic partners, and the study of European Union law becomes a kind of international legal obligation for our country. In 1996, Russia becomes a member of the Council of Europe, which raises its status in the international arena.

The current stage of the study of legal issues of European integration is multifaceted, bright and has a number of features, including the following.

Since the second half of the 1990s and at the beginning of the 21st century, there has been a noticeable increase in the number and especially the quality of educational, monographic works, articles, dissertations created by Russian researchers on European law (European Union law). At this stage, the contribution of Russian scientists to the world treasury scientific knowledge on European law is already becoming very significant.

This was facilitated by the proclaimed ideological diversity, rapprochement political systems Russia and Europe, the growth of the well-being of citizens of the Russian Federation, the development of new technologies - electronic means of communication and information sources (Internet). In addition, textbooks and monographs by foreign scientists have become available in Russia. One of the first books translated into Russian was the monograph of Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science T.K. At present, Russian scientists can get acquainted with the monographic literature of leading foreign jurists, such as J. Verhoeven, S. Weatheril and P. Beaumont, J. Herkrath, P. Gierer, D. Chalmers, J. Ward, S. Van Repeboush and others .

4. The science of European law and the development of higher education in Russia

At the third, modern stage of development of the science of European law in the Russian Federation, its practical use in the field of higher education of the country took place. After all, science is inseparable from education, and they mutually complement and develop each other.

The development of European law as an academic subject by the universities of the Russian Federation took place in several quite distinct periods and was of a point-regional, largely “spontaneous” nature. At first, this process was almost not controlled by ministries and departments on a national scale. First, the “centers” of European law arose in Moscow (MGIMO, MSLA, PFUR), St. Petersburg, and then its “sparks” began to flare up in the cities and towns of Russia (branches and institutes of the Moscow State Law Academy, Petrozavdsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg, Saratov, Tomsk, Yakutsk, etc.).

The success of this process was made up of: the readiness of the leadership of the most advanced universities to take on the courage of an administrative decision; the presence of "advanced" teaching staff who know foreign languages, and most importantly, the "fertilization" of these most important prerequisites with financial and organizational resources. These resources were mainly drawn from pan-European cooperation programs (TEMPUS, TACIS) or international cooperation agreements between countries, cities or universities. There was a kind of approximation of these resources to their specific consumers and their more targeted use.

The foreign origin of European law in the education system of Russia (as, in fact, historical roots legal education in Russia as a whole) should be seen as a progressive, not anti-national phenomenon. Ultimately, the true content of the "European" legal education in Russia is still built in accordance with Russian pedagogical traditions and the needs of our national science and practice. Being "European" in form and objective in content, it still proceeds from a patriotic consideration of our national interests. At the same time, fortunately, this subject does not have the ideological tendency of turning into “Soviet European law”, which is characteristic of our socialist past ...

So, the first period of the formation of European law as an academic subject in the universities of Russia was "studying abroad" and the collection of primary scientific and pedagogical information necessary for the preparation of the educational process. During this period (1992-1996), individual innovators-teachers and graduate students, sometimes on their own initiative, inserted specialized information on EU law into the courses of international law or constitutional law of foreign countries and thus worked out its individual components. They conducted research work on the issues of European law with a focus on further teaching this subject. Sometimes professors "Varangians" from European countries gave separate lectures on EU law. The instigators of this process were primarily MGIMO, Moscow State Law Academy and PFUR.

It was during this period that scientific platforms for studying the law of the European Union (European law) appeared on the basis of the country's largest universities. Institute of European Law of Moscow state institute International Relations (University) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation was established in 1996 in accordance with the order of the President of the Russian Federation. Long years it was successfully led by a prominent scientist and organizer - Professor, Doctor of Law Lev Matveyevich Entin.

In 1997, by order of the rector of the Moscow State Law Academy, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences O.E. Kutafin (with the support of Dutch and Belgian partners), a specialized department of European Union law was created at the Moscow State Law Academy, headed by Professor, Doctor of Law S.Yu. Kashkin. The Center for European Law, a specialized library and an electronic database were created at the Moscow State Law Academy, which were used by over one and a half million people from more than 40 countries of the world. The Department has translated and made available to the public a large volume of the most important documents on the law of the European Union.

One of the first course of European law began to study RUDN University students, St. Petersburg state university. Thanks to the TEMPUS program of the European Union, St. Petersburg State University has established close ties with the College of Europe (Bruges), the European Institute of Public Administration (Maastricht), the University of Limerick (Ireland) and other Western European universities. Subsequently, they turned into a large joint work in this direction: a department of European studies appeared, the training of bachelors and masters on this issue began. On the basis of the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University, in accordance with the agreement between the Commission of the European Communities and St. Petersburg University dated August 21, 1995, the European Documentation Center was established. The European Documentation Center in St. Petersburg is the only one in the North-West of Russia. It is an information base for academic and applied research.

The second period of teaching the law of the European Union in Russia (1997-2000) consisted in the accumulation, systematization and analysis of information, the appearance in the capital of the first educational and methodological publications, allowing you to switch to your own educational literature.

So, the first comprehensive textbook in Russian, with the use of which it was possible to start a systematic teaching of the law of the European Union, was "Fundamentals of the Law of the European Union", published in 1997 by a young team of authors of the Department of European Union Law of the Moscow State Law Academy under the guidance of Professor S.Yu. Kashkin.

The preparation for a full-scale introduction of the teaching of EU law in Russian universities has completed the publication by the Department of EU Law of the Moscow State Law Academy of a comprehensive collection of documents and comments on European Union law, textbooks on European Union law (European law) specially designed for students, edited (authored) by Topornin B.N. , Entina L.M. and an interesting textbook prepared on the basis of RUDN, covering a number of areas of the special part of EU law.

The third period in the development of the teaching of EU law in Russian universities (2000-2004) was the generalization of information and the deepening of knowledge, especially in the field of certain branches of European law. Fundamental textbooks and scientific works appeared, scientific schools in Moscow (MSUA, MGIMO (U), PFUR) and St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg State University). Scientific schools began to take shape in Kazan (Kazan State University), Kaliningrad (RGU named after Kant) and other cities of Russia. However, these positive processes were still taking place on a regional scale.

In the second and third periods, the law of the European Union (European law) began to be taught more and more in the leading universities of the country and it began to spread throughout Russia. In a number of universities, the teaching of European law has acquired a character that more closely corresponds to one or another specialization in the field of national law (especially within the specialized institutes of the Moscow State Law Academy). Teaching and study of EU law is carried out at Kazan State University, Omsk State University, Nizhny Novgorod State University, Russian State University named after. Kant, Voronezh State University, Yakutsk State University, etc. In a number of law schools, the departments of "international law" are being renamed to the departments of "international and European law" (for example, at Voronezh State University, where Professor P.N. Biryukov is the head of the department) . European law is beginning to be studied not only in public, but also in private universities. educational institutions Russian Federation.

The present, fourth (after 2004) period in the development of teaching European law in Russia is associated with the recognition of its importance in the system of higher legal education and the desire to consolidate and generalize its achievements on a national scale.

An important role in this process was played by international scientific conferences specially dedicated to the teaching of EU law (European law), held in Moscow on the basis of PFUR in 1999 and at MGIMO (U) in 2000 and 2006. Three international scientific and practical conferences, specially devoted to European law, as well as annual student scientific conferences on EU law are organized at the Moscow State Law Academy.

As a result of a serious and long-term preparatory work the accumulated quantity develops into a new quality - as for Russian science European law, and for the academic discipline of the same name. At the present stage of development, science and education are increasingly connected and support each other. The interaction between scientific and training schools and centers of European law in various regions of the country, and more equal, mutually beneficial cooperation between Russian scientists and teachers with foreign universities and research centers begins. The quality of teaching European law in Russia and the professionalism of our teaching staff, as well as the level of theoretical research and educational literature more and more corresponds to the highest European standards and has its own specific style, both in the field of science and in the field of pedagogy of higher education.

An excellent example of this is the creation on the basis of MGIMO (U) on equal terms in accordance with the "four road maps" signed in 2005 by Russia and the European Union, a joint European Training Institute, which is designed to become a new tool for improving the teaching of European law both in Russia, as well as in Europe.

On the Russian side, MGIMO(U), Moscow State Law Academy and St. Petersburg University are participating in the project. In this truly international university, the best professors of Europe and Russia teach programs jointly prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Bologna system. They exchange curricula, programs, improve the methodology and practice of teaching. Training is conducted in Russian and foreign languages. This is a good source of dissemination of Bologna experience in a particular area of ​​higher professional education. It would be good to "replicate" it in other areas of higher education.

A unique phenomenon for both science and education was the publication of the world's first translations of the Constitution of the European Union, not into the official language of the European Union, with comments (2005 - 622 pages) and the Treaty of Lisbon with comments (2008 - 698 pp.), carried out in both cases in a few months (translation and the main work on commenting is the merit of Associate Professor of Moscow State Law Academy A.O. Chetverikov).

Fundamental textbooks on EU law published by the teams of authors of Moscow State Law Academy (2002, 2004, 2008, 2009) and MGIMO(U) (2000, 2005, 2007) provide a world-class learning process.

Today, at the present stage, there is a recognition of the law of the European Union (European law) as an important discipline in the system of higher legal education. The law of the European Union (European law) is included in the programs of law schools as a compulsory discipline or a special course. There is a need for consolidation, generalization of achievements in the field of education on a nationwide scale.

However, there are a number of problems, including in the name of the academic discipline. In a number of universities it is called "European Union law", in some - where the legal system of the European Union is studied, as well as the provisions of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950 - "European Law". Of course, the unity in the name of the academic discipline is advisable in order to avoid differences in the definition of the subject, the course program. About 15 years ago, disputes about the correct name of the subject were of very fundamental importance.

In the course of its progressive historical development, expressed in the expansion of the territory of the EU and the scope of its legal regulation, the concept of "European Union law" is increasingly closer in its content to "European law". This makes the long-standing terminological dispute about the subject of "European Union law" and "European law" rather purely theoretical than practically significant. In any sense, it is easy for the participants in this dispute to reconcile, agreeing that "European law" in its narrow sense is synonymous with "European Union law".

It is curious to note that in terms of the territory occupied and its significance, European law became similar to what Roman law once was, only at a new stage in the spiral development of civilization. This premise can lead the student of European law to interesting theoretical, practical and prognostic conclusions.

In practice, the law of the European Union has been combined with the law of the Council of Europe in the field of human rights. As a result, it is increasingly becoming truly "European" in its essence. The activities of the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights quite harmoniously fit into the program of European law. The problems that the judicial and legal system of the Russian Federation, as a member of the Council of Europe, faces in practice, turned out to be within the jurisdiction of this court. Hence, even a full-fledged study of Russian criminal, civil law, relevant areas of procedural law without knowledge of European norms turns out to be impossible. European human rights law acquires special meaning not only in the field of higher legal education, but deserves to be introduced at the level of secondary and secondary specialized education.

Therefore, we can draw an important conclusion that European law has evolved from a theoretical subject related only to foreign law into a sphere that is practically connected with a number of important areas of Russian national law.

European law, through active involvement in the analytical process of the techniques and methods of comparative law, provides a vision of national law, its achievements and gaps in the context of relevant European and world achievements. European law is a kind of "culmination" of comparative law, which is so necessary in our time both in legal science and in legal education.

In accordance with the Bologna system, in 2010 it is planned to transfer all universities of the Russian Federation to a two-level bachelor-master system. Considering that European law is a result of a kind of " natural selection» recognized in the world as a “concentrate” of everything related to foreign law and international law, its role at the undergraduate level is of particular importance. Within the framework of this subject, in the minimum time, students are given the most advanced, recognized and used in practice in the world, techniques and methods of legal regulation related to various areas of public life.

Therefore, while reducing the subjects of the bachelor's degree program for Russian law schools in the process of adaptation to the Bologna standards, it is necessary, nevertheless, to add European law, even if only in an introductory volume. The number of hours for different specializations may be different. For the main part of the students, this may be a six-month course "Introduction to the Law of the European Union", but for international legal specialization (or for universities of this profile), it is advisable to give this subject as a one-year course.

The Master's program in European Law must be serious, interdisciplinary and theoretically in-depth. At the same time, it will inevitably be more and more practice-oriented.

Education in European law should go hand in hand with in-depth study of a foreign language with legal specialization. This is what we see in the development of teaching. foreign languages three corresponding departments of Moscow State Law Academy, which have achieved a lot in this direction in last years..

Given the particular importance of information support for teaching European law, attention should be paid to the synchronization of students' assimilation of modern information and telecommunication technologies. It is the mechanisms and methods of distance learning that should help to overcome the difficulties with teaching European law in remote cities of Russia.

Each of the ever-expanding list of branches of European law is an important modern addition, expanding our understanding of the state and prospects for the development of the relevant branches of national law. Therefore, penetrating the entire system of education, the “European component” simultaneously enriches and modernizes almost every subject studied in Russian law schools.

As a result, European Union Law contributes to the improvement of the structure, system and content of legal education in Russia.

It is better now, from the student's bench, to start a modern educational process than many years later to urgently create expensive programs and courses for the retraining of judges, prosecutors, teachers and practitioners.

In addition, of all the subjects of the undergraduate course, perhaps only international law and the constitutional law of foreign countries can be recognized as subjects corresponding to the disciplines studied in related foreign universities. All other subjects are branches of Russian law. The law of the European Union, firstly, is included in the curricula of foreign universities, as well as international law, and at the same time, which is especially important in the light of the transition to the Bologna system, is the subject most relevant to this system in its content. Indeed, in a more unified world, education and its content must become more and more unified. It facilitates the recognition of the equivalence of Russian higher education in the world.

If at the first steps of studying at a law school a student receives knowledge of the classical theory of the national state and national law, then a specialist in the field of law, by the end of his education, must acquire ideas adequate to the realities of both the new “supranational law” and its peculiar product - a supranational state-like formation - European Union. The development of theoretical problems of supranationality is one of the important tasks of the Russian scientific community.

This subject is important not only theoretically, but also practically. After all, more than half of the total volume of Russia's foreign trade is trade with the European Union.

In accordance with the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the Russian Federation and the European Union and its Member States, a number of areas of legal regulation in Russia must be brought into line with European legal norms. The draft of a new treaty currently being developed, designed to replace the PCA, involves expanding the spheres of legal interaction between Russia and greater Europe. Leading European scientists take an active part as experts in this no longer theoretical, but purely practical process.

This shows the growing connection between the science of European law in Russia and practice. The four road maps signed between the Russian Federation and the EU outline great prospects for expanding and deepening this process. The roadmap for the common space of science and education, including cultural aspects, is specifically dedicated to culture, education and science. Unfortunately, roadmaps are not a mandatory document. On their basis, it is necessary to develop specific legal mandatory documents with certain figures and stages and responsible persons and organizations.

It should be noted that certain provisions of the legal system of the European Union are studied within the framework of other legal disciplines: international law, constitutional law of foreign countries, theory of state and law, history of state and law of foreign countries. Material on key issues of European Union law is included in textbooks in these disciplines.

Another feature of the current stage of development of the science of European law is the interdisciplinary nature of research - work at the intersection of law is carried out not only by lawyers, but also by political scientists, economists, and sociologists. A striking example is the development of currency integration processes, carried out by Doctor of Economics, Professor Butorina O.V. She is the author (co-author) of several monographs and a large number of articles published in Russia and abroad on the introduction of the euro. Political and legal issues of European integration are explored by Borko Yu.A., Potemkina O.Yu., Arbatova N.K., Strezhneva M., Bordachev T.V. and etc.

An active role in the study of European integration processes is played by the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, and the Institute of Scientific Information in Social Sciences (INION) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. They organize seminars, conferences, publish collections on political, legal, economic problems of the European Union.

5. The main directions of scientific research in the field of European law at the present stage of its development

The entire array of works carried out at the present time, devoted to the law of the European Union, can be divided into 4 main groups: works on the general theory and branches of the law of the European Union; articles published in periodicals; dissertation research; presentations of specialists at scientific conferences and seminars.

In recent years, several new textbooks for students of law schools have appeared, published by the Department of European Union Law of the Moscow State Law Academy, edited by Professor S.Yu. These are, perhaps, the only fundamental textbooks for preparing law students.

However, textbooks on the law of the European Union (European law) appear, which, in a concise version, present the material for this course. As a rule, they are published by teachers of regional universities who give lectures on this discipline. The creation of such aids is to be welcomed. Students from remote cities of Russia can use them in preparation for classes in the conditions of the “deficit” of textbooks in the capital.

Unfortunately, the mentioned brochures often contain inaccuracies and errors. An example is Lecture 3 "The main institutions of the European Union" in the manual of Professor Ilyin Yu.D. In addition to the European Parliament, the Council (Council of Ministers), the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Communities, named in the lecture by the European Court, a description is given of the bodies that the author erroneously classifies as institutions - the Committee of Permanent Representatives, the Court of First Instance, the Economic and Social Committee ... At that At the same time, the Accounts Chamber (Court of Auditors) has not been given due attention, although it is an institution.

Since the mid-90s of the twentieth century, monographs have been published both on the general part of the law of the European Union, which examines the structure of the European Union, its system of sources, principles, competence, organizational mechanism, and on the special part. Among the works on the general part of EU law, one can note the works of Klemin A.V. - a scientist representing a group of European law researchers from Kazan. Among his works, we can note "The European Union and the participating states" (1996) and "European law and Germany: the balance of national and supranational" (2004). In them, the author explores the issues of the legal nature, the competence of the European Union, the relationship between EU law and national law. In 2000, a monograph by A.Ya. Kapustin - Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Head of the Department of International Law, "European Union: Integration and Law" . It explores the problems of the relationship between international law and the law of the European Union, characterizes the institutional system of the EU, the rule of law, the problems of the operation of Community law in the internal law of the Member States. In 2005, V.I. Lafitsky's monograph "Elections to the European Parliament" was published. It deals with the issues of legal regulation of elections to the European Parliament at two levels: EU law and legislation of the Member States of the European Union. The author explores the mechanisms for ensuring the electoral rights of EU citizens, the participation of political parties, the nomination of candidates, the financing of elections, the procedure for holding elections to the European Parliament.

The constitutional reform of the EU is one of the most vigorously discussed topics in scientific circles. Kashkin S.Yu., Chetverikov A.O., Kalinichenko P.A., Entin L.M., Entin M.L., Klemin A.V., Biryukov P.N. contribute to the development of this direction. and others. Researchers substantiate the need for the European Union to adopt a new constitutional (or based on it) act, predict the consequences of development if it is adopted for the Union itself and cooperation with Russia.

discussion theoretical questions the general part are questions about the legal nature of the European Union and the legal essence of the law of the European Union. This problem was raised by Soviet lawyers. There is no consensus among domestic researchers about the legal nature of European Union law. Many consider the law of the European Union to be an independent legal system, since it includes rules governing heterogeneous public relations, has its own principles and methods of legal regulation, different from international law. Supporters of this position are Academician Topornin B.N., Professor Kashkin S.Yu., Professor Entin L.M., Chetverikov A.O., Kalinichenko P.A., Tolstukhin A.E., Vitvtskaya O. and others.

Another group of scholars, mainly international lawyers (Professor K.A. Bekyashev, M.M. Biryukov and others), deny the existence of a third legal system (along with domestic and international). They believe that European Union law is part of international law. Biryukov M.M. in his monograph "The European Union, the European Constitution and International Law" (2006) seeks to substantiate this position. He bases his conclusions on the fact that there are no provisions in the founding agreements on the intention to create a separate legal system.

The third concept of understanding the law of the European Union combines the previous approaches of researchers. In this sense, European Union law combines both international law and Community law; it is complex and multifaceted. This point of view is supported by Kapustin A.Ya., Klemin A.V., Shelenkova N.B. and etc.

Recently, Russian researchers have increased interest in an in-depth study of specific branches of European Union law. Thus, Naku A.A., Zhamkochyan S.S. are studying the customs law of the EU, Kondratiev A.V., Shashikhina T.V., corporate law of the EU, Tolstopyatenko G.P., legal regulation of the economic and monetary union – Chegrinets E.A., Pashkovskaya I.G., banking law – Shelenkova N.B., Zakharov A.V., Vishnevsky A.A., Linnikov A.S., environmental law – Kalinichenko P.A., Ratsiborinskaya D.N., competition law - Korogod S.O., Zhupanov A.V., budget law - Kozlov E.Yu. An independent branch of research is the humanitarian law of the European Union (European human rights law). Entin M.L., Chetverikov A.O., Kalinichenko P.A., Kazinyan A.G., Tikhonovetsky D.S. are working in this direction. and others. Unfortunately, the total volume of monographs devoted to individual branches of the law of the European Union is relatively small.

Among the published works are the works of Vishnevsky A.A., dedicated to EU banking law (2000), Pashkovskaya I.G. on Economic and Monetary Integration (2003), Tolstopyatenko G.P. on European tax law (2001), Shelenkova N.B. on European financial law (2003), Dubovitskaya E. on European corporate law (2004) . Basically, these are the results of dissertation research.

A separate area is the study of the legal regulation of relations between the European Union and the Russian Federation. This topic is being developed by Entin M.L. , Kashkin S.Yu., Borko Yu.A., Kalinichenko P.A., Parkhalina T.G., Karzhavina N., Slugin A.A. and others. The widest range of research is presented here: economic, cultural cooperation, the development of relations in the law enforcement and foreign policy spheres, development prospects in connection with the EU enlargement, etc. Big interest Researchers are motivated by the need to conclude a new agreement between the Russian Federation and the EU, the desire to ensure legal regulation in the common economic space, and facilitate the visa regime.

Behind last period increased the volume of journal articles. Regularly publishes papers on topical issues law of the European Union (European law) magazines "Moscow Journal of International Law", "International public and private law", "Modern Europe", "Europe" and others. Here, both recognized luminaries of European law and young, novice researchers realize their creative ideas.

An independent group of works consists of dissertation research on the law of the European Union (European law). Since the second half of the 1990s, interest in this scientific discipline has grown markedly. The statistics speak volumes about this. Thus, during the period from 1995 to 2007, at least 80 dissertations were defended for the degree of candidate of legal sciences on various aspects of European Union law. Of these, for the period from 1995 to 1999 - at least 14 theses, from 2000 to 2003 - at least 20 theses, from 2004 to 2008 - about 50 theses.

The range of scientific research topics is expanding more and more. There are works on the general part of EU law: problems of the legal nature of the EU (Tolstukhin A.E.), sources of law (Glotova S.V., Rassmagina A.Z., Karbuzova B.K.-K.), competence (Zhbankov V. A.), the status of EU institutions and bodies (Chetverikov A.O., Erokhov S.V., Zaitsev A.Yu., Andrienko A.P., Tikhonovetsky D.S., Zelenov R.Yu., Chegrinets E.A. ., Beshkarev V.V., Krivova M.V.), principles of EU law (Anisimova N.V.), suffrage (Stepanyan A.Zh.), interaction between the European Union and Member States (Mansurova Zh.T., Ershov S.V., Galushko D.V., Paveleva E.A.) and others.

In a special part, the problems of sectoral EU legislation are studied: environmental law (Kalinichenko P.A.), civil law (Abdullin A.I., Dorofeev D.D., Kuleshov V.V., Kondratiev A.V.), criminal law ( Lagovskaya E.S.), customs law (Naku A.A.), Zhamkochyan S.S., humanitarian law (Novikova N.S., Kuznetsova S.N., Tretyakova A.A., Slavkina N.A.) , labor law (Kashkin Yu.S.), banking law (Linnikov A.S.) tax law (Dziova Yu.A.), freedom of movement of citizens (Baev A.V.), various aspects of relations between Russia and the European Union (Kovalkova E .Yu., Artamonova O.F.) and others.

From 2001 to 2006, at least 7 dissertations were defended for the degree of Doctor of Law. The authors of the research are Kapustin A.Ya. , Tolstopyatenko G.P. , Biryukov M.M. , Vylegzhanina E.E. , Shelenkova N.B. , Abdullin A.I.

It is no coincidence that in 2000 there was a change in the name of the scientific specialty 12.00.10 “International Law. European Law". The autonomy of European law as scientific direction has been officially recognized.

It should be noted that the legal problems of the European Union (European law) are the object of research and non-legal specialties. Since the economic components of the European Union are the common market, the economic and monetary union, the spheres of economic policies, it is impossible to imagine the study of these issues without a legal aspect. From 2000 to 2006, at least 37 dissertations were defended for the degree of candidate of economic sciences on the problems of the common market, monetary integration, that is, on issues directly related to the law of the European Union.

Political, historical, social and even linguistic features of the European Union are also being studied. So, for example, Dementieva T.M. in 1999 she defended her thesis for the degree of candidate of philological sciences on the topic "Peculiarities of the formation of the terminological vocabulary of the law of the European Union." Thus, one can speak of an increasingly complex nature of research into the problems of European integration.

Another group of works are the presentations of specialists at scientific conferences and seminars held on the basis of the largest universities in the country and abroad. At present, scientific conferences with international status are held annually in Russian cities, dedicated to various aspects of European Union law, relations between the European Union and Russia. The first "swallow" can be considered the conference "40 years of the Treaties of Rome: European integration and Russia”, held in 1997 on the basis of St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of International Relations. The conference was organized by the Delegation of the European Union in Moscow and Russian Association European studies. The conference brought together a wide range of participants - political scientists, economists, historians, lawyers from Russia and almost all countries of the European Union, who for several days discussed various aspects of European integration, problems of relations between Russia and the European Union.

Conclusion

Thus, we examined the main stages in the formation and development of the science of European law (the law of the European Union) in Russia.

The period of the 1950s-1970s can be considered the initial period, when the first literature on the problems of Western European integration appeared. Strong ideological pressure on scientists does not allow us to talk about ongoing research, but, as we have seen, attempts were made to escape from the yoke of ideology.

At the second stage, from the second half of the 1970s to the first half of the 1980s, the first scientific research appeared. It was during this period that modern leading experts in European law published their first scientific works, and scientific discussions appeared.

The modern, third stage of the study of European Union law by Russian scientists is dynamic and bright. At present, this complex legal discipline occupies one of the important directions in the development of legal science. Perhaps, over time, it will turn into an independent legal science and finally separate itself from the science of international law. To do this, a number of problems must be overcome. First of all, it is necessary to recognize the law of the European Union as an independent legal system that exists along with the domestic and international systems. Further, it is necessary to decide on the subject of research: whether to narrow the work to studying only the legal system of the European Union or expand it to the entire array of norms that exist in the territory of integrated Europe. We hope that these contradictions, which are natural for a new and extremely dynamic area of ​​Russian legal science, will be successfully overcome.

Suslin P. Anniversary of the "single market" of coal and steel // Novoye Vremya, 1954. No. 9, p.8. Cheprakov V. "Common market" - a tool to increase oppression and aggression. 1962. No. 8, p.22. Borko Yu.A. Evolution of Views on European Integration in the USSR and Russia: Political and Scientific Approaches / Forty Years of the Treaties of Rome: European Integration and Russia - St. Petersburg, 1998.

See textbooks: International Law / ed. G.I. Tunkina - M., 1974, 1982; Lisovsky V.I. International law - M., 1970; International law / otv. ed. L.A.Modzhoryan, N.T.Blatova - M., 1970, 1979.

Yumashev Yu.M. Legal status of mixed companies in the countries of the European Economic Community. Abstract. - M., 1973.

Muravyov V.I. International legal regulation in the system of European communities: Abstract of the thesis. dis…. Ph.D. / Kievsk. Univ. - Kyiv, 1980. - 20 p.

Biryukov M.M. International legal aspects of associate membership in the European Economic Community: Abstract of the thesis. dis. ... Ph.D. / Diplomat. Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. - M. 1981. - 22 p.

Shapovalov N.I. Legal issues of the politicization of the EEC at the present stage: Abstract of the thesis. dis. … Ph.D. / Diplomat academy. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. - M., 1983. - 18 p.

Zimenkova O.N. Legal regulation of the fight against unfair competition in the EEC and in the countries - members of the community: Abstract of the thesis. Dis. .. Ph.D. / MGIMO. - M, 1984. - 24 p.

Maksimova M. European Economic Community: from the "six" to the "nine" // International Yearbook: Politics and Economics. Issue 1973 - M., 1973. - p. 156-164.

Yumashev Yu.M. "Small Europe": interstate or supranational community // СГП. 1975. No. 11, pp. 90-94.

Kuzina Z.I. European Economic Community and Africa - M.: Nauka, 1976. - 120 p.

Shishkov Yu.V. "Common market": hopes and reality - M.: Thought. 1972, 254 p.

See Olteana O.M. The European Economic Community is a subject of international law of a special kind // VMU. Series 11. Right. 1982. No. 1, p.19-25, Olteanu O.M. International contractual capacity of the European Economic Community // VMU. Series 11. Right. 1983. No. 1, p. 54-61, Olteanu O.M. Characteristic features of the law of the European Economic Community // VMU. Series 11. Right. 1985. No. 2, pp. 37-45.

European Law: Textbook for High Schools / ed. prof. L.M. Entina. - M .: Publishing house NORMA - INFRA-M, 2000.

Law of the European Union: legal regulation of trade turnover: Textbook / Edited by V.V. Bezbakh, A.Ya. Kapustin, V.K. Puchinsky - M., 1999.

Constitution of the European Union: Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe (with commentary). Per. A.O. Chetverikova. Rep. ed. S.Yu.Kashkin - M.: INFRA-M, 2005. - 622 p.

Jewish Union: Founding Acts of the European Union as amended Lisbon Treaty with comments. Per. A.O. Chetverikova. Rep. ed. S.Yu.Kashkin - M .: INFRA-M, 2008. - 698 p.

See Economic and monetary union of the EU in the world. Theory and practice. - M., 2001., The European Union on the threshold of the XX century: the choice of development strategy / ed. Borko Yu.A., Butorina O.V. - M., 2001. European Union. Handbook-guide / ed. Butorina O.V., Borko Yu.A., Ivanova I.D. - M., 2003.

See Bordachev T.V. Russia and the crisis of development in the European Union // Modern Europe, No. 1 (25), March 2006, Russia and the European Union: the problem of Europeanization // Modern Europe, No. 4, December 2006.

See, for example, European Union at the turn of the century / RAS. INION - M., 2000. - 296; Europe on the Threshold of the 21st Century: Renaissance or Decline? / chief ed. T.G. Parkhalina. - M., INION RAN, 1998. - 242 p.

Introduction to the law of the European Union. Textbook / Ed. Doctor of Law, Prof. Kashkina S.Yu. - M.: Eksmo Publishing House, 2005. - 368 p., Kashkin S.Yu. Kalinichenko P.A., Chetverikov A.O. Introduction to the law of the European Union. Textbook / ed. Doctor of Law, Prof. Kashkina S.Yu. - M.: Eksmo Publishing House, 2008. -384 p.; Law of the European Union. Textbook for universities / Ed. Kashkina S.Yu. - M.: Jurist, 2008. - 1054 p.

European law. European Union law and legal support for the protection of human rights / ed. prof. L.M. Entin - M .: Norma, 2007.

Kapustin A.Ya. International legal problems of the nature and operation of the law of the European Union: Dis. … Dr. jurid. Sciences: 12.00.10 - M., 2001.

Tolstopyatenko G.P. European tax law. Problems of theory and practice: Dis. … Dr. jurid. Sciences: 12.00.14 - M., 2001.

Biryukov M.M. Modern development European Union: international legal approach: Dis. … Dr. jurid. Sciences: 12.00.10 - M., 2004.

Vylegzhanina E.E. The main trends in the development of the environmental law of the European Union: Dis. … Dr. jurid. Sciences: 12.00.10 - M., 2005.

Shelenkova N.B. Modern legal problems of European integration: Dis. … Dr. jurid. Sciences: 12.00.10 - M., 2005.

Abdullin A.I. Intellectual property law in the European Union: genesis, unification, development prospects: Dis. … Dr. jurid. Sciences: 12.00.03, 12.00.10: - M., 2006.

Order of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation dated March 4, 2000 No. 1 "On the nomenclature of specialties of scientific workers"

See Conference Proceedings in the collection: Forty Years of the Treaties of Rome: European Integration and Russia - St. Petersburg, 1998.

ESSAY

on the topic: "The main trends in the development of European law"

Introduction

2. Law of the Council of Europe

3. European legal space

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Law has played an outstanding role in the formation and development of European civilization. The history of European law is the history of legal institutions, norms and ideas that have spread in such a region of the world as Europe.

“Europe,” notes the Swedish lawyer E. Anners, “is geographically a small piece of land in the vast Eurasian territory. But lawmaking on this limited piece of land has had a significant impact on the motivation for the creation of legal norms, on their form and content almost all over the world. As a rule, this influence was decisive for each country. Behind this process of civilizational development lie the millennial efforts of people who developed laws in the offices, courtrooms and in the working rooms of scientists.

The historical path of European law can be traced not from the Greco-Roman era, as is usually accepted, but from a more distant time, from the moment when a primitive casuistic model of generic (primitive) law began to appear in the archaic pre-state structures of European and non-European tribes, which subsequently changed, improved and gradually transformed into a modern model - a synthetic legal system, partly based on the experience of pre-state legal communication, but most of all on a constantly evolving practice.

In the Middle Ages, the foundation of the European legal order was laid, prepared by late antique Roman law, the philosophy and education system of Greek policies. Due to the development of legal technique, law during this period became a much more precise instrument of management through legislation and control of legal practice.

In the late Middle Ages, conditions were created for a more efficient organization of the division of labor and joint work than before; thus, in the field of public order, the prerequisites were formed for promoting natural scientific and technological progress at the beginning of the New Age.

European law - a new legal phenomenon - arose in the second half of the 20th century. The concept of "European law" covers the law of all European organizations, including the Council of Europe (1949), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Western European Union, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ( OSCE) and others. The central place in European law is occupied by the law of three European communities - the European Coal and Steel Community (1951), the European Economic Community (1957) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euroatom) (1957). An important stage in the development of European law was the transformation of the three European Communities into the European Union (EU) (1992), which underwent a major reform in 1997.

European law refers to the law of the European Union, arising from the Paris 1951, Rome 1957, Brussels 1965, as well as the Maastricht 1992 and Amsterdam 1997 treaties and acquiring an increasingly clear structure as the legal and political evolution of the EU . This is a very special law, which simultaneously has the features of supranational law and domestic law, and which is applied in all EU countries. It differs from classical international law because it forms an autonomous international legal regime integrated into the law of the EU member states, as a result of which this law is directly applied by political leaders and the judiciary of these states. Sometimes European law is regarded as essentially federal law.

The norms of European law represent an extensive legal complex, the enrichment and development of which does not stop for a single day. European law, as a set of certain legal norms, has also become a special legal discipline, which has its main and secondary divisions, its own characteristics, and its specialists.

European law includes two large parts, namely institutional law and substantive (substantial) law.

Institutional European law. It is mainly about the problems of political, administrative and legal organization. These are, firstly, the norms concerning the status, functions and powers of various bodies and institutions of the EU. These bodies are primarily political bodies: the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission. These are also advisory institutions of a political or administrative nature and judicial and supervisory authorities, namely the Court of First Instance, the Court of Justice and the Chamber of Accounts.

Secondly, institutional law includes rules concerning the sources of law in the hierarchy of legal acts within the EU: treaties and agreements, regulations, directives and decisions. It also includes rules governing the combination of the EU legal regime with the domestic legal regimes of EU member states.

Substantive European law. It, as the name implies, includes the essential norms of European law, i.e. norms governing the behavior and activities of individuals and groups in various areas within the scope of the European treaties. Thus, we are talking about a set of norms constituting economic law, the purpose of which is the formation of a single internal market in the entire common territory of the EU member countries with the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital.

Considered as a whole, substantive European law establishes: 1) the rules that determine the regime of economic freedoms that apply to various participants in the economic life of the EU: a specific organization of the free movement of individuals and property, a ban on discrimination between EU member states, a ban on types of actions, contrary to the principles of healthy competition, etc.; 2) principles and norms for the implementation of common economic measures and activities in the EU member states.

Substantive European law is connected with the study of the norms in force in the EU, which affect various legal disciplines that fall within the competence of the EU and are integrated with the internal law of the EU countries. In this way, specialized sections of European law gradually formed: European commercial law, European tax law, European social law, as well as agricultural law, banking law, transport law, etc.

Substantive European law is a substantive, effective, daily applied, but sometimes difficult and long-term law of the future united Europe.

2. Law of the Council of Europe

The Council of Europe was established in 1949 by ten Western European states. At present, the vast majority of European countries, or rather 40 states, are members of this organization.

The main goal of the Council of Europe, to which it has been striving for all these decades, is the creation of a single European community based on freedom, democracy, recognition of human rights and the rule of law. The activity of the Council of Europe is aimed at the harmonization of policies and the adoption of common norms in the member states, as well as the development of a common law enforcement practice. To this end, it brings together parliamentarians, ministers, government experts, representatives of local and regional authorities, legal associations and international non-governmental organizations at various levels, who can thus combine their knowledge and experience.

The tasks of the Council of Europe are carried out in the following main areas:

strengthening the guarantees of the rights and freedoms of the individual and the creation of effective systems of control over their protection;

identification of new threats of violation of the rights and freedoms of the individual and the humiliation of human dignity;

raising public awareness of the importance of human rights;

encouragement of the study of human rights in schools, higher education institutions and among professional groups (lawyers, police officers, prison staff, etc.).

The activities of the Council of Europe cover a wide range of issues, among which are the following.

Human rights: expansion and strengthening of the guarantees provided for in the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950, improvement of the list of rights contained in it, acceleration of judicial procedures.

Crime Fighting: Strengthening legal framework international legal cooperation, improvement of national legislation and law enforcement practice.

Mass media and communications: protection of freedom of speech and information, as well as the expansion of their scope.

Social issues: defining guidelines aimed at achieving greater social justice in Europe and protecting the most vulnerable segments of the population.

Health care: adoption of common norms for health care.

Environment: work on environmental protection and organization of public information campaigns.

Local and Regional Governance: Strengthening Democratic Processes and Organizing Cooperation.

Legal issues: modernization and harmonization of national legislations, taking into account international norms and standards.

The Council of Europe should be distinguished from the body of the European Union - the European Council. The Council of Europe, established in 1949 and based in Strasbourg, is committed to strengthening political, social, legal and cultural cooperation and protecting human values ​​in Europe. Its Parliamentary Assembly is made up of members of the national parliaments. European Union has main goal achieving economic and political integration. It has 15 member states that are also members of the Council of Europe. The Assembly of the European Union is the European Parliament.

More than 170 European conventions form the legal foundation for the member states of the Council of Europe. The range of issues regulated in them, including in the field of combating crime and ensuring public safety, is wide and multifaceted: protecting the rights of victims of violent crimes, preventing torture and other types of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, combating drug trafficking, money laundering from criminal activity, etc.

Fundamental, conceptual and large-scale in terms of its goals, objectives and content legal act Council of Europe is the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950), which enshrines the inalienable rights and freedoms of a person, obliging states to guarantee them to everyone who is under the jurisdiction of these states, and contains a mechanism for the international protection of human rights. In the event of a violation of the provisions of the Convention, a State or an individual may file a complaint with the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights. The European Commission on Human Rights for the entire period of its activity, i.e. since 1954, registered and processed about 30,000 individual complaints. Since its founding in 1959, the European Court of Human Rights has delivered some 630 judgments. Over the past few years, there has been a steady increase in the number of cases submitted to these human rights institutions in Strasbourg.

As a result of the case law of the European Commission and the European Court of Justice, the norms of the Convention itself have been further developed, which in turn in many cases has led to changes in national legislation and judicial practice. In order to improve the effectiveness of human rights protection, this Convention is constantly supplemented and amended by protocols in the direction of both expanding the guaranteed rights and improving existing procedures.

A feature of the 1987 European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is that no reservations are allowed under the text of the Convention. This Convention has established a Committee composed of independent and impartial experts who are authorized to visit any place of deprivation of liberty. As a result of such visits, the Committee transmits a confidential report to the State concerned. If a state party to the Convention does not take into account the recommendations of the Committee, it may make an open statement on this matter.

This and other European conventions have a pronounced goal of unifying national laws, improving the efficiency of law enforcement and justice agencies by simplifying and speeding up legal proceedings.

The international legal norms of the Council of Europe and the norms of law of the member states of the Council of Europe are interconnected and interdependent. The relationship of these legal norms is characterized by the fact that the law of the Council of Europe and national law complement and mutually enrich each other. National law is the main source of Council of Europe conventions. They enshrine the best that has been achieved by national legal systems and tested by states in practice, based on the universal ideas of democracy, humanism, protection of the rights and freedoms of the individual developed by the entire course of the development of world civilization. In turn, the legislation of the member states of the Council of Europe is built taking into account both legally binding and recommendatory acts of the Council of Europe.

The interrelation of national legal orders and the legal order of the Council of Europe is also manifested through the procedures for the protection of human rights and freedoms, which are put into effect first in national legal systems and can be completed in the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court. The substantiation of the complaint and the legitimacy of its consideration in the European human rights mechanisms is determined exclusively by the law of the Council of Europe.

3. The concept of European legal spaces but

The path to the concept of a European legal space was not easy: it seemed difficult not only and not so much this concept itself, but the complex problems of relations between various states behind it, the elimination of the consequences of the Cold War, and the de-ideologization of interstate relations.

It would be an exaggeration to fully attribute the birth of the concept of a European legal space to the new legal thinking. A look at the unified and interconnected world around us through the prism of man, his needs and interests goes back to the origins of world, in particular European, civilization.

Of course, today's understanding of the concept of the European legal space has more specific origins. The modern understanding of the European legal space has arisen on the basis of the problem of human rights. If until the middle of the XX century. argued that everything related to human rights is exclusively the internal competence of each state, now it is universally recognized that the degree of observance and respect for human rights determines the degree of trust in the state in the international arena.

The concept of "European legal space" as a legal aspect of the pan-European process was born in Helsinki at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).

The idea of ​​a European legal space, according to the French professor M. Lesage, opens the way to the third stage of West-East relations in Europe in the field of human rights.

If the first stage began immediately after the Second World War with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, then the second - with the Helsinki Final Act. The signatory states, recognizing the difference in ideologies, agreed, firstly, to accept the obligations that each carries out in his own system; secondly, to report to each other on the observance or non-observance of human rights in their country. The third, modern stage is designed to logically reveal a common platform that is equally interpreted in all European states.

The concept of "European legal space" contains all the positive things that have been achieved in the relations between European states in the field of human rights and various legal forms of their cooperation. At the same time, it implies their further development not only with the help of international law, but also through the corresponding evolution of European national legal systems.

The formation of the European legal space does not mean the emergence of some kind of supranational European law. We are talking about the development of various forms of interaction between the national states of Europe, the convergence of their legislative norms, the search for modern solutions to specific general legal problems. At the same time, the work is not limited to the issue of human rights, but goes far beyond it. Currently, there are already areas of legal regulation in which the convergence of the laws of various European states belonging to different systems is an urgent need. These are the regulation of joint-stock companies, joint ventures, technology transfer, free enterprise zones, etc.

The idea of ​​Europe as a single legal space is designed for a long historical perspective. The remaining differences in the socio-political structure, legal systems and cultural and historical traditions limit the possibilities for cooperation between the OSCE participating States in the field of legal relations. But at the same time, the further development of the pan-European process involves the development and codification of pan-European legal norms, the growth of the infrastructure of treaties, agreements, conventions, various organizational pan-European structures that regulate relations between the OSCE participating countries in various spheres of political, economic, humanitarian life. This determines the relevance of the idea of ​​a European legal space for comparative law.

Considering that almost all areas of relations between the OSCE participating countries are objects of legal regulation, it is legitimate to apply the concept of “European legal space” not only within the framework of the Convention on the Human Dimension, but also to the entire complex of relations between East and West.

The common legal space is a regional legal system that unites the national legal systems of the European countries and the United States and Canada participating in the pan-European process and provides the legal foundations for the “common European home”. The concept of "European legal space" includes all legal guidelines aimed at mutual understanding and cooperation that have developed earlier, in particular in connection with the Helsinki Final Act (organization of relations between states exclusively on a legal basis, respect for international law and recognition of its principles and norms in the domestic legislation, etc.). But it is broader and includes a new moment, namely the development of national legal systems in order to provide the necessary prerequisites for a pan-European legal community, without which the slogan "Europe is our common home" does not make sense. “This is not a general right of a supranational nature, but the search and creation of a certain legal minimum in states that ensures their normal interaction within the framework of a pan-European process. Here they can be accused of convergence. But, firstly, this is not quite convergence, and secondly, one should not be afraid of this.If earlier, when speaking about cooperation and rapprochement of states, the emphasis was mainly on international law and its development, now we should add national legal development towards legal statehood to this.

The European Legal Space Convention assumes that the states of Europe should act as legal states where the state mechanism functions on the basis of the rule of law, the principle of legality, where legal relations between the state and the citizen are guaranteed, legal stability and security of the individual are ensured. The current stage of the formation of the European legal space involves the convergence, but not complete unification of the legal norms of various states. Even in those areas in which the convergence of the legal norms of various states has already taken place (environment), there is a need to create more advanced legal mechanisms. To ensure the convergence of the law of European states, it is necessary to develop conceptual apparatus organizational and legal space. At the same time, structures and mechanisms should be defined to ensure the transition from confrontation to cooperation.

Legal scholars identify several levels of analysis of the European legal space: the legal family, the rule of law, cooperation within international organizations, cooperation between international organizations themselves.

The main directions for creating the foundations of the European legal space are: firstly, international law and its progressive development; secondly, the corresponding evolution of domestic legislation, judicial practice, etc.; thirdly, a comparative study of legal systems as a way to identify common and resolvable differences between them, i.e. foreign legislation, parliamentary, administrative, judicial structures of other states.

It is no coincidence that the concept of "European legal space" is ahead of the concept of "European economic space". Legal systems closer friend to a friend than economic ones. Here the relative independence of the legal form, the great variability and adaptability of law affect.

The movement towards a European legal space is a long process of gradual convergence and mutual adaptation of the legislation and legal norms of the OSCE states, primarily those norms that regulate the development of cooperation and exchanges between states and peoples or are otherwise related to it. Such a process should lead to overcoming conflicts in the legislation of various countries, to the elimination of remaining regulatory and administrative-technical obstacles in various areas of cooperation and exchanges.

It seems that in determining the general parameters and specific ways of implementing the concept of the European legal space, it would be useful to carefully study the existing experience of legal integration within the Council of Europe and the European Union. It is quite possible that in many cases the very need to invent some new norms will disappear, if they already exist, “work” and have justified themselves in practice.

Within the framework of the Helsinki process, a certain variant of harmonizing the internal legislation of states by bringing it into line with the agreed pan-European standards in the field of human rights and humanitarian cooperation has already taken shape. The advantages of this path are also obvious. Without imposing specific norms on states, without replacing internal norms and institutions with international ones, without encroaching on the originality of legal systems (differences between which remain, in particular between the Anglo-Saxon and Romano-Germanic legal families), he defines the legal minimum standards of democracy, below which states should not omitted in their national legislation. The idea of ​​a common European legal space can make this process, which has actually already begun, more consistent and purposeful.

Comparative law plays an important role in solving three problems within the framework of the concept of the European legal space.

The first is the development of criteria for the rule of law, which is possible primarily through comparative analysis the experience of European countries, the establishment of legal standards that make it possible to distinguish the rule of law from the non-legal.

The second problem is the further improvement and concretization of common European standards in the field of human rights.

In the course of the Helsinki process, not individual rights should be considered, but the whole complex of rights - civil, political, social, economic, cultural.

In the final section of the Vienna Concluding Document “The Human Dimension of the OSCE”, a mechanism has been created that allows developing cooperation between states in the field of human rights. It's called the Vienna mechanism. The point is that states will exchange information related to the observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, to contacts between people and to other problems of a humanitarian nature. Based on the Vienna agreement, it was decided to hold three meetings of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the OSCE: the first of them was held in May-June 1989 in Paris, the second was held in June 1990 in Copenhagen, and the third in autumn 1991 in Moscow .

Finally, the third problem is the improvement of the mechanism of cooperation in matters relating to the human dimension. In our opinion, in the future this control mechanism will play an increasing role as an additional international remedy for the legal protection of a person, not replacing national remedies, but to a certain extent controlling them and mobilizing them for more precise work.

In accordance with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950, the 40 member states of the Council of Europe are obliged to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms within their jurisdiction. This Convention is not aimed at replacing national systems of human rights protection, but at the implementation of international guarantees in addition to those established in national legal systems, which is manifested primarily in the incorporation of the provisions of the Convention into domestic legal norms. But the implementation was carried out differently in different states. In some countries, domestic legislation has been changed to bring it into line with the provisions of the Convention; in others, the norms of the Convention have been incorporated into national legislation, as a result of which every citizen has the opportunity to submit a complaint or claim to a national judicial or administrative body, directly based on the provisions of this international contracts. Where the Convention has not been expressly incorporated, national law should not conflict with it.

In connection with the development of the concept of a single European legal space, the following relevant areas of research can be mentioned:

a comparative study of the features and trends in the development of the main legal systems of Europe - the family of Romano-Germanic law, the family of common law, the family of Scandinavian law, the family of socialist law;

development of the European trend of the rule of law as the main element of the European legal space, highlighting its main features, characteristic features and criteria (for example, legal stability, political liberalism, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, renunciation of force and threats to use force in external relations, legal ways to resolve emerging disputes, etc.);

study of the legal activities of European international organizations and their role in creating the system of the European legal space;

study of legal relations and legal cooperation between European international organizations as one of the levels of the European legal space;

study of the legal aspects of the pan-European process in order to develop its stable organizational and legal foundations: political institutions, permanent bodies and institutions of the OSCE.

Conclusion

Further development European legal space can, apparently, take place at two levels - pan-European and national. At the pan-European level, filling the idea of ​​a single legal space with real content obviously implies both the formation of new political and legal structures and the giving of a pan-European character to existing regional organizations and international legal agreements, and at the national level, bringing domestic legislation into line with international ones, in including with pan-European, norms and obligations. This will eliminate the existing discrepancies in legal norms in the OSCE participating countries, which hinder the development of political interaction between them, economic relations, and humanitarian cooperation.

In removing barriers to economic cooperation, it is important to create a solid legal basis for economic relations between European states. Here, the following are brought to the fore: the creation of uniform legal conditions for the activities of joint ventures; development of agreements regulating foreign investment, the legal regime of the capital investor, the transfer and protection of technology provided to foreign investors as a contribution to joint ventures, the operation of free economic zones; development of joint stock law.

The idea of ​​a single legal space also implies the creation of a legal basis for a European regional system of environmental security. Among the specific priority measures to create such a system are the development and adoption of a system of common European environmental standards, the introduction of elements of international control over the state of its main elements and sanctions for the systematic violation of its standards.

The concept of the European legal space has a decisive influence on internal processes and creates additional incentives for further democratization. This Feedback manifests itself in the work to bring national legislation in line with international obligations, including the Vienna agreements. In this regard, comparative law is called upon to become a kind of linking mechanism that would register both what has already been done and what has yet to be reflected in domestic legislation.

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