Law Journal of the Higher School of Economics

Transparency of Artificial Intelligence Algorithms

2025-09-15T21:35:07+03:00

In the modern era of active development of artificial intelligence (AI), lawyers are faced with the question: how to solve the “black box” matter, the incomprehensibility and unpredictability of decisions made by artificial intelligence. The development of rules ensuring transparency and explainability of AI algorithms allows artificial intelligence to be integrated into classical legal relations, eliminating the threat to the institution of legal liability. In Private Law consumer protection in front of large online platforms brings the algorithms transparency to the forefront, changing the very obligation to provide information to the consumer, which is now described by the formula: know + understand. Similarly, in Public Law, states are unable to properly protect citizens from harm caused by dependence on algorithmic applications in the provision of public services. It can only be countered by knowledge and understanding of the functioning of algorithms. A fundamentally new regulation is required to introduce the artificial intelligence use into a legal framework in which requirements for the transparency of algorithms should be formulated. Researchers are actively discussing creation of a regulatory framework for the formation of a system of observation, monitoring and preliminary permission for the AI technologies use. The paper analyzes “algorithmic accountability policies” and a “Transparency by Design” framework (problem solving throughout the entire AI development process) and the implementation of explainable AI systems. Overall, the proposed approaches to AI regulation and transparency are quite similar, as are the predictions about the mitigating role of AI algorithm transparency in matters of trust in AI. The concept of “algorithmic sovereignty” which refers to the ability of a democratic State to govern the development, deployment, and impact of AI systems in accordance with its own legal, cultural, and ethical norms, is also analyzed. This model is designed for the harmonious coexistence of different states, leading to an equally harmonious coexistence between humanity and AI. At the same time, ensuring the AI algorithms transparency is a direction of the general AI governance policy, the most important part of which is AI ethics. Despite its apparent universality, artificial intelligence ethics does not always take into account the diversity of ethical constructs in different parts of the world, as the African example demonstrates as well as fears of algorithmic colonization.

Transparency of Public Administration in Context of Automated Decision-Making

2025-09-15T21:34:55+03:00

In context of active implementation of automated systems decision-making and artificial intelligence systems into activities of public authorities, a problem of maintaining an adequate level of transparency in public administration is becoming increasingly relevant. The issue is critical for upholding principles of rule of law and protecting fundamental rights of citizens. The work aims to conduct a comprehensive systematization and critical analysis of current approaches to solving the problem in Russian and foreign law, as well as in legal theory. The methodological basis of the research includes general research methods (analysis, synthesis, systematic approach) and specific scholar methods (comparative legal, formal legal). The article consistently examines the conceptual foundations and practical challenges of implementing transparency and explainability requirements for automated systems decision-making and artificial intelligence systems, including their role in increasing trust, maintaining accountability, preventing discrimination, and strengthening legitimacy of public administration. The main attention is paid to a detailed and critical analysis of a wide range of transparency mechanisms (classified, in particular, according to their focus on the system as a whole or on a specific decision, as well as by the timing of information provision — ex ante or ex post): disclosure of the procedure or logic of decision-making, the «right to explanation», counterfactual explanations, disclosure of data and program code/models, audit and public control, information about application, as well as use of explainable/interpretable models and other technical solutions. For each mechanism, advantages, disadvantages, and difficulties of practical implementation are identified like conflicts with intellectual property protection, technical complexity of implementation and interpretation, and the fundamental «black box» problem of artificial intelligence systems. The conclusion substantiates the insufficiency of applying individual tools and the necessity of developing a flexible, risk-oriented, and context-dependent comprehensive approach.

Regulating Working Hours of Digital Platform Workers: from Legal Gaps to Algorithmic Solutions

2025-09-15T21:34:42+03:00

Digital platforms by shaping the labor market of the platform economy create legal challenges to the regulation of working time, exacerbated by the inefficiency of traditional labor laws. The formal autonomy of platform workers masks algorithmic control, whereby the absence of fixed shifts is combined with dependence on the prescriptions and algorithms of platforms. The legal ambiguity of working hours on digital platforms, mixing active activity with periods of online availability, leaves workers unprotected against digital control and exploitation. The theoretical concept of connection time is proposed as a way to overcome the problems of platform-based forms of working time allocation and the practical inefficiency of the classical approach to the normative regulation of working time. The concept of connection time recognizes that the mere fact of being connected to a platform forms a compulsory measure of work that limits worker autonomy. Connection time integrates active and passive modes of online accessibility into a unified legal construct. Active connection time related to the performance of labor tasks is understood through limits of duration and payment guarantees, while passive connection time (waiting for orders, maintaining ratings, readiness for tasks) is recognized as a labor activity requiring compensation for labor readiness, limiting personal autonomy. It is proposed to include the time of connection into the legal field by setting: the maximum duration of periods of online availability per day/week; minimum payment for the time of connection, even in the absence of active tasks; guarantees of rest, excluding continuous involvement in work. It is noted that the legal innovations proposed in the study are insufficient without implementation of technological approach: the state needs to introduce algorithmic regulation and monitoring systems to automate control over connectivity time. The institutionalization of connectivity time will transform abstract norms into enforceable rules, eliminating the asymmetry of risks between platforms and workers, as well as establishing the regulatory subjectivity of the state in a platform economy.

Legal Nature of Application and Technical Specifications under Contract on Technological Connection with Electric Power Industry

2025-09-15T21:34:29+03:00

In the legal literature traditionally considerable attention is paid to the legal nature of the contract on technological connection in the electric power industry. However, there are practically no works that provide a legal analysis on the nature of the application for technological connection. In addition to this, the issue of the legal role of technical specifications issued, as a general rule, by a power grid organization before concluding a contract has not been sufficiently studied. At the same time, the rules, procedure and conditions for forwarding an application and issuing technical specifications affect the legal nature, determining it, and the procedure for recognizing the contract on technological connection as concluded. The last issue is also given little attention in scientific and practical publications regarding the possibility of recognizing the contract as concluded due to the preparation by the power grid organization of technical specifications based on the submitted application. The work shows the imperfection of the legal transplantation carried out and the application in the legislation on the electric power industry of legal instruments provided for by civil legislation. On the one hand, it declares the application of the special legal regime of a public and obligatory contract to the technological connection contract. On the other hand, the procedure for its conclusion established by the by-laws does not correspond to the legal models of such agreements, ignoring the content of these legal instruments and distorting it. Thus, without recognizing an application for technological connection as an offer to conclude this contract, it not only excludes the possibility of its acceptance by the power grid organization by means of implicit actions by sending technical specifications to the applicant, but also the directly public nature of the contract. The above, in turn, excludes the possibility for the applicant to demand the power grid organization to execute technical specifications. The applicant only has the right to demand that the power grid organization concludes a contract. Thus, it is proposed to use the legal model of the adhesion contract when concluding it. In this case, it makes it possible to fully apply the rules on public and obligatory agreements to relations regarding technological connection.

Actual Acceptance of Inheritance by a Minor Heir: Realization and Legal Consequences

2025-09-15T21:34:15+03:00

The article examines the issues of acceptance of inheritance by a minor heir in an actual manner, and also analyzes the legal consequences arising for such an heir in connection with the acceptance of the inheritance. It was established that the actual acceptance of inheritance is a transaction made by implicative actions. Minors over 6 years of age have the right to make this transaction independently, since it complies with civil law. On behalf of a minor heir, a legal representative acting in his interests can accept the inheritance de facto. It is necessary to enshrine in civil legislation the presumption of acceptance of an inheritance by a minor heir. This provision will allow to a greater extent to guarantee the inheritance rights of a minor heir and ensure the stability of property relations. If the child is under 14 years old, legal actions to fulfill the obligations to maintain the property inherited by the child are assigned to his parents, which follows from civil legislation. The legal grounds for parents to bear such obligations are not defined if the owner of the inherited property is a minor aged 14 to 18 years. The approach of imposing on parents the responsibility for paying utility bills for residential premises owned by a child aged 14 to 18 years, established in housing practice, requires legislative justification.

Judicial Appeal in Pre-Trial Criminal Proceedings: Limits and Procedure

2025-09-15T21:34:02+03:00

In the current political, legal, and socio-economic conditions, the court carries out its activities to protect the inalienable rights of individuals (to security, personal integrity, respect for honor and dignity, etc.), which are guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and to control the legality and validity of procedural actions (inaction) and decisions made by authorities during pre-trial proceedings. The operation of the institute of appeal in pre-trial proceedings helps to eliminate procedural errors and violations of the law committed by authorities. At the same time, the exercise of judicial control over complaints from suspects, defendants, defenders, and victims demonstrates the existence of a set of legal and law enforcement issues that require discussion by the legal community, changes in criminal procedure legislation, and optimization of criminal procedure practice. In furtherance of this, the author conducted a theoretical and development study of the problems based on methodology of academic knowledge and substantiated ways to solve the problems identified during its implementation. The conclusion is formulated about the need to improve the institution of judicial appeal of actions (inaction) and decisions of the authorities in pre-trial proceedings, for that there are legal, organizational, technological conditions and that is justified by the arguments of the author, the positions of other scientists. The aim of the study is to provide a theoretical, legal and practical justification for the need to change the criminal procedure legislation, including the development of proposals to be introduced into it, optimization of criminal procedure aimed at improving the purpose of criminal procedure measures, ensuring protection of the rights and legitimate interests of participants in pre-trial criminal proceedings. Research methods implemented are: dialectical, formal logical, sociological, statistical, content analysis, legal and technical analysis, historical and legal one. It has permitted to formulate the conclusion — the development of criminal procedure policy is in demand at the present time of the Russian statehood, determines the need for a correct understanding of the purpose of the current institution of judicial appeal in pre-trial proceedings, the need for an optimal procedure for court consideration of complaints about actions (inaction), decisions of an investigator, an inquirer, their procedural supervisors, a prosecutor, the expediency of establishing procedural guarantees of the rights of persons participating in a judicial appeal at the stages of initiation of a criminal case and preliminary investigation.

Tools of Anti-Sanction Regulation in Global Cross-Border Space

2025-09-15T21:33:48+03:00

Broadening range and changing the nature of unilateral sanctions by individual states has led to a new label of so-called «secondary» sanctions as opposed to more traditional «primary» sanctions. In response individual states of their alliances have approved laws aimed primarily at achieving political objectives through countersanctions. Almost all blocking laws in various countries contain a non-compliance clause prohibiting individuals and organizations from complying with, for example, US sanctions laws that apply outside the country and are extraterritorial. Blocking laws are important landmarks in the ongoing debate about the illegitimacy of secondary sanctions. The implementation of the non-compliance provision has been harshly criticized for creating a situation in which private operators face a dilemma: in that case compliance with the blocking law would violate the same US sanctions rules, and vice versa. The negative pressure experienced under sanctions is often related to the need of one state’s agents to adapt to the applicability of more than one legal system with opposite vectors of legislative policy. This is the legal reality and a natural consequence of today’s multinational world. By implementing the blocking laws as domestic legal mechanisms, states not only promote compliance with international standards of extraterritorial lawmaking by reducing references to blocked foreign norms, but also do protect their sovereign interests, regulating the extent of applicability of foreign law and reducing the number of normative obligations that the subjects of this state are sometimes forced to perform vis-à-vis a multitude of other legal orders. Meanwhile, geopolitical competition in this context has generated intense, acute legal rivalries and conflicts in the legal regulation of economic relations in a global cross-border space that have yet to be overcome for the successful development of modern civilization.

Oral International Treaties in the Russian Legal System

2025-09-15T21:33:35+03:00

Oral international treaties are of great importance for the legal regulation of interstate relations. The practice of concluding them has a long history. At the same time, in the science of international law the study of this unique source of international law, in comparison with written international treaties, is undeservedly given quite little attention. This leaves a special imprint on the practice of their use, including the study of issues devoted to oral international treaties in higher education institutions. In the science of international law, insufficient attention is paid to clarifying the place of oral international treaties in the Russian legal system, as well as to assessing the possibility of their use in the Russian practice of interstate relations. In order to fill this gap, in this work, from the position of a dialectical approach, the use of general scientific and special legal research methods, an attempt was made to reveal this issue. The place occupied by oral international treaties in modern international law is shown. Numerous examples of oral international treaties in the practice of the Russian state are given. The article reveals the issues of legal succession in relation to oral international treaties previously concluded by the predecessors of the Russian Federation. An assessment is made of the possibility of using oral treaties in the Russian Legal System in relation to the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Proposals are presented for improving Russian legislation, allowing for more effective and flexible implementation of international law-making activities, using oral international treaties in necessary situations when solving problems of international cooperation. It is shown that despite the fact that Russian legislation does not contain provisions devoted to oral international treaties, the Russian Federation has an inalienable right to conclude them. This right, as well as the very existence of the oral form of international treaties, is based on generally recognized principles and norms of international law, confirmed in international treaties to that the Russian Federation is a party. It is especially noted that the procedure for concluding, validity, modification and termination of oral international treaties is currently regulated by the norms of international customs and general principles of law, most of which are also applicable to written international treaties.

Development of the Law of Sea after the UNCLOS 1982

2025-09-15T21:33:22+03:00

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is often referred to as the “Constitution of the Oceans”: it regulates all uses of the oceans and is recognized by almost all States. The past half century has been a time of intense technological development and new types of marine activities have emerged; climate warming has led to sea level rise and a change in delimitation in many places. Amendments are needed. The most effective means is the annual meetings of the States parties to the Convention, which are attended by both States not parties to the Convention and international organizations. The Meeting discusses the reports of the bodies established by the Convention, and this contributes to the development of a common opinion. Implementation agreements are also being adopted. During the most recent Meeting, it was noted that the growing number of cases pending before the Tribunal attests to the trust placed in it by States. Regarding the Seabed Authority, whose mandate includes the implementation of the concept of the common heritage of mankind, the importance of the Authority’s work on the development of a regulatory framework for the extraction of mineral resources in the Area was noted. A new issue, not regulated by the Convention norms, was also discussed — the preservation of the bottom environment in the process of seabed mining. The subject of discussion was the problems of law and order in the Arctic Ocean, that was ignored during the Third Conference because the ice conditions at that time made the issue unimportant one. Now, given the melting of the polar ice caps, the idea of extending the general maritime law and order to the Arctic has become popular. In our opinion, this does not comply with international law. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea should be qualified as a closed contractual regime. This is a separate part of international law and the norms contained in it, in principle, do not apply to the Arctic Ocean. In general, the process of making changes to the legal order established by the Convention is usually the legal development of contractual provisions.

Digital Assets in Personal Bankruptcy: Experience of the Commonwealth of Australia

2025-09-15T21:33:09+03:00

The article is devoted to the study of the issues that arise in process of working with digital assets in personal bankruptcy procedures based on the example of the Australian Union. The legal and practical aspects of identifying and establishing control over the digital assets of an individual debtor are being investigated in order to include them in the bankruptcy estate for sale in the interests of creditors. The dialectical method, formal legal and legal dogmatic methods, as well as methods of system analysis and legal modeling are implemented in the research. The key results of the study demonstrate that digital assets significantly complicate the bankruptcy procedure due to their decentralized nature, anonymity and cross-border nature. The authors identified the main problematic issues related to the identification of asset owners, tracking transactions, gaining control over the debtor’s crypto wallets, including and returning digital assets to the bankruptcy estate, as well as assessing their value in order to implement bankruptcy procedures applied to individuals. It has been established that in the Australian Union, digital assets are considered property in the context of bankruptcy, but there are no special rules for their regulation in bankruptcy procedures. From the point of view of Australian competition law, the legal regime of digital assets is governed by legal norms relating to the debtor’s property as a whole, which have to be adapted due to the unique intangible and decentralized nature of digital assets. The practical recommendations developed by the regulator for persons managing the debtor’s assets and administering the relevant personal bankruptcy procedures, which include various methods for identifying digital assets, recommendations for analyzing transaction evidence, and mechanisms for interacting with the debtor, do not cover the full range of potential problems that may arise in practice. The main conclusions of the study emphasize the need to create a balanced regulatory approach that would encourage voluntary disclosure of information about digital assets and discourage unfair behavior by debtors. For unscrupulous debtors, a set of existing measures should be developed to force the discovery of digital assets and their inclusion or return to the bankruptcy estate.

Regulation of Relations between Controlling and Controlled Companies under the Contract

2025-09-15T21:32:56+03:00

The current regulation of relationships arising due to the exercise by a parent company of corporate control over a subsidiary (“relationships of controllability”) in Russian law is insufficiently clear and consistent. The law, doctrine and judicial practice do not define the boundaries of application of the rules of para 2 and 3 of Art. 67.3 of the Civil Code, therefore they are equally applicable to relationships of controllability, arising both on the basis of majority participation in the authorized capital of the company and on the basis of a contract or other grounds. Such uncertainty of legal regulation causes serious difficulties in dogmatic elaboration and explanation of such basic constructions as the right of the parent company to give instructions to the subsidiary; joint and several liability of the parent company for transactions of the subsidiary made in execution of the instructions; liability of the parent company to the subsidiary for issuing disadvantageous instructions to it. Therefore, an important goal is to define the legal nature and peculiarities of such categories and to integrate them into the existing systematics of Russian corporate law. To achieve these goals in the paper the author uses the analysis of German judicial practice and doctrine, in the framework of that the relationships of controllability based on the contract between affiliated companies, known as “contractual concern”, are examined. The author concludes the joint liability of the parent company for the obligations of the subsidiary is based on the doctrine of piercing liability and the concept of “concern liability for breach of trust”, and the right to give instructions should be understood as legal actions of the parent company to manage the executive body of the subsidiary, the scope of which is determined by the contract, but may not affect the powers of other managing bodies. It is also concluded that executive bodies should comply with the duty of care, when giving instructions to the company, and in some cases members of its executive bodies may be held liable in addition to the parent company.

Liability for Indirect Trademark Infringements in E-Commerce Platforms

2025-09-15T21:32:43+03:00

The article explores the issue of the liability of electronic trading platform operators for indirect trademark infringement. The author addresses the key question: to what extent platform operators should be liable for preventing and suppressing the sale of counterfeit goods. The article also includes a comparative analysis of practices in other countries, particularly China, where notice-and-removal rules have been implemented and enforced. Furthermore, the article offers a comprehensive study to balance the interests of rights holders, e-commerce platforms, and consumers, ensuring the fair protection of intellectual property rights in the digital economy. The article utilises an analysis of United States case law and international practices in trademark protection. It examines legislative initiatives and proposed changes to the regulation of platform liability. Comparative studies of the US and Chinese legal systems are also employed. The author considers and justifies possible changes to the legislative framework to increase platforms’ role in combating counterfeit goods and assesses existing liability standards and their impact on rights holders. In order to balance the interests of all participants in the online trading process, considerable changes to liability for indirect trademark infringement are required. The focus is on the need for active cooperation between platforms and rights owners to combat counterfeiting better.