The first volume of the international scientific and practical journal “Law and Digital Economy” for 2021 was released.
The first article of the volume is the article entitled “Criminal liability of legal entities and the digital economy” by A.V. Fedorov. The article notes that the development of market relations and the digital economy will inevitably lead to the establishment of corporate criminal liability in the Russian Federation, which is already a party to a number of international treaties providing for the establishment of criminal liability of legal entities. The lack of criminal liability of legal entities in the Russian Federation is a gap in positive law. This gap is obvious from the position of the doctrine of legal personality as the ability of a person (be it an individual or a legal entity) to have and exercise rights and obligations, i.e. act as the subject of legal relations, including legal responsibility. The authors come to the conclusion that the study of foreign legislation and the practice of its application is significant for the development of the Russian theory of corporate criminal liability and the preparation of appropriate amendments to the legislation, including, inter alia, criminal liability of legal entities for crimes in the digital economy.
Article written by Zhavoronkova N.G. and Shpakovsky Yu.G. is devoted to the legal regulation of ensuring the safety of the functioning of the fuel and energy complex of Russia in the digital economy. The authors emphasize that the objects of the fuel and energy complex for cyberattacks are priority for many reasons: from the economic and defense significance of the fuel and energy complex to import dependence, especially in terms of technologies, software products, information systems of the complex, which, if necessary, makes it possible to carry out information and technological impact, to implement any false control processes. The article summarizes and analyzes the fundamental positions of protecting fuel and energy facilities from cyber threats in the context of digital transformation, the introduction of modern digital technologies into the management process. It is shown that in matters of security, regulatory activity is primarily aimed at eliminating terrorist threats of physical destruction (damage) of fuel and energy facilities. The authors propose to operate with the concept of “digital security” in the analysis and assessment of cyber threats in the fuel and energy complex.
The topic of the article by L.V. Chkhutiashvili – trends in the development of higher education in the digital economy. The article analyzes the main directions of the development of higher education in the digital economy, when the creation of a single electronic space for Russian education is due to the need to establish a fundamentally new system of lifelong education, which presupposes the individualization of demand and opportunities. According to the author`s point of view, it is necessary to constantly look for new approaches to the organization of training and the formats of its monetization, to improve technologies, to form a regulatory framework for online education, to create new models and online learning technologies that make educational activities rational and productive to meet the constantly growing technological competencies of students and applicants.
An innovative topic for the research was proposed by E.A. Shelepina. The article “Trends of legal regulation of electronic document flow in national civil law” presents a classification of legislative acts regulating the use of electronic documents in civil relations, analyzes the ratio of national and international regulations, as well as national acts in the process of establishing legislation on electronic document circulation. The author defines the principles of regulation of electronic document circulation in the Russian Federation both at the initial stage of its development and at the present time, notes the tendencies towards the unification of national and international law, towards the dispositive regulation of key institutions and towards the expansion of special legal regulation.
The article by O.A. Gorodov is dedicated to the issue of digital law as a subbranch of information law, which, to the author`s mind, must be considered as one of the possible forms of a cyclical legal array, or, in other words, its special case. Digital law as a sub-branch of information law should be distinguished from digital law as an object of civil rights and digital law as a subjective right, the concepts of which have been enshrined in the actual Russian civil legislation. The analysis made it possible to identify individual inaccuracies and gaps in the current Russian legislation. Based on the results of the study, conclusions were formulated that can be used to improve the current legislation and applied in legal practice.
The volume ends with an article by P.V. Troshchinsky’s “Digital China before and during the coronavirus period: specifics of normative legal regulation”, which focuses on the use of digital technologies in the People’s Republic of China and the features of their legal regulation in the period before and after the onset of the pandemic. China’s experience in regulating the digital sphere is extremely important and relevant for Russian legal science. China has shown great progress in the development and adoption of digital technologies, but the regulation is not sufficiently developed. According to the author, this approach is seen as a direct intention of the Chinese authorities, because the weakness of the legislation allows the party and government to use technology without regard to possible violations of the rights of citizens.