Organisers: St. Petersburg State University with assistance from the Sergey Alekseev Private Law Research Centre at the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation and with the participation of the Ural State Law University.

The 12th of May 2018 marks 5 years since the day that Sergey Alekseev passed away. Sergey Alekseev is one of the most striking representatives of Russian legal studies of the 20^th century, a scholar with world renown, a civil lawyer and legal theoretician, a statesman, chairman of the Committee for Constitutional Supervision of the USSR, doctor of law, professor, Correspondent Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Russian Academy of Sciences, and honoured academic.

Sergey Alekseev was the founder of the most elaborate Russian theory of the dogma of law, the author of a fundamental course on the theory of law which covers practically all aspects of the study of law, and the founder of the humanist theory in the philosophical doctrine, theory and philosophy of private law. Works of Sergey Alekseev give answers to many relevant legal questions that arise today. These questions include the systematization and codification of private and public law, the legitimacy of assigning new branches of law and duplicating the structure of law, issues of the development of law in the age of the digital economy, and others.

The conference will run in two consequent sessions:

• ‘Old’ principles of law today
• Threats and challenges to principles of law in the development of modern digital technologies

The conference participants – friends, pupils and followers of Sergey Alekseev, guided by his scholarly legacy, will discuss relevant issues of the theory of law and branches of legal science, including civil law, financial law and international law. The participants include scholars, practicing lawyers, and representatives of state authorities.

Issues for discussion include:

• the theoretical significance and practical meanings of principles of law;
• the role of legal regimes in the legal regulation of social relations;
• the development of new principles by means of judicial legislation;
• the principle of justice in civil law;
• digital rights and digital money;
• the protection of participants of civil law transactions in the digital economy; 
• problems of consistency in the legal regulation of taxation;
• the influence of digital technologies on taxation;
• special principles of international information law.

“The content of law in concentrated, compressed form is revealed in the form of ideas, leading elements and principles. In principles, the content of law and the entire legal system is revealed in depth: the essence of law is displayed in them directly, its foundations, the rules of civil life, its trends and demands”.

Sergey Alekseev. General Theory of Law. 2nd edition, Moscow, 2008

Veniamin Yakovlev, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation; Chairman of the Council, Sergey Alekseev Private Law Research Centre at the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation; Chair of the Council for Codification and Improvement of Legislation at the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation;  Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

“Dear lawyers, and everyone who cares about law and justice!

This year, the Petersburg International Legal Forum celebrates an important event – a conference in memory of the outstanding legal scholar Sergey Alekseev, the Alekseev Readings. It will be no exaggeration to say that Sergei Sergeevich developed the theory of law and raised to a new level. Every lawyer in our country studied the textbooks he wrote, his ideas served as the basis for the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and scholars draw upon on them in their works.  I, and every one of us, I believe, miss his insights on the reformation of legislation in modern Russia, and on development trends in law.

In recent years, the need has arisen for a systematic overview of legal activity, and to evaluate it from the perspective of principles of law. The topic selected this year for the Alekseev Readings, “Old principles of law and new challenges” is extremely relevant, and the readings themselves are remarkable because the strongest Russian legal schools will take part in them: the Ural, St. Petersburg and Moscow schools, which played a major part in Sergei Sergeevich’s life. This event is also especially important for me because Sergei Sergeevich was my close friend, and I hope that the Alekseev readings will not just become a memorial event, but will give the law and society many new ideas and new names.”

 

Section Moderators: 

Sergey Belov, Dean, Law Department, Constitutional Law Chair, St. Petersburg State University

Viktor Perevalov, Head of Chair of Public Law, Urals State Law University

Ksenia Shestakova, Associate Professor, St. Petersburg State University

Andrey Yegorov, Professor and Department Chair, Sergey Alexeev Private Law Research Centre at the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation

Participants:

Veniamin Yakovlev, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Council, Sergey Alekseev Private Law Research Centre at the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Georgiy Tolstoy, Professor, Chair of Civil Law, St. Petersburg State University, Full Member, Russian Academy of Sciences

Sergey Sarbash, Head of Chair of Civil Law, Sergey Alekseev Private Law Research Centre at the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation

Nikolai Tarasov, Professor, Chair of Theory of State and Law, Urals State Law University

Sergey Stepanov, Professor, Chair of Civil Law, Urals State Law University, head of the S.S. Alekseev Museum

Artyom Molchanov, Head of Legal Department, Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation

Anna Belitskaya, Associate Professor, Chair of Commercial Law, Moscow State University

Elena Kilinkarova, Associate Professor, Chair of Administrative and Financial Law, St. Petersburg State University

Margarita Kustova, Associate Professor, Chair of Administrative and Financial Law, St. Petersburg State University

Valentina Talimonchik, Associate Professor, Chair of International Law, St. Petersburg State University

Date and time: 14 May 2018, 10:00–16:00

Registration starts at 14 May 2018, 9:30

Admission: advance registration via dekan@jurfak.spb.ru or St. Petersburg International Law Forum participant badge.

Registration: Katerina.Dedich@rcca.com.ru

Detailed information is available here.

Youth Legal Forum will be held for the 9th time.

Within the business part of the event, young lawyers — students and practitioners — will take part in career foresight, breakout sessions and master classes of leading experts in the field of law, where topical issues of the present and future jurisprudence will be discussed.

The main work of the first day of the Forum will be held in the buildings of the main campus of St. Petersburg State University on the Vasilievsky Island within the framework of seven career foresights:

• A managing partner vs. head of an in-house legal department: Spot 10 differences (translation into English);
• How to build a successful career in law;
• Competition law and economic regulation: Training antitrust lawyers. (translation into English);
• In-house vs. consulting: How businesses attract consultants; Evidence from VimpelCom;
• An environmental lawyer at a conservation enterprise;
• The legal profession and protection of human rights in the European Court of Human Rights (in English);
• Intellectual property lawyers: practice and career prospects.

Among the leading speakers are: Yury Zachek, Boris Grumbkov, Aleftina Timoshenko, Artem Molchanov, Oleg Derbin, Dmitri Babiner, Alexander Zezekalo, Igor Nevzorov, Aleksey Petrov.

The working day will be completed by the Round Table Conference: “In interplay of ethical and legal norms at an educational institution” (moderators — Genevra Lukovskaya and Ilya Vasilyev).

The central event of the second day of Youth Legal Forum is the welcoming speech in the Assembly Hall of the Faculty of Law by rector of SpbSU Nikolay Kropachev, Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation Alexander Konovalov, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin and heads of the Association of Lawyers of Russia Sergey Stepashin, Veniamin Yakovlev, Vladimir Gruzdev. In the subsequent open discussion, "Being a lawyer in the digital economy" will also be attended by a member of the Federation Council of Russia, Professor of St. Petersburg State University Alexey Alexandrov and chairman of the Board of the Skolkovo Foundation Igor Drozdov.

Further, the Forum participants will continue their work at the sectional meetings:

• The dialogue of legal cultures: Russia and China
• Current issues in international tax law.
• Current issues in pharmaceutical law
• A legal framework to effectively combat corruption
• Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the economic justice: Evolution of views
• Contract Law in the age of information technology
• Using Russian legal tools to structure investment deals
• Digital first: Legal challenges of new media formats and ways to solve them
• Mediation as an innovation in the legal profession

Work of the section “Legal clinics: Room for innovations” will take place in the format of public protection of original projects for the development of legal clinics, previously selected by an independent jury.

Topic for Discussion: Articles 45-47, 55 and other provisions of the Russian Constitution on the parties’ capacity to go to an arbitration tribunal rather than to a public court in order to protect their violated rights and legal interests.

The reason for discussion is the Russian Constitutional Court Decision dd. 12 April 2018 upon request by the Commercial Panel of the Russian Supreme Court to check whether the provisions of the Russian Arbitration Procedural Code, as well as the Federal Laws “On Procurement of Goods, Works and Services by Certain Company Types”, “On Arbitration Tribunals in the Russian Federation” and “On Arbitration Proceedings in the Russian Federation” are consistent with the Constitution. We certainly won’t have time to cover all the details. But we’ll try to deal with as much as we can. For example, what “public elements” and what “concentration” of those would lead to non-arbitrability:

• public basis of agreements
• public interest pursued by agreements
• agreements’ focus on satisfying of public needs
• budget expenses
• contracting by a special entity
• disposal of public properties

Nevertheless, we would like to deal with all of the above matters in terms of the constitutional law: to what extend do arbitration tribunals have to be limited by public courts at all?

Moderator:

Dmitry Stepanov, PhD, LL.M, MPA, associate professor of the Civil and Business Law Department at HSE, partner at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners

Attendees:

Gadis Ghadzhiev, Doctor of Laws, Tenured Professor and Academic Supervisor of the HSE School of Law in St Petersburg, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Russia.

Roman Bevzenko, PhD, associate professor at the Civil Law Department of the HSE School of Law, partner at Pepeliaev Group.

Andrey Panov, senior associate at Norton Rose Fulbright.

Andrey Rybalov, PhD, associate professor at the Civil Law Department of Saint Petersburg State University, Head of Private Law Directorate at the Constitutional Court of Russia.

Ekaterina Smirnova, partner at Yakovlev & Partners

Yuliy Tay, PhD, managing partner at Bartolius.

To register at the workshop, please send your applications at info@centerarbitr.ru.

Seating is limited.

The Workshop will be in Russian with no translation.

In the final day of the IXth Youth Legal Forum, its participants are to get acquainted with effective methods and examples of solving legal problems. For this purpose, prominent lawyers from Russia and abroad will conduct 14 Workshops (Answering legal challenges: Case studies):

• Tax disputes
• Price fixing: Looking for evidence and constructing guilt
• Injunctions in Private Law.
• Video Game Industry in the Context of Digital Economy
• Profession of a lawyer specializing in tax matters;
• The legal aspect of ensuring competition in the pharmaceutical market.
• Defense in cases of administrative offenses
• Answering challenges of retail electricity markets
• Modern trends in brand unfair competition (in English language);
• Legal review of real estate in the framework of planned transactions for its acquisition;
• Contract: we write on paper smoothly, but did we take the "ravines" into account?
• Fashion Law: legal protection of design and fashion articles in Italy and in Russia (in English language);
• To stay in the EU: the impact of the Regulation on the protection of the personal data of the GDPR on the work of Russian companies in Europe.

Special mention should be made of the master class on "Crime and Justice", which will be held by the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Professor of the SPbSU Alexander Bastrykin.

As on the previous day, all the main events of the Youth Legal Forum will be held in the building of the law faculty of SPbSU.

“Due process paranoia” is one of the main growing concerns in international arbitration. The QMUL 2015 International Arbitration Survey defines “due process paranoia” as “a reluctance by tribunals to act decisively in certain situations for fear of the arbitral award being challenged on the basis of a party not having had the chance to present its case fully”.

• The roots of “due process paranoia” in arbitration: where does it come from?
• What constitutes “due process” in arbitration: practical scenarios that may trigger due process concerns among arbitral tribunals.
• What can be done to eliminate threats to procedural efficiency of arbitral proceedings?
• Who should take the lead in eliminating “due process paranoia”: counsels, arbitrators or arbitral institutions?

The speakers:

Manuel P Bautista, Jr. (Jun), Counsel, King & Spalding, Singapore

Eva Kalnina, Counsel, Levy Kaufmann-Kohler, Geneva

Vasily Kuznetsov, Partner, Kuznetsov, Marisin & Partners, Moscow

Christer Söderlund, Advokat, Senior Counsel, Morssing&Nycander, Stockholm

Aliona Bitkivskaja, Associate Counsel, SIAC, Singapore

James Menz, Deputy Secretary General and Head of Case Management, DIS, Cologne

Moderated by:

Mohammed S. Abdel Wahab, Partner, Head of International Arbitration Practice, Zulficar&Partner, Egypt

For registration, please send an email: info@centerarbitr.ru.

The number of seats is limited

The language of the discussion: English

The event will be followed by a networking reception.

Objective: Assistance to the integration of legal education with the professional legal practice in the modern Russian conditions

Organizers: Saint Petersburg State University with the participation of the Federal Educational and Methodical Association of Higher Education in the field of Law, Interregional branch of the Association of RussianLawyers in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region

Issues for discussion: the creation of unified professional standards for lawyers; conjugation of professional and educational standards in the field of law; employers’requirements to the professional qualifications of lawyers in general and in conditions of transition to a digital economy in particular; problems and perspectives of educational programs accreditation in the field of lawby professional societies; ensuring the quality of legal education and of legal activities.

Moderator: Sergey Belov, Dean, Faculty of Law, Saint Petersburg State University; Director, Research Institute of the Problems of the Official Language, Saint Petersburg State University

Participants of the discussion: representatives of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, heads of the Association of Russian Lawyers, lawyers-practitioners, teachers of legal specialties, administrative and management personnel of higher education institutions, members of the Federal Educational and Methodical Association of Higher Education in the field of Law

Discussion topics: 

• Monetary policy of the Bank of Russia in an economic crisis time: effect on the real economy sector
• Legal effects of the credit institutions’ licences revocation
• Legal status of the funds on bank’s accounts in process and after licences revocation
• Tax payments after a revocation of bank’s licence: court practice

Discussants:

Sergey Grishanov, Partner, Koblev & Partners Law Firm

Pavel Khlyustov, Partner, Barshchevsky & Partners Moscow bar association

Alexey Nefedov, Ex-President, Bank Jugra

Mikhail Belyaev, Chief Economist, The Institute of Stock Market and Management (ISMM)

Nerses Grigoryan, Probusinessbank’s lenders group leader

Registration form: https://goo.gl/forms/6A3g8ywJAkpwtLSQ2

A specialized session at the Legal Forum focuses on the priority issues of pharmaceutical market regulation. This discussion has a great importance considering that the Russian Government is calling for proposals on the Development Strategy of the Pharmaceutical Industry until 2030 and proposes incentives in IP rights protection.

The event is organized by recognized experts and professionals in this field, such as EY, the Union "Medical and Pharmaceutical Projects. 21st Century", the Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service and many others.

The discussion will continue the research on investments in Russia by pharmaceutical companies for past decade and its perspectives.

Satellite will present a panel discussion with Russian and international experts, key industry regulators, producers and industrial unions.

The discussion will expose government policy in IP rights protection, competition and anti-monopoly legislation, the impact of sanctions on the development of the industry and import substitution policy, government support for API production and export activities, compulsory licensing and parallel import incentives, pricing and new models of state procurement.

ICDR Y&I (New York) and RAA40 (Moscow)

An interactive event in the informal environment of a St Pete’s café.  Several tables will be set up (each moderated by a recognised Russian or international arbitration practitioner). Guests will be able to join the discussion on a current topic at the table of their choice, and move around as they wish. Wine and food will help with a lively debate.

Place and time: 17 May, 6 pm – 8 pm. The Buddy café (14 Lomonosova st.). The café is a 5-minute walk from Rubinstein street, which will allow our guests to join us after the official Forum programme and move to the Legal Street event straight after.

Registration is optional at raa40@arbitrations.ru