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At present moment many ideas on improvement of the activities of mechanisms of universal human rights system are put forward. The creation of the world court of human rights is regarded as one of the most ambitious among these ideas. It is supposed that the establishment of this judicial body would solve difficulties facing this system, including its main component - human rights treaty body system. However, it seems that this suggestion should be taken carefully, since it is crucial to avoid decrease in the effectiveness of the work of the universal human rights system in the result of the changes that would be brought to its activities by the creation of world court of human rights. In this respect in frames of this article the author analyses the proposal of creation of world court of human rights in order to determine its advantages and disadvantages in terms of its capability to enhance effectiveness of functioning of universal human rights system, including human rights treaty bodies. The author identifies key stages in the history of formation of this idea, paying special attention to its development in the context of the process of strengthening the human rights treaty body system as well as determines and critically analyses the main arguments justifying the necessity and effectiveness of creation of world court of human rights. On the basis of the analysis, the author, using arguments of conceptual and practical character, justifies the futility of this initiative at present stage of development of universal human rights system. Considering that the non-amendment of the legal foundations of the functioning of the human rights treaty bodies constitutes the basic requirement of the ongoing treaty body strengthening process, a more effective, than the creation of world court of human rights, mechanism of improving the human rights treaty body system is proposed. This mechanism provides the adoption of measures targeted at strengthening the procedures of the human rights treaty bodies, improving the quality of their recommendations in terms of argumentation and legal clarity. Such an approach is more flexible and has chances to get more support on the side of the treaty bodies themselves, who consider the issues of their competence being most sensitive, as well as on the side of the States Parties.

In 2015 the term for the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), set forth in the 2000 United Nations Millennium Declaration, has expired. In certain aspects some of these goals have been achieved. In September 2015 the international community has adopted the new Agenda for Sustainable Development for the period of 2016-2030 - «Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development», which determines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets, reaffirms the obligations in relation to global partnership for sustainable development and sets out the basic principles of accountability for the implementation of these goals. In frames of this research the authors make an attempt to critically analyze the SDGs and their targets with the aim of identifying the problematic aspects of their implementation in the area of human rights protection, environmental protection, disaster risk reduction and regulation of migration, as well as propose relevant solutions. Carried out the idea that at the current stage it is important in worldwide efforts to implement the SDGs to pay more attention to the mechanisms of control over the achievement of the objectives. In this sense, a significant contribution can make a compliance review at the level of inter-regional, regional and subregional organizations that provide diversified, reliable and proven tools to measure progress in achieving the SDGs. In the article it is concluded that it is necessary to develop and sign the relevant agreements between the regional and subregional entities, to create a working group to coordinate in order to identify the most problematic areas and determine the forms of cooperation, to develop a «roadmap» for further cooperation of the universal, inter-regional, regional and subregional mechanisms in SDGs field achievements.

The article is devoted to the most acute problem of the modern world - the revision of the traditional fundamental values that are the basis for the existence of all humanity. Currently in many Western countries have adopted national laws on the «gay marriage», is legalized the right of adoption of children by same-sex couples , is under discussion decriminalization of incest and pedophilia. Despite the fact that same-sex relationships, as well as other «non-traditional relationship», are known since time immemorial, until the XX century, no one tried to equate them with the traditional family relationships, presenting them as the same norm. Moreover, in most of the countries that legalized same-sex relationships, these type of relationships is shown to children as «normal» and «natural.» Parents who try to prevent children from obtaining such knowledge, facing the responsibility from the administrative penalty to criminal penalties. The problem is compounded by the fact that the countries that legalized same-sex relationships, trying to actively promote and impose on other countries the so-called «LGBT rights» within the framework of international organizations, human rights treaty bodies, regional and international organizations. The author gives examples of national legislation and international norms of «soft law» in this area, adopted within the framework of the UN and the Council of Europe, analyzes them for compliance with the norms of international law, the main place among which is occupied by norms of international treaties recognizing the right to education. In the study of the right to education is considered a right of parents to raise their children according to their own moral, religious and philosophical convictions, as a basis for the protection of their children from non-traditional relationships' propaganda. The article deals with the position of Russia opposite to the promotion of non-traditional relationships and the measures taken by it at the national level to protect against this propaganda, as well as its active position on the national and international levels to educate future generations on the basis of traditional values of humankind and its importance for the maintenance of national and international security.

Unity of all movements of the population covered by the concept of migration as a subject of international legal regulation, in terms of risks and the potential for States, societies and individuals objectively pushes States to a comprehensive approach towards the phenomenon of migration. Inter-State cooperation on migration issues is being developed in different forms: treaty form and non-treaty form. And in all cases a share of inconsistency remains. Cooperation of States in the form of international agreements has not resulted yet in a comrehensive treaty on migration, on the contrary, the demand for such a treaty still follows from the analysis of only non-legally binding instruments, such as those by the UN General Assembly. Nowadays, one can only single out the blocks on the most important aspects of migration, e.g. human rights, fight against crime, etc., i.e. agreements developed as part of other branches of public international law, but applicable to the situation of migration. The exception here is refugee law that developed more or less on its own. However it covers one problem of migration out of many, and, thus, is an exception that proves the rule. Non-treaty (or institutional) form of cooperation of States also lacks a single unit, authorized by States to a comprehensive approach towards migration aimed at developing the commitments (obligations) in this area and control mechanisms over the execution of those commitments. There are a lot of international intergovernmental organizations touching migration within their respective competences. Duplication of their activity is monitored through coordination mechanisms. States' need for cooperation is further satisfied through non-binding «processes», «fora», «initiatives» operating at regional and universal levels. Author's opinion on the root-cause of the situation lies in the belief that effective and transparent co-operation can only be based on the true coordination of the wills of the States, whereas at present, the discussions of migration topics at the universal level are based on systematically distorted data, despite all the calls for the creation of the reliable multifaceted factological base. It seems to the author that the latest plans to develop by 2018 global compacts on migration and refugees, correspondingly, are not capable of radically changing the situation.

This paper presents abstracts of Prof. Abashidze’s speech at the International Seminar on the Impact of Economic and Financial Sanctions on the Enjoyment of Human Rights (Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran, 15 December 2014). The main conclusion, made by the author is the following: in frames of globalization, the more interrelatedness and interdependence of States, the unilateral application of coercive measures (sanctions) of economic and financial character by States or group of States and the consequences of these sanctions should be qualified as a factor undermining the pillars of the system of collective security based on the UN Charter.

The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the declaration of independence of Kosovo has left some crucial questions open. The main steps of the Court’s reasoning are re-examined in the article, the most delicate issue being the relationship between international law and domestic law. In particular, the exclusion of the possibility for international law to produce effects at the individual level - that was determinant to the conclusion reached in the Advisory Opinion - is questionable.

The facts about the subject of legal regulation constitute an essential prerequisite for the creation of legal norms, including norms of international law. Lack of reliable data or their distortion leads to norm-creation, which is inadequate to life, and, thus, to inefficient legal regulation. Critical significance of the evidence base in the field of international legal regulation of migration is stressed in numerous international legal instruments. Creating and maintaining the evidence base on migration issues is carried out within the United Nations system, as well as in other international intergovernmental organizations, e.g. of regional level. Despite considerable efforts by the international community in this direction, in the collection, aggregation and use of statistical data on migration there is an imbalance between different countries and regions in terms of availability of the data. Crucial character bears the imbalance between developed and developing countries in this respect, as the differences between the two groups of states exists also in the specifics of participation in migration processes. Moreover, there is no comparative information on institutional capacities and needs (which states what data collect). Specific information about capacity-building in collecting and gathering data is not available to the public (e.g. to what states who and what kind of assistance provided to build capacity of gathering, maintaining and expanding the migration statistics). The article presents a brief of existing law and the international legal framework of international migration statistics and of the problem field of international migration statistics from the point of its impact on norm-creation in international legal regulation of migration.

The article deals with the protection under the contemporary international law of girls as a vulnerable group. Notion «vulnerability» and «vulnerable groups» are analyzed as well as the factors affecting the degree of vulnerability of individuals and criteria to consider girls as a vulnerable group. The article covers the rationale for allocating a special group of girls in order to develop the most effective measures to prevent and combat widespread practice of violating the rights of girls. A number of international treaties and documents provisions devoted to girls are analyzed. There is a list of human rights violations girls are usually victims of (violence, economic exploitation, social exclusion) and specific examples of such violations. Particular attention is paid to the problem of discrimination of girls, including factors influencing the development of practice of discrimination against women and girls, possible ways of eradicating the relevant harmful practices are suggested, statistical evidence on the relevance of the issue in question are given.

The article examines the international legal integration regulation of relations in the sphere of economics and finance context of globalization. The modern era - an era of globalization, which includes the highly dynamic development of integration processes in various areas of activity of the state. Globalization is an objective the emergence of supra-national / transnational elements of legal regulation. More and more questions of domestic jurisdiction transferred to the states under the international legal regulation. In the context of globalization in the development of the law is a tendency of formation of international integration law. Therefore, considering the legal regulation of relations in the sphere of economics and finance in the modern period, we can not ignore world integration processes as a result of globalization.

On the basis of the analyses of the provisions of the fundamental work on the Law of War and Peace («De Jure Belli ac Pacis Libri Tres») is shown contribution made by Hugo Grotius in development of the Just War Doctrine.

Cooperation concerning readmission is of considerable interest for the European Union. The article touches upon several features of the form and procedure of concluding readmission agreements that are peculiar to the law and practice of the European Union, reveals the formation of the EU position in respect of readmission in the broader context of relations with different regions of the world, and then analyzes in detail the readmission issue as an element of the cooperation between the European Union and African states.

This article discusses the background and the main stages of development and adoption of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety 2000 to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992 as a unique international agreement designed to promote sustainable use of biological resources for economic and social development and environmental protection through the creation of international legal regime to maintain the safe transboundary movement , handling and use of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from the application of modern biotechnology .

Afghanistan faced with a serious problem of status of previously signed international agreements on human rights. This problem had been resolved by introduction of a declaration on confirmation of all previously signed agreements and by introduction of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Also Afghanistan widely used UN's expierence for creating a national system of organisation on human rights. The Afghanistan's expierence has international value.

This article deals with one of the problems of children’s rights protection - the right of the child to communicate with both parents. The main tool for resolving disputes in this area is the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the Convention of 19 October 1996 on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children. The article investigates the application of these acts in the Russian Federation; It also highlights the problems implementing these conventions and the prospects for their use. Authors elaborate on the recent changes in the legislation of the Russian Federation in this sphere including the Federal Law of May 5, 2014 № 126-FZ «On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation in connection with the accession of the Russian Federation to the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Kidnapping children».

This articleis madeunder the grantRHFNo.14-33-01040 «Gender aspects ofinternational legal protection oftraditional values». This article analyzes the cooperation of states at both the universal and regional levels to ensure and protect the rights of transgender people as a vulnerable population, as well as a consideration of measures taken by the international community to counter the practice of discrimination and violation of the rights of individuals within the transgender group. The article analyzes the Jakarta Principles on the application of human rights in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, the individual acts of the Council of Europe, the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, and Russian legislation.

The paper shows the influence of positivism on the development of international law in the XVIII-XIX centuries. Analyze ideas of I. Moser, G.F. Martens, F.F. Martens and other international lawyers. Positive trend in international law is considered in the context of the fight against natural and legal ideas and influence on other theories, in particular, the historical school of law. The paper shows the importance of a «positive trend» in the development of the idea of European law. The article explains the role of the «positive direction» in international law and in the development of monistic theories dualistic relationship between international and domestic law. Particular attention is paid to the creation of collections of international treaties, which began in the XVIII-XIX centuries, representatives of the «positive direction». The paper shows their role in the development of international law as a systematic, logically built legal system.

The article examines the legal regulation of economic relations in the modern period, requiring accounting world integration processes as a result of economic globalization. developed on the basis of international legal norms of international regulators-principles, making transparent and uniform requirements for the legal regulation of relations in the sphere of national economies in different countries.

The article considers the historical aspects of the formation of the codification of international law. The codification of international law is carried out for a long time, and its value is very large, especcialy for the development of the legislation of states, despite this, in author’s opinion, greater significance at the current stage will be given to the process of progressive development of international law, as most of the existing areas of international law are codified, but with the appearance of new international legal institutions, this procedure will be necessary again. The author values the roleof the international bodies (eg, the International Law Commission) in the process of codification. Also this article reveals the importance of formal and informal codification and shows the participation of international institutions in that field. The author is analysing the doctrines of reputable scientists jurists in international law.

The article gives a detailed analysis of the role of unilateral acts of States in the formation of international custom at the example of the protest. It’s also disclosed the history of the emergence of the concept of a unilateral act. The author focuses on study protest and detection of subjective element of international custom. For these goals, author examines doctrine and jurisprudence. The author concludes that the proof of facts identifying opinio juris is complicated by the need to conduct a detailed analysis of each case separately, paying attention to a form of protest, the existence of defects of forming of expression, the presence of publicity and clarity, its compliance with fundamental ethical principles recognized by the international community as well as the norms of jus cogens .

The are analised principle of territotial integrity of states as one of the general principles of the modern international law and also studied the main theoretical-legal and international-legal bases of this principle in the actual.

The article deals with the development of the institute of readmission within the European Union. The paper identifies the obstacles to the conclusion of such agreements, as well as features of the shared competence of the European Union and its Member States in the field of readmission.

The Analyze of the following key questions dealing with International responsibility of states and the status of countermeasures in this article is the main connotation, such as: exceptions to the citation of countermeasure and termination of treaty, plurality of damaged government, plurality of responsive government, citation by non-damaged governments, responsibility resulted from violation of ergaomnes, appealing UN Mechanisms, countermeasures and execution guarantee in international law system, commitments resulted from international treaties, status of coordination and relationship between countermeasure and termination of treaty as a result of principal violation of the treaty, citation right of countermeasure and termination of treaty for misfeasor government, governments with citation rights of countermeasure and termination of treaty as a result of principal violation, time realm of countermeasure and termination of treaty as a result of principal violation, status of suitability principle in the citation of countermeasure and termination of treaty, citing international responsibility of government.

Transboundary watercourses constitute an important reservoir providing perhaps the most critical natural resource essential to support life all over the world. Many governments depend on rivers straddling two or more countries to provide not only freshwater for their populations, but also hydro-electric power sources, recreation and other forms of socio-economic sustenance. The article is focused on the international legal regulation of the Zambezi River as one of the most significant international watercourse. Being the forth longest river in Africa, the Zambezi is shared by eight Southern African States and evaluates a quarter of a century of close cooperation in order to realize the Southern African Development Community (SADC) founding principles.

The article analyzes the cultural human rights. It is reported that the States today shall not only protect cultural rights in general, but also shall pay special attention to protecting the cultural rights of vulnerable groups (women, children, elderly, disabled, minorities, migrants, indigenous peoples and individuals living in poverty). On the basis of a number of international instruments, particularly the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, concluded that international legal protection of each vulnerable group has its own specific features.

This article is dedicated to the current problem of the recruitment and use of child soldiers in international armed conflicts and non-international armed conflicts. The author examines the sources of international law related to this issue, as well as two historic decisions: the decision of the International criminal court in the case of The Prosecutor vs. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and the decision of the Special court for Sierra Leone in the case of The Prosecutor vs. Charles Ghankay Taylor.

The article is devoted to history of the formation of the right to health in international law. The study is based on an analysis of the origins of the right to health in conjunction with the factors contributing to the construction of the right to the level of international treaty norm.

This paper analyzes the international instruments on combating illicit trafficking of documents, including passports, in the field of migration, as well as the comparative analysis of Art. 292.1 of the Criminal Code with criminal law in foreign countries.

The article examines four facts that took place during the Georgian aggression against South Ossetia and Abkhazia from the point of international law. It presents the author’s view on the assessment of these events and proposes a number of practical measures for the exhaustion of the conflict.

Constitutional bases of implementation by Germany of its international agreements on human rights in it's internal legal system and judiciary are analyzed in the article.

The article presents a detailed analysis of the resolutions and advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice regarding the formation of the norms of customary international law. The author focuses on the study of the elements of custom and demonstration of their role in the formation of the norms of customary international law.

The eradication of poverty is one of the most vital issues facing the international community. Numerous international documents, including the Millennium Development Declaration and Goals, recognize the relationship between poverty and human rights. The whole UN human rights mechanism, including the Human Rights Council and its special procedure - the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty, is activated in order to eradicate poverty. The Human Rights Council invited the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty to prepare the draft guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights, the adoption of which might become an effective step in the process of eradication of extreme poverty on the international level.

This article analyzes the reasons which led to the creation in many countries national pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) in the 80 years of the twentieth century. Postulated the importance of creating uniform international standards for PRTRs, which were firstly recorded in Kiev Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (May 21, 2003). This PRTRs concerns 86 substances, including heavy metals, greenhouse gases, carcinogens and substances that cause acid rain. The study notes the importance of the Compliance Committee of the Kiev Protocol. Now individuals, NGOs and the States may file a complaint to the Committee of non-compliance by States of the provisions of the Kiev Protocol.

The main aspects of international legal character, dealing with the doctrinal appraisal of legitimacy of decisions of international courts are analysed in this theses by the placing manner.

The article examines fundamental requirements necessary for jurisdiction in arbitrations within International centre for settlement of investment disputes. The article analyzes such jurisdictional requirements as nature of a dispute, nationality of parties to disputes as well as nature of consent to submit a dispute to ICSID. The relevant provisions of the Convention on the Settlement of Investment disputes between States and nationals of other States as well as related case have been analyzed.

Space activity contributes a lot to sustainable development of mankind, but also has a negative impact both on the Earth's biosphere and on near-Earth space. The use of nuclear energy is objectively necessary for the development of space activity, but on the other hand, it is a potential danger to the environment and mankind as a whole. In order to enhance the international space security UN General Assembly in 1992 adopted the Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space (Resolution 47/68). Unfortunately this document didn't cover all questions. In the current research we examine recent international legal instruments related to space nuclear security: «Framework for the safe use of nuclear power sources in outer space» (2009).

The article is dedicated to the problem of the deficiency of legality and legitimacy in modern international law. The author gives a definition of legality and legitimacy in a context of international law, reveals and analyses the elements of legality and legitimacy, considers the legal powers of the different subjects of international relations from the point of view of legality and legitimacy. The author expresses in the article his concerning on the lack of legality and legitimacy in modern international law as a whole and exactly in the activity of international organizations and institutions of global government.

The author examines the issue of national safety which is burning for Russia as well as for all international community. The author points out that the systems of national security of foreign countries are based on specific set of national interests and goals. To achieve these goals different forms of control must be implemented: parliamentary, civil, military-administrative ones. The author analyses main international treaties and agreements that play a key role in the system of national safety.

The extradition (delivery) of criminals is one of the important and oldest international law institutions and international relations as a whole. It gets a special value for interstate relations in the present period in the epoch of outburst of international terrorism and other internationally illegal acts. The article seeks to analyze and investigate the history of formation and development of this institute in international law by the example of the Russian Federation and the United States of America.

The article provides an overview of the question concerning the development of international law system. Fundamental works of both modern scientists and representatives of 19-th century are analyzed. The article also touches upon the historical aspect. In order to understand the sense of the international law system first of all the structure of it is discussed. Elements of the international law system are examined in details.

This report is devoted to the history of organizing the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition and the first experience of Russian students' participation in this event.