Journal of International Law and International Relations 2006 — N 1
Summaries
International Law
International Organizations
On Legal Technique Rules in Legal Documents Developed Within the Commonwealth of Independent States Framework — Asan Kozhakov, Valerian Vezhnovets
Human Rights
The Right to Public Hearing in the Practice of the European Court of Human Rights and in the Legislation of the Republic of Belarus: Comparative Legal Analysis — Anatoly Kobiak
International Ecological Law
Realization of Principles of the International Ecological Law on Nature Use in the Constitution and the Nature Protection Legislation of Belarus — Natalia Minko
International Economic Law
Problems of Legal Regulation of Provision of the State’s Foreign Trade Security — Alexandr Denisevich
International Private Law
Marriage Contract in the International Private Law — Elena Leanovich
The Author’s Right to Permit Public Access to Digitally Formatted Work — Nadezha Shakel
Comparative Law
Subject Structure of Guarding Activity and Organizational Legal Forms of its Realization — Sergey Gorulyov
International Relations
The Baltic Vector in Belarusian Policy in 1916—1920 — Alexandr Tikhomirov
The FRG Policy Towards Ukraine in 1994—1998: the Main Trends — Vladislav Froltsov
International Cultural Ties of Belarus in the XІVth — the early XVІIth centuries — Andrey Samusik
Belarusian-Ukrainian Diplomatic Contacts (January—December of 1918) — Alexandr Kuksa
Documents and Materials
The Informational Component of the Project of International Technical Assistance "Strengthening of the National Asylum System in the Republic of Belarus" in 2005 — Vladzimir Astapenka, Andrey Selivanov
Some Aspects of Post-Soviet Integration and Belarusian-Russian Relationship Issues (the Materials of the 8th Round-Table Discussion of Belarusian and Russian Scientists) (only russian)
International Economic Relations
Foreign Trade Policy of Developing Countries: From Import Substitution to Export Oriented Pattern — Alexandra Nechay
Institutional Aspects of Development and Interaction of National Innovation Systems of the European Union Member-States — Alexandr Oreshenkov
The Influence of Intersectoral Technological Diffusion on the Economic Growth of Republic of Belarus — Kirill Khalmetski
Foreign Trade Relations Between the Republic of Belarus and the European Union (1999—2004) — Marina Borovko
FULL ISSUE 
English Summaries
«On Legal Technique Rules in Legal Documents Developed Within the Commonwealth of Independent States Framework» (Asan Kozhakov, Valerian Vezhnovets)
The article explores the basic rules of law technique used during development of drafts of multilateral international treaties signed within the CIS framework. They include primarily full coverage of the subject of legal regulation in the relevant sphere of international relations, simplicity of the document’s language for implementation; the use of the rules of polysemy, synonymy, antonymy, omonymy, logically coherent text and document structure. The authors give practical examples from the CIS experience of treaty draft development.
«The Right to Public Hearing in the Practice of the European Court of Human Rights and in the Legislation of the Republic of Belarus: Comparative Legal Analysis» (Anatoly Kobiak)
The article takes up the right to a public hearing in the determination of civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge under Article 6 (paragraph 1) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The practice of the European Court of Human Rights gives grounds for determining the substance of this right, reviewing the minimum requirements of public procedure in the courts of first and higher instances, the right to a public announcement of a court decision and also lawful exceptions to the rule of public hearing. Simultaneously, the comparison of this right with the national legislation in the criminal, administrative, civil and economic order is carried out. As a result of the research a conclusion is made that national norms for the most part conform with the Convention and are developed in its channel but some of them should be changed. The most significant changes might be made in articles 382 and 411 of the Criminal code limiting the publicity of the procedure of a case hearing in the courts of cassation and supervision instances. National legislation should incorporate the rule on the departure from the principle of publicity in the cases concerned exclusively with the questions of civil law in the courts of first instance (chapter 27 of the Code of civil procedure and 20 of the Code of economic procedure), which that would help to save on procedure.
«Realization of Principles of the International Ecological Law on Nature Use in the Constitution and the Nature Protection Legislation of Belarus» (Natalia Minko)
The article gives insight on the essence of nature use and its principles reflected both in the national legislation, and in a number of international documents and presents their analysis and constitutional fixing. Realization of the given principles at the constitutional level plays an important role in formation of ecologically focused sense of justice; in particular, for realization of the rational use of natural resources and objects of nature, their general protection. The study allows to draw a conclusion on the necessity of development and fixing at the national level of special principles of nature use, taking into consideration the state’s policy in this sphere. These principles are aimed at rational protection of the nature objects fixed in the Constitution.
«Problems of Legal Regulation of Provision of the State’s Foreign Trade Security» (Alexandr Denisevich)
The article analyzes from the legal point of view the problems of providing the state’s foreign trade security.
It opens with the definition of the notions: «foreign trade security», «foreign trade interests», «foreign trade threats», «a system of measures of provision of the state’s foreign trade security» which are the basis for formation of the conceptual apparatus of such legal institution as «the right to provide the state’s foreign trade security».
The main part of the article is devoted to the consideration of the issues of legal regulation of providing the state’s foreign trade security: it formulates the definition of the notion «the right to provide state’s foreign trade security»; defines the subject of legal regulation and studies its sources with regard to the main law area; carries out a comparative analysis of the norms of international and domestic law, pertaining to regulation of legal relationships in provision of the state’s foreign trade security; offers ways of settlement of some problems in legal regulation of provision of the state’s foreign trade security.
The article concludes with a system of development of measures to counteract external economic threats by legal norms, including the development of the concept of provision of the state’s foreign trade security, legal regulation of relations with foreign states, organization of provision of foreign trade security, improvement of the mechanism of regulation of foreign activities from the position of provision of the state’s foreign trade security with regard to control of realization of foreign trade activity.
«Marriage Contract in the International Private Law» (Elena Leanovich)
The article explores collision issues of marriage contract as a new institution of matrimonial law of the Republic of Belarus. In her comparative legal analysis of domestic and foreign law the author points out the advantages of contractual registration of material and some non-material relations between spouses (the article contains the reference to the norms of Family Code of the Russian Federation) and cites some formulas from marriage contracts.
The author draws lines between «national» marriage contracts and marriage contracts with foreign citizens. The latter are defined as the agreement signed between spouses of different nationalities either abroad or according to foreign law. The author states that the necessity of the study of this topic is determined by the fact that marriage contracts with foreign citizens (in particular, between the citizens of the Republic of Belarus and foreigners) raise most complex and unsettled law issues.
Problems of marriage contracts in the international private law of the Republic of Belarus are explored with the view to possible ways of settlement of traditional problems: the choice of the law to be enforced, will autonomy, clause on public order, imperative norms, evasion of law. The author comes to the opinion that, despite the absence of special norms regulating collision issues in marriage contracts in part VII of the Civil Code and part VI of the Matrimonial Code, the application of similar norms is possible by analogy. The article concludes with suggestions of variants of developments in collision regulation of marriage contracts.
«The Author’s Right to Permit Public Access to Digitally Formatted Work» (Nadezha Shakel)
This article deals with one of the moral rights of the author — the right give public access to his work. This right becomes especially important these days, as the possibilities of its breach are extremely high, and the chances of the authors to counteract it are not always well defined.
This article explains the notion of the right to permit public access to works, reveals contemporary trends effects on the doctrine of law in this sphere, and demonstrates on several examples some principal problems that are dealt with by the authors of digital be formatted works. This is even more important as the number of internet users is constantly growing. The article also points out some ways developed by practice that can help in protection of the work, for example, by steganography.
«Subject Structure of Guarding Activity and Organizational Legal Forms of its Realization» (Sergey Gorulyov)
Based on comparative analysis of law in different countries (Belarus, Germany, Russia, Ukraine), the article defines the subjects and forms of guarding activity most typical of these countries.
According to the author, the subjects implementing the activities in guarding objects and persons are both the state bodies established specially to implement these activities, such as the state guard service, the Department of Guard under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and individuals and state bodies who do not specialize in this area of activity, such as military and militarized units, customs bodies and others; legal entities with their own militarized guard (for example, the Belarusian Railways); entities with protection units which carry out protection of objects or individuals from criminal offences and unauthorized access.
On this basis the author points out organizational legal forms for the subjects of guard protection: in the form of unions of legal entities, single legal entities or their structural subdivisions.
The article makes a conclusion that formation and choice of organizational and legal form of the subject composition of guard activity depends on the pattern of the state’s economic development.
«The Baltic Vector in Belarusian Policy in 1916—1920» (Alexandr Tikhomirov)
The article explores the problems of Belarusian relations with the Baltic states (Lithuania and Latvia) in 1916—1920. It claims that during these years the Baltic vector played a significant role in Belarusian political life. Belarusian politicians, supporters of independent Belarus, aimed to integrate with the Baltic states in the form of federation or a commonwealth of states, referring to close geographical, historical and cultural unity of Belarusians with Lithuanians and Latvians but the politicians in these countries rejected Belarusian proposals, giving preference to the establishment of monoethnic states. The tense relations between Belarusians and Lithuanians and Latvians were caused by the open efforts to annex Belarusian lands despite in fact that Belarusians were in majority on these territories. Fundamental divergencies between the parties in this field predetermined the failure of Belarusian integrational attempts along the Baltic vector in the period described.
«The FRG Policy Towards Ukraine in 1994—1998: the Main Trends» (Vladislav Froltsov)
In 1994—1998 the interaction between Germany and Ukraine was more active than in the first years of the Ukrainian independence. The government of H. Kohl continued to realize successfully its strategy concerning the post-soviet space to establish close trade relations with the CIS countries and at the same time to use the financial aid as an instrument to influence the policies of these states. In the case of Ukraine such efforts were especially effective to force the Ukrainian authorities to stop the Chernobyl station functioning. The federal government had also to take into consideration the interests of Ukraine due to the NATO enlargement. Therefore, the Federal Republic supported the Ukrainian striving to develop a close cooperation with the «old western democracies» and their alliances and thereby strengthened the foreign policy positions of this country as a new partner for Germany in Eastern Europe.
«International Cultural Ties of Belarus in the XІVth — the early XVІIth centuries» (Andrey Samusik)
This article analyses the main directions of interaction between Belarusian lands with foreign states in the cultural area in the XIVth — the beginning of the XVIIth century. International contacts are viewed with regard to their influence on the everyday life of various groups of Belarusian population. Special attention is devoted to polyethnic composition of the population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the role of «alien» elements in the enrichment of Belarusian national culture (the language, national costume). The author shows most vivid examples of consolidation of various ethnic groups into a single nation (kitabs). He identifies the reasons of expansion of foreign travel of Belarusian people and considers most famous pilgrimages. Special emphasis is made on the specific cases of the people from Belarusian lands getting education in the European educational institutions. External influence on the development of national architecture, arts and literature is explored in detail as well as the opposite process of Belarusian cultural influence on the spiritual life of European community. The author stresses the orientation of the ruling elite of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on western culture. He offers examples to show its relations with European aristocracy, considers the main directions of scientific exploration of Belarus by foreign diplomats and enlighteners and traces changes in domestic education under the influence of western European Renaissance pedagogics (foreign teachers’ activities, relations with foreign educational centers). Special attention is paid to international contacts within the Orthodox Church (polemic literature, translations of religious literature, icon painting tradition).
«Belarusian-Ukrainian Diplomatic Contacts (January—December of 1918)» (Alexandr Kuksa)
The article studies the processes of formation of diplomatic contacts between the political structures of Belarus and Ukraine from January to December of 1918. The importance of this period is caused by the fact that this time saw the most active development of Belarusian-Ukrainian diplomatic contacts.
An extraordinary Belarusian delegation headed by A. Tsvikevich visited Kiev with the aim to revise the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty. It established diplomatic and trade relations with the Ukrainian People’s Republic. The Belarusian-Ukrainian commission for settlement of territorial issues as well as the Belarusian Trade Chamber was founded in Kyiv. These contacts resulted in the development of a draft of a preliminary agreement introduced by the Belarusian party on April 28, 1918.
During the period of P. Skoropadsky’s rule a Ukrainian consulate was opened in Minsk and Belarusian consulates in Kyiv and Odessa. The main questions of Belarusian-Ukrainian contacts were the border problem, establishment of trade and economic ties and return of refugees. These contacts culminated in Belarusian-Ukrainian Trade Agreement signed in December 1918.
Close contacts were also established by the BPR government with the Ukrainian Directory Government. The Belarusian delegation in Kyiv headed by A. Tsvikevich as well as the consulate kept on working. The Directory aimed to cooperate with the representatives of Belarusian movement. But because the established contacts were short-lasting, they failed to result in any achievements.
«The Informational Component of the Project of International Technical Assistance "Strengthening of the National Asylum System in the Republic of Belarus" in 2005» (Vladzimir Astapenka, Andrey Selivanov)
The authors describe the main activities held in 2005 by the International Non-governmental Association for Scientific Research, Information and Educational Programmes «Evolutio» in the framework of the project EU TACIS — UNHCR «Strengthening the National Asylum System in the Republic of Belarus». Such activities were the events for journalists (seminar for mass media representatives, held on April 27—29, 2005, publication and distribution of the manual «Mass Media and the Coverage of Refugee Problem» and the colored booklet «Refugees: Memo for a Journalist»), for students and postgraduate students (the UM Model on the example of the UN Security Council session, dedicated to the issues of refugees, held on December 7—9, 2005, publication of the manual «International Legal Refugee Status»), for general public (the contest of posters «Refugees and Us», publication of the book with children’s collected poems, tales and pictures «Dze Toj Kraj, Dze Moj Dom» («Where Is the Land Where My Home Is»), and also for refugees (informational handbook «Memo for a Refugee»)). A very important means of distribution of information on the issues of refugees is the INA’s «Evolutio» web-site, which contains a section «Refugee Problem» (http://www.refugees.evolutio.info). The INA «Evolutio» continues its work on the mentioned project in 2006.
«Foreign Trade Policy of Developing Countries: From Import Substitution to Export Oriented Pattern» (Alexandra Nechay)
The article gives an analytical review of the situation and the regularities of the development of foreign trade of developing countries which are introducing changes in foreign trade policy as their economy is growing. The foreign trade policy is evaluated from the position of contributing to the solution of raising the developing society’s well-being.
The objects of study were successively: the free trade policy leading to specialization of these countries in natural resources, the policy of import substitution, industrialization accompanied by protectionist policy followed by export oriented industrialization pattern, i. е. secondary orientation on foreign markets. The article gives detailed characteristics of both positive and negative aspects of each policy. The author also pays attention to the characteristics of the Asian pattern of foreign trade policy.
«Institutional Aspects of Development and Interaction of National Innovation Systems of the European Union Member-States» (Alexandr Oreshenkov)
The article explores institutional aspects of development and interaction of national innovation systems (NIS) of the EU member-states. It outlines the regularities of formation and functioning of national innovation systems in developed countries, reflecting the strengthening of the role of the state in regulation of innovation development process, creation of network systems, growth of the role of regions in development of innovation processes and integration of innovation systems into supranational innovation systems.
The author considers the main periods of NIS formation in European states: after the Second World War; the end of the Cold war and West-East confrontation; unification of European NIS into a single hypersystem and, finally, creation of a single space in Europe.
He uses summarizing methods of analysis of the EU innovation activity including the system of indicators divided into four groups: human resources; generation of knowledge; distribution and use of knowledge; innovation finances, markets and results.
The author analyzed the experience of European business network, business innovation centres, financial structures, information activity of the European Patent Agency and German patent information system.
He gives characteristics of free access to information resources, financed by the EU funds: the CORDIS system, supported by the European Commission System on Innovations, Small and Medium Business; the special LIFT information system for rendering service in preparation of projects.
The author draws conclusions on the integration underway in Europe of national innovation systems of the EU member-states into a single science and technology as well as innovation space, the possibility to use the experience of formation of innovation infrastructure in the creation of Belarusian innovation system architecture.
«The Influence of Intersectoral Technological Diffusion on the Economic Growth of Republic of Belarus» (Kirill Khalmetski)
The goal of the paper is to form a model of the intersectoral technological diffusion in Belarusian industry and to reveal the total economic effect of sectoral innovations in Belarusian industry basing on the analysis of their diffusion to other sectors.
The methodology of the paper is based on the modeling of technological flows by means of input-output coefficients and by taking into account the difference in absorptive capacities of different sectors. The empirical verification of the model showed its high adequacy in reflecting the real processes of intersectoral technological diffusion in Belarusian industry.
One of the results of the research is the determination of technological multiplier for Belarusian industry as an indicator which reflects the intensity of intersectoral technological diffusion. It was shown, that the technological diffusion is rather intensive in Belarusian industry and is a significant factor of its economic growth.
The author also compared the technology-intensive imports, direct R&D and intersectoral technological diffusion as the sources of the economic growth of Belarus. It was revealed, that the source structure of technological development of Belarus mainly corresponds to the structure of developed countries. At the same time, according to the results Belarus should be engaged in more intensive trade relations with technologically sophisticated economies in order to obtain a more appropriate share of imports in the source structure of technological development.
The research findings can be applied to the determination of technological disproportions in Belarusian economy as well as to arranging the priorities of innovation, investment and trade policies.
«Foreign Trade Relations Between the Republic of Belarus and the European Union (1999—2004)» (Marina Borovko)
The Republic of Belarus trade strategy is based on the formation of balanced relations both in the Eastern and the Western directions. Whereas in the East Belarus is cooperating with the Russian Federation mainly, in the West it is cooperating with the European Union embracing 25 countries with various economic levels. The author has analyzed foreign trade relations of the Republic of Belarus in the European Union, has outlined the main trends in trade and has shown the causes of increasing or decreasing export/import deliveries. The author’s conclusions deserve special attention so as to develop foreign trade strategies in regard to the countries of this region.
This study is based on numerous statistical data as well as on the author’s own calculations. The results of this study can be used for further exploration of foreign trade relations of the country with the EU member-states. Most important, it can also be used to investigate specific proposals to diversify the export to the region under study. The author has also analyzed the main causes of the changes in foreign trade flows.