Journal of International Law and International Relations 2008 — N 1
Summaries
International Law
International Organizations
The Economic Court of the CIS an Institution for Settlement of International Disputes of Public Character within the Commonwealth of Independent States — Elena Dovgan
Migration and Refugee Issues
Towards the Issue of Legal Regulation of Foreign Citizens Employment in the Republic of Belarus — Oleg Stepanov, Sergey Matus
International Private Law
Specific Features of the Termination of International Agency Agreement According to the One Party Will — Elena Babkina
The Form of International Business Deal, Closed with the Help of Electronic Communication Facilities — Olga Belaya
International Relations
Civilizations as the Global Subjects of International Relations — Alexandr Chelyadinsky
Scientific and Educational Contacts of Belarusian Lands with Western and Central European Countries in the First Half of the 19th Century — Andrey Samusik
The British Empire Historiography about Successes of the Dominions at the End of 19th at the beginning of 20th Century — Ludmila Semenova
Diplomatic Activity of the Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 17th Century — Olga Lazorkina
Dociments and Materials
Elaborating Recommendations to Promote Local Integration of Refugees in the Republic of Belarus: Academic Studies Report Materials (only russian)
International Experience of Using the Refugee Origin Country Information: Seminar Materials — Oksana Kosovets (only russian)
International Economic Relations
Some Aspects of Increasing Competitiveness of Telecommunication Companies — Ludmila Klimovich
Competitiveness of Belarusian and Russian Enterprises in 2007: Comparative Analysis — Tatiana Kovaleva, Larisa Khmurovich
The Conformity of Export Promotion Policy of the Republic of Belarus with International Requirements and Its Improvement — Vasily Uglov
Venture Investment: Global Experience — Olga Malashenkova
FULL ISSUE 
English Summaries
«The Economic Court of the CIS an Institution for Settlement of International Disputes of Public Character within the Commonwealth of Independent States» (Elena Dovgan)
The article deals with the analysis of one of the constituent parts of the CIS Economic Court competence. It considers a possibility to expand the jurisdiction of the Economic Court and to endow the Court with competence to exercise judicial functions in other integration entities within the Commonwealth of Independent States: the Eurasian Economic Community, the Common Economic Space, the Union of Russia and Belarus, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, etc. On the basis of the analysis of the EU Court and the UN and ILO Administrative Tribunals jurisdiction the author considers the potential of one international court to resolve disputes and interpret international legal acts within other international organizations, determines the constituent elements and legal ground for the above activity including organizational forms, necessity and procedure of special chambers.
«Towards the Issue of Legal Regulation of Foreign Citizens Employment in the Republic of Belarus» (Oleg Stepanov, Sergey Matus)
With various approaches proliferating in the research into legal regulation of foreign citizens’ labour in the labour law theory, the concept of efficient formation and development of legal regulation of the subjects of labour migration from abroad remains not sufficiently studied. This issue has not been researched by Belarusian scholars either theoretically or methodologically. Given that, in further development of the state legislative base priority should be given to the effective legal base to regulate the labour in various sectors of national economy and in various professions, as well as to regulate the labour relations involving labour migrants in particular.
In connection with this the article explores the current practice of attracting labour force from abroad into the Republic of Belarus. It studies the conformity of the Belarusian national legislation on foreign labour migration with international legal definitions, suggests scientifically grounded recommendations on further developing the legal basis to regulate labour relations involving foreign workers and outlines the main peculiarities in concluding labour contracts with migrant workers. To elaborate further legal regulations of labour involving foreign workers the authors make several proposals: firstly, to revise the approach to legislative understanding of the term «foreign labour migration» of the law «On Foreign Labour Migration» towards permitting the subjects of foreign labour migration to work on labour or civil legal contract; secondly, to supplement Article 1 of the Labour Code with the definition of «the migrant worker». In particular, as the authors believe, the migrant worker is a foreign citizen or a stateless person permanently residing outside the Republic of Belarus and maintaining labour relations with an employer on the Belarusian territory according to a labour contract concluded.
«Specific Features of the Termination of International Agency Agreement According to the One Party Will» (Elena Babkina)
The fundamental condition of foreign trade is an effective legal provision of its relations and the study of unresearched foreign trade aspects of international relations. That is why the problem of legal provision of international trade agreements called trade agency agreements presents both theoretical and practical interest.
The article is devoted to the research of the termination of the international agent agreement, according to one party will. The party can terminate an agreement without using any particular form but it should be definite, unambiguous and without reservations, if only the parties have not agreed on any other way. The European law establishes an obligatory minimum of terms for such warning differing by the term of the validity of the agreement.
Based on the analysis of international and domestic law, the author proposes to add different terms for the preliminary announcement of one party termination in Belarusian special law. The corresponding rule of domestic law can contain the following provision: «when the agency agreement is signed without any terms of validity, each of the parties may terminate its validity after the due warning of the other party. The warning term is one month for the first year, two months for the second year and three months for the years hereafter. The partner cannot establish shorter terms for the conclusion of the treaty.
The term for warning established by law or an agreement should be the same irrespective of who initiates its termination. Before the special law on agency agreements has been adopted in the Republic of Belarus the parties should take the above consideration into account when concluding international agreements on commercial agencies, especially when the contracting party operates in the EU territory, because these norms have supremacy and are implemented independently of the law applicable to the agreement and of the place where the other party operates.
«The Form of International Business Deal, Closed with the Help of Electronic Communication Facilities» (Olga Belaya)
In the present article the notions of «e-commerce» and «e-communication facilities» are explained with reference to the legislation of the Republic of Belarus and the acts of international law are used.
During e-commerce realization, the e-deal can be concluded via designing an e-document or via an exchange of e-documents.
An e-document is signed with the help of an electronic signature or its analogues. For transferring and processing the data by electronic communication channels the program-technical equipment is used.
In case one of the parties of an external economic deal, concluded in the Internet, is the resident of the Republic of Belarus, such deal can be concluded only in the written form. Concluding a contract via electronic communication facilities is equated with the written form of a deal.
Even in case the legislation of the parties of the contract allows oral forms of contracts, while concluding a contract with the help of the Internet the written form of the deal will take place, as concluding a contract via electronic communication facilities is equated with the written form of a deal.
«Civilizations as the Global Subjects of International Relations» (Alexandr Chelyadinsky)
This article raises the problem of the place and role of different civilizations in modern international relations. The author claims that Western, or Judaic-Christian civilization is not the only subject of the international relations and of the global civilization. It is successfully confronted by other civilizations that exert influence not only in their regions, but who also successfully compete in the own area in the western part of our planet. It renders the international relations even more complicated and they are becoming global, indeed. At the same time tensions are growing, new non-governmental subjects of policy with various concepts on the essence of Man, the sense and ways of life, appear. All this may eventually result in a permanent crisis of the international relations and create a situation which has never existed in history before, that is: war is no more an antithesis to diplomacy, but can become an effective tool.
«Scientific and Educational Contacts of Belarusian Lands with Western and Central European Countries in the First Half of the 19th Century» (Andrey Samusik)
The article deals with the developments in the scientific and academic cooperation of Belarus with different countries of the world in the first half of the 19th century. A national and foreign historiography survey shows that this topic has not been given special research. This study reveals the growth of the numbers of European teachers in Belarus in the early 19th century. Their role in improvement of the education system of that time is explored, including the establishment of the private boarding schools network. Special attention is given to the Vilna University, with particular emphasis on the academic trips and attachments abroad and on the reasons for the formation of the so-called «German professors group» in Vilna. The situation with the teachers in the Polotsk Jesuit Academy is also studied. The article gives significant attention to the problem of the beginning of emigration of the educated groups of the population from Belarus: the causes of the process are revealed, the main stages identified and the target countries named. The most important role of Paris as the main emigration centre of that time is underlined. The article cites particular facts from the life-stories of the famous people from Belarus, who had to leave the country after the 1830—1831 rising had been put down.
The paper also characterizes the situation in the national intellectual elite collaboration with the world academic community in the 1830—1850s. The main direction of this cooperation is outlined and the participation of Belarusian scholars in the realization of international academic studies is noted. The article demonstrates the importance of Gory-Goretsky land studies institute in the fostering scientific contracts of Belarus and reveals the reasons for phasing out of the cultural contact of Belarus with foreign countries and their new orientation towards the academic community within the Russian empire.
«The British Empire Historiography about Successes of the Dominions at the End of 19th at the beginning of 20th Century» (Ludmila Semenova)
Such influential direction in English historiocal science as the British empire historiography played a big role in study of the British empire. It studied separate colonies and the empire as a whole. Selfgoverned settlers’ colonies — the dominions were the important elements of the British empire. At the end of the 19th and at the beginning of 20th century the dominions demonstrated unbelievable successes in political and socio-economical development, even outstripping their mother country in some fields. This phenomenon is actively studied in the British empire historiography. The evidence of such scholars of authority as Dilke, Seeley, Froude, Hobson, Churchill, Grierson, Graham etc. is quoted in this article. Assessing the dominions’ true value, the British empire historiography confirmed the main idea about the high mission and effectiveness of Great Britain in the building of its empire.
«Diplomatic Activity of the Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 17th Century» (Olga Lazorkina)
The article is devoted to the research of the functions of the grand-ducal chancellery in the maintenance of diplomatic service of the state in the 17th century. The authority of chancellery heads in the sphere of diplomacy, the participation of the personnel in embassies of Rzecz Pospolyta are considered in detail. The author had identified the main groups of diplomatic documents of embassies necessary for their maintenance and considered language features of the papers of the chancellery diplomatic service.
During the research the author comes to a conclusion that the grand-ducal chancellery after the union of two states (Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) still carried out documentary maintenance of the central authorities and administration of the Grand Duchy. Chancellery heads (the chancellor and subchancellor) actively influenced the internal and foreign policy of the federative state. The grand-ducal chancellery carried out, mainly, technical maintenance of embassies in the Moscovy state. It had a staff of qualified employees, one of whose functions was preparation of the diplomatic documentation. The top echelon of the chancellery employees took part in diplomatic missions, though it was not their functional duty.
«Some Aspects of Increasing Competitiveness of Telecommunication Companies» (Ludmila Klimovich)
Dynamic development of telecommunications services sector promotes growth of competitiveness level of both national economy in general, and of national companies. The article analyzes some aspects of the influence of the company size and telecommunications services market liberalization on increasing of competitiveness of telecommunications companies.
The author made a conclusion about the rapid transformation of this segment due to new technologies on the basis of the analysis of the main trends of the development of global telecommunications services market. The author also notes its merging with other branches (computer technologies, software, telecommunications industry) and formation of a global information and telecommunications sector of economy. In this situation companies which adapt quicker to new challenges on the market are the most competitive. Intensive processes of merging and takeover in this sector of economy as well as the growth of the share of telecommunications companies among top global transnational corporations show that the leaders are the companies with the largest shares of foreign assets and the predominance of the relative scale effect. The large scale of companies ensures diversification of services and growth of the number of clients due to technological and industrial diversification. Costs per unit and prices for customers decrease significantly.
Restriction of state monopoly in the telecommunications services sphere, privatization, removal of barriers to the access of foreign investors to national markets, in their turn, contribute to the formation of competitive environment in the telecommunications sector of economy. The growth of competition requires introduction of the most advanced technologies and reduction of prices along with permanent widening of range and quality of services. Liberalization of markets becomes the crucial condition for raising competitiveness of telecommunications companies.
«Competitiveness of Belarusian and Russian Enterprises in 2007: Comparative Analysis» (Tatiana Kovaleva, Larisa Khmurovich)
The article presents the results of research of competitiveness of industrial enterprises of Belarus and Russia based on the survey method. The analysis of data allowed to evaluate the significance of various markets for enterprises as well as the main competitors and competing import from different markets, to reveal competitive advantages and to study the influence of various factors on enterprises’ competitiveness as well as to conduct a comparative analysis between countries on the main aspects of competitiveness. The authors were the first to calculate indices of Belarusian enterprises competitiveness level and potential — the index of competitiveness on various markets and the ratio of readiness of idle capacities to produce competitive goods.
«The Conformity of Export Promotion Policy of the Republic of Belarus with International Requirements and Its Improvement» (Vasily Uglov)
The article reviews one of the key issues of Belarusian trade policy — accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and thus forming competent and science-grounded export promotion policy based on its requirements and rules.
Favourable conditions for export development in the Republic of Belarus are proven by its stably high growth. At the same time, the majority of measures for its stimulation fall under the prohibition of WTO and cause the growing discontent and counteraction from the main trading partners — WTO member states and thus limit the possibility of export growth in the middle- and long-term. The absence of protection measures in respect to many Belarusian enterprises can be explained by their negligible share in the international markets, i. e. their low competition power.
The WTO Agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures allows only three types of subsidies — in research and development, for leveling the disproportions in the development of regions of the country, and for environment protection. That is why the current system of financial support of exporters should be reconsidered from direct financial support to more attention to financing of innovative R&D products and to export guaranteeing and financing through the established specialized state trade finance institutions.
Besides, the government should provide more information support and marketing services to exporting enterprises, help them at international exhibitions and trade fairs and also set up new direct contacts with the governments of the major trading partners within the bounds of intergovernmental commissions on trade and economic development.
«Venture Investment: Global Experience» (Olga Malashenkova)
The article presents the global experience of the economic phenomenon of venture investment. The author analyzed some approaches to interpretation of the notion of venture economic activities among different groups of experts, showed the history of emergence and formation of venture activities from American family investment groups to the famous Silicon Valley to modern stage of development of venture centres. The author also considered the most wide-spread patterns of formation of venture foundations with official capital, transnational companies and the pattern of independent venture foundations as well as typical venture investors. She presented the classical plan of organization of venture foundation, explored the possibility of its adoption in Belarus, analyzed the role of «business angels» and venture foundations in venture financing, basic differences among these investors’ groups as well as the «business angels» phenomenon. The author also outlined current development trends of the main global venture capital markets (USA and Canada, South East Asia, Еurope) and some new centres of global venture community (China, India, Israel), marked out specific features of venture industry in Europe and America. The author cites statistics of volume, growth rates and directions of venture investments of institutional and informal groups of investors. Besides, the volume of venture capital investment in Russia and industrial preferences of Russian venture investors are also explored. The article is oriented both on specialists — investors, economists, students, postgraduates, teachers and on general public.
This publication was prepared in the framework of EU AENEAS — UNHCR project “Strengthening the Protection Capacity in the Republic of Belarus”
