Vladislav Arkhipov | Saint-Petersburg State University (original) (raw)
Drafts by Vladislav Arkhipov
Semantic Limits of Law in the Conditions of Medial Turn: Theoretical Legal Interpretation, 2019
Recent advances in the technologies of virtual and augmented reality give a rise to discussions o... more Recent advances in the technologies of virtual and augmented reality give a rise to discussions of legal problems both in serious and seemingly unserious contexts. As for the serious, one may recall a case of 2019 where a British soldier was charged after “going rogue” in virtual combat simulation. As for the seemingly unserious, a good example is hype about Pokémon Go back in 2016 and discussions around possibility of legal qualification of placing virtual pokémons into representations of real spaces. A sophisticated reader can also trace the core of this discussion back to the issues of virtual property and virtual law in 2000-s, which are also absolutely relevant. However, now it becomes apparent that the problem underlying particular legal collisions is extremely broader. In terms of J. Baudrillard, we live in a new [postmodern] world full of simulacra. At the same time, the classic legal institutions are not ready to give up, and this results, metaphorically speaking, in two parallel worlds – the one of “old-fashioned” tangible reality where what we perceive as law exists and operates, often implying threat of coercion, and the one of “deceptive” media reality where we can easily be misled by simulacra. Hence, from the standpoint of legal theory and philosophy, the problem of finding a line between “real” and “virtual” worlds actually can be interpreted as a problem of certain new limits of law. Such limits can conventionally be called as the “semantic” ones because here we speak about different realities, re-created in our minds by concepts, and we navigate between these “worlds” by means of switching between the conceptual fields and connections of signs and meanings, as opposed to the case where we switch between various legal systems by means of travelling through different territories. If we follow this approach, many other cases may supplement the practical examples of legal collisions that relate to virtual worlds and virtual property, as long as they involve some kind of simulacra. In this sense, to summarize, the core idea of this paper is that most of the legal collisions that are conventionally related to “virtual reality”, in fact, imply a broader problem that can be re-conceptualized as the problem of legal significance of the artifacts of media reality, or the “attitude” of law to various simulacra. Hence, the problem of the “magic circle” pertaining e.g. to the online multiplayer games context in general and to virtual property in particular actually is just a tip of the iceberg. A good example of the broader field would be the problems of applying Internet content restriction rules which exist in modern Russia to imaginary, humorous and other “unserious” contexts (or, better to say, this is the question of how to define when the context is “serious enough” for the purposes of law and when it is not). If we look into this problem from the standpoint of legal interpretation or application of law, it appears that it can be explained by means of H.L.A. Hart’s idea of “core” and “penumbra” (also, this problem also naturally is the problem of absurdity and common sense in law). Artifacts of media reality are somewhere in the penumbra. It is required then both for theoretical and practical purposes to find a way to connect those artifacts which are not simulacra, to the core meaning of certain concept-word used in the respective legal text, or to explain why this is not the case. In the end, what is suggested in this paper, is to employ a two-tier test comprising of the “criterion of reality” and the “criterion of seriousness”, based on the notion of generalized symbolic media from the field of sociology (in the latest interpretation by S. Abrutyn). An object of social relationship can have legal significance in case it has “socio-currency value”, i.e. it serves as an external referent of value of certain generalized symbolic medium and as such has this kind of intersubjective value. The “criterion of reality” is satisfied when an artifact of media reality has functional correspondence to the core meaning of a concept-word used in the respective legal text (so that it formally falls within the scope of a legal concept-word), this is a formal criterion. The “criterion of seriousness” is satisfied when an artifact of media reality by itself is an external referent of value and has “socio-currency value" (so that it would not be absurd by default to apply law to it), this is a substantial criterion. If both criteria are satisfied, then it is a kind of “easy case” where there is no absurdity at all. If just one of the criteria is satisfied, it is a case requiring “balancing” or “weighing” of values. If both criteria are not satisfied (just as when, in most cases, you engage in “interaction” with non-player characters of videogames, but not in all cases, to be fair), it would be absurd to consider the object of the corresponding relationship to be of legal significance in this particular aspect. Ultimately, this reasoning could be correlated with and translated into the formal language of legal argumentation.
Papers by Vladislav Arkhipov
Juridical World
Digital law is a polysemous phrase widely used in contemporary legal studies. From the point of v... more Digital law is a polysemous phrase widely used in contemporary legal studies. From the point of view of analytical jurisprudence, its central meaning is defined by the “pervasive digital technologies” (artificial intelligence, distributed ledger systems, etc.). Doctrinal understanding of the problems of digital law requires the identification of a universal problem, as which the article proposes as a hypothesis the problem of agency in the broad sense of the word. The approach can be argued deductively and inductively. From the deductive point of view, agency is the central problem of the general filed of the philosophy of law and, as such, it should also be seen in specific fields of knowledge. From the inductive point of view, in the main specific problems of certain “pervasive digital technologies” there is a common feature of their connection with the problem of agency, which is demonstrated in the article on the basis of the technology of artificial intelligence. Confirmation o...
Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta, 2023
Law Enforcement Review
The subject. The authors attempt a legal analysis of several forms of monetization of rights to c... more The subject. The authors attempt a legal analysis of several forms of monetization of rights to computer games.The purpose of the article is the legal qualification of donations, crowdfunding, loot boxes as means of monetization.The research methodology includes general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as specific scientific methods of comparative law and formal legal analysis.The scientific problem of the article lies in the existing contradiction between the rapid development of the computer games market and the state of modern legal science in terms of scientific understanding and regulation of the entertainment industry.The main results, scope of application. There are two main forms of public funding in the gaming industry: (1) donations; (2) crowdfunding. Donations are more common for streamers, crowdfunding for computer developers. Donat is money sent without the condition of reciprocity. In recent years, crowdfunding has become a common way to attract in...
Derecho PUCP, 2013
This article is about new constitutional order in Russia emphasizing fundamental areas as the rol... more This article is about new constitutional order in Russia emphasizing fundamental areas as the role of judiciary in the Russian Constitutional System from 1993 Constitution, the one which replaced the 1978 Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Constitution based on communist ideology. Therefore, it is intended to examine the principle of separation of powers, constitutionally recognized human rights and liberties, relationship between international bodies’ case law of human rights and the Russian Constitutional Court, among others issues.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011
ABSTRACT The interest in virtual worlds as a field of research at the intersection of law, scienc... more ABSTRACT The interest in virtual worlds as a field of research at the intersection of law, science and technology is increasingly growing. However, while there are a variety of papers by economists, sociologists and some other researchers, the topic is far from being elaborated in the discourse of philosophy and sociology of law. Yet, virtual worlds offer this research opportunity as well. This paper suggests an updated definition of the concept of virtual world in context of other related technology phenomena, while the particular emphasis is made on reconstruction of social reality and internal point of view as the features which allow to interpret virtual worlds as models of society with inherent internal elements, including without limitation legal system. The argumentation for presence of law (or some kind of quasi-law at least) in virtual worlds is based on the sound statement that those virtual worlds which constitute suitable objects of legal research have functional economies. Besides the model approach, virtual worlds may also be viewed as a platform for social experiment, something which could hardly be allowed in the real world. With attention to further implications, the paper offers a case study of World of Warcraft as one of the most popular modern virtual worlds.
Gosudarstvo i pravo
The article addresses the normative definition of artificial intelligence as provided in the Russ... more The article addresses the normative definition of artificial intelligence as provided in the Russian legislation by 2021 in the context of general approach to this term. Authors identify principal legally significant features of artificial intelligence that include autonomy of functioning (complete or relative), the ability to find solutions (including without predetermined algorithms) and “inorganic” nature that imply – strictly from formal legal, and not factual, perspective – potential risk and, subsequently, potential danger of artificial intelligence to be understood in formalized legal sense. The authors take into consideration examples of approaches to defining the term in the world, raise criticism of the existing definition and suggest more concise approach based on defining artificial intelligence as an information system (in formal legal sense) which provides the function of forming algorithms for solving problems different from those laid down by the system developers, i...
Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Law
Artificial intelligence technologies represent one of the “pervasive digital technologies” that p... more Artificial intelligence technologies represent one of the “pervasive digital technologies” that predetermine the current landscape of society’s technological development. The key problem of applying artificial intelligence technologies from the point of view of law is the limits of making legally significant decisions based on artificial intelligence. Although on the surface this issue may seem quite new, in fact it has been investigated in legal science and interdisciplinary research for decades. These limits can be divided into paradigmatic, axiological and pragmatic ones. Paradigmatic limits are associated with fundamental notions about the meaning of agency in law, and they predetermine the principle of human participation in decisions made with the help of artificial intelligence. Axiological limits presuppose a consistent realization of certain formalized values with respect to new social relations. The most developed system of axiological limits follows from the European conc...
Communications in Computer and Information Science
The article analyzes the possibilities of maintaining the register of intellectual property objec... more The article analyzes the possibilities of maintaining the register of intellectual property objects using blockchain technologies. Such registries have a number of advantages in comparison with traditional methods of registration and provide more opportunities for rightholders. However, they also have certain disadvantages, primarily due to the lack of full-fledged mechanisms for resolving intellectual property disputes. This problem requires not only technical, but also organizational and legal solutions. The authors conclude that the prospects for the development of blockchain platforms for registering and managing intellectual property are linked to the possibility of dividing such registries into two types. The first one is the registries of IP objects on the permissionless blockchain platform. Information about IP objects and their authors (owners) contained in them will not be official. The second type is the registries of IP objects on the basis of permission blockchain technologies, in which superuser rights will be granted to government bodies authorized in the field of IP protection. Entries in them will be official and will have validating rights value.
This paper provides a legal overview of the Russian secrecy regulations in one of the areas, name... more This paper provides a legal overview of the Russian secrecy regulations in one of the areas, namely communication secrecy, taken as a representative example to which big data technologies may be especially relevant if applied to analysis of masses of information that is sensitive, but at the same time very promising if processed by the big data instruments. The main legal challenge for processing of this information on a large scale is not only personal data laws, but also very special secrecy regimes of their kind. The authors analyze the applicable rules, heavily focus on detailed analysis of the voluminous case law, and provide argument for the directions of development of legislation that may enable more infusion of “open” big data technologies into these areas. The directions are focused around re-defining of legal concepts in this area, providing formal certainty of the definition of personal data and explicit recognition of anonymization techniques employing removal of “linki...
Legal Issues in the Digital Age
The restrictions for disseminating certain kinds of information that is considered publicly offen... more The restrictions for disseminating certain kinds of information that is considered publicly offensive and (or) dangerous has made topical a fundamental problem of the limits of reasonable interpretation and application of law to the contexts that could be characterized as virtual, playful or otherwise non-serious. From the standpoint of interdisciplinary approach including mostly philosophy of law and game studies, the underlying problem reflected in the representative examples above, has substantial similarities with the "magic circle" concept studied in the research direction that is conventionally called "videogame law". However, existing theories of magic circle, both in game studies and law, are not satisfactory to resolve this problem. The article suggests that the solution can be found in theoretical sociology concept of "generalized symbolic media". If an object of social relationship is an "external referent of value" of such media and has convertible "socio-currency value", this means that such object is significant enough to be included into the scope of legal regulation. However, for the application of law to be appropriate without doubt, such an object should also share functional similarity with the core meaning of the relevant legal norm. Together, these two criteria, conventionally designated as "the criterion of seriousness" and "the criterion of reality", are necessary and sufficient to assert that interpretation and application of law is not absurd, but reasonable in cases related to virtual reality that is characterized by possibility to include simulation that is out of scope of law.
Computer Law & Security Review
Abstract The regulatory environment of the Russian Federation is attracting increasing interest d... more Abstract The regulatory environment of the Russian Federation is attracting increasing interest due to its recent focus on the aspects of data protection and the Internet governance. Starting from 2006, a comprehensive regulation of the information issues in Russia began to emerge, having immediate practical effect not only on national parties, but also – due to developments in approaches to jurisdiction – to parties acting in digital environment internationally. The purpose of the research is to consider ‘narrow’ approach to the legal definition of personal data (as the trigger of personal data legislation) in the regulatory environment of the Russian Federation in the context of regulation of informational and telecommunication technologies with a particular focus on ‘Big Data’. The problem considered implies the balance between the principle of formal certainty of legal norms, on the one hand, and technological developments, on the other. The formal definition of personal data shall be interpreted uniformly to ensure consistent and predictable application of law which appears not reliably possible at the moment, although the Russian definition of personal data corresponds to the CETS Convention No. 108 which Russia is a party to. As the analysis of the Russian court practice shows, the courts are applying the broad definition interpreting it as if it has at least two additional criteria: that a set of data should be enough to identify an individual and that only a set of data in possession of a particular operator should be considered. It is suggested that these criteria find reflection in “surgical” amendments to the legislation, and the United Kingdom's Data Protection Act, 1998 can serve as a source of adoption in terms of comparative law. Furthermore, the article discusses whether the ‘narrow’ approach may be viewed as contributing to privacy protection in the age of Big Data, rather than lowering barriers of privacy. The authors explain that the ‘narrow’ approach may be considered positive in this aspect because it allows keeping the existing general privacy regulation workable in a reasonably predictable manner. Besides, the research may serve as an introductory material into the Russian data protection legislation.
SSRN Electronic Journal
Recent advances in the technologies of virtual and augmented reality give a rise to discussions o... more Recent advances in the technologies of virtual and augmented reality give a rise to discussions of legal problems both in serious and seemingly unserious contexts. As for the serious, one may recall a case of 2019 where a British soldier was charged after “going rogue” in virtual combat simulation. As for the seemingly unserious, a good example is hype about Pokémon Go back in 2016 and discussions around possibility of legal qualification of placing virtual pokémons into representations of real spaces. A sophisticated reader can also trace the core of this discussion back to the issues of virtual property and virtual law in 2000-s, which are also absolutely relevant. However, now it becomes apparent that the problem underlying particular legal collisions is extremely broader. In terms of J. Baudrillard, we live in a new [postmodern] world full of simulacra. At the same time, the classic legal institutions are not ready to give up, and this results, metaphorically speaking, in two parallel worlds – the one of “old-fashioned” tangible reality where what we perceive as law exists and operates, often implying threat of coercion, and the one of “deceptive” media reality where we can easily be misled by simulacra. Hence, from the standpoint of legal theory and philosophy, the problem of finding a line between “real” and “virtual” worlds actually can be interpreted as a problem of certain new limits of law. Such limits can conventionally be called as the “semantic” ones because here we speak about different realities, re-created in our minds by concepts, and we navigate between these “worlds” by means of switching between the conceptual fields and connections of signs and meanings, as opposed to the case where we switch between various legal systems by means of travelling through different territories. If we follow this approach, many other cases may supplement the practical examples of legal collisions that relate to virtual worlds and virtual property, as long as they involve some kind of simulacra. In this sense, to summarize, the core idea of this paper is that most of the legal collisions that are conventionally related to “virtual reality”, in fact, imply a broader problem that can be re-conceptualized as the problem of legal significance of the artifacts of media reality, or the “attitude” of law to various simulacra. Hence, the problem of the “magic circle” pertaining e.g. to the online multiplayer games context in general and to virtual property in particular actually is just a tip of the iceberg. A good example of the broader field would be the problems of applying Internet content restriction rules which exist in modern Russia to imaginary, humorous and other “unserious” contexts (or, better to say, this is the question of how to define when the context is “serious enough” for the purposes of law and when it is not). If we look into this problem from the standpoint of legal interpretation or application of law, it appears that it can be explained by means of H.L.A. Hart’s idea of “core” and “penumbra” (also, this problem also naturally is the problem of absurdity and common sense in law). Artifacts of media reality are somewhere in the penumbra. It is required then both for theoretical and practical purposes to find a way to connect those artifacts which are not simulacra, to the core meaning of certain concept-word used in the respective legal text, or to explain why this is not the case. In the end, what is suggested in this paper, is to employ a two-tier test comprising of the “criterion of reality” and the “criterion of seriousness”, based on the notion of generalized symbolic media from the field of sociology (in the latest interpretation by S. Abrutyn). An object of social relationship can have legal significance in case it has “socio-currency value”, i.e. it serves as an external referent of value of certain generalized symbolic medium and as such has this kind of intersubjective value. The “criterion of reality” is satisfied when an artifact of media reality has functional correspondence to the core meaning of a concept-word used in the respective legal text (so that it formally falls within the scope of a legal concept-word), this is a formal criterion. The “criterion of seriousness” is satisfied when an artifact of media reality by itself is an external referent of value and has “socio-currency value" (so that it would not be absurd by default to apply law to it), this is a substantial criterion. If both criteria are satisfied, then it is a kind of “easy case” where there is no absurdity at all. If just one of the criteria is satisfied, it is a case requiring “balancing” or “weighing” of values. If both criteria are not satisfied (just as when, in most cases, you engage in “interaction” with non-player characters of videogames, but not in all cases, to be fair), it would be absurd to consider the object of the corresponding relationship to be of legal significance in this particular…
SPIIRAS Proceedings
интеллект и автономные устройства в контексте права: о разработке первого в России закона о робот... more интеллект и автономные устройства в контексте права: о разработке первого в России закона о робототехнике. Аннотация. В настоящее время в России отсутствуют системные исследования в области регулирования робототехники как совокупности общественных отношений, предметом которых являются производство, распределение и использование автоматизированных технических систем. В связи с этим необходима разработка дорожной карты, подразумевающей, в том числе и разработку нового предметного законодательства. Регулирование робототехники должно строиться на междисциплинарных началах и включать гражданско-правовую, информационноправовую и административно-правовую составляющие. При этом законодательство о робототехнике должно развиваться в несколько этапов. Прежде всего, с учетом анализа приоритетов и технологических возможностей, необходима подготовка и принятие государственной концепции развития отечественной робототехники с блоком вопросов, посвященных праву и законодательству. Затем-разработка и принятие основ законодательства в данной сфере, включающих классификацию роботов и сфер их применения, определение прав и обязанностей различных субъектов правоотношений, основания и порядок учета или регистрации моделей роботов и критерии отнесения роботов к источникам повышенной опасности. После разработки закона о робототехнике потребуются «пакетные» изменения в конкретных отраслях, где роботы уже внедряются или их внедрение ожидается. Последним этапом должна стать ведомственная корректировка подзаконных актов. Кроме того, в статье предлагается к рассмотрению текст первого законопроекта, призванного инициировать дискуссию в области правового регулирования робототехники.
Derecho PUCP, 2013
El presente articulo se detiene a analizar el papel de la judicatura en el sistema constitucional... more El presente articulo se detiene a analizar el papel de la judicatura en el sistema constitucional ruso a partir de la Constitucion de 1993, aquella que sustituyo a la Constitucion de 1978 de la Republica Socialista Federativa de la Union Sovietica que estaba basada en la ideologia comunista. Asi, con la finalidad de dar cuenta del nuevo orden constitucional, enfatiza en importantes aristas como el principio de separacion de poderes, los derechos humanos y libertades reconocidos constitucionalmente, la interrelacion entre la jurisprudencia de los organos internacionales de derechos humanos y la Corte Constitucional de Rusia, entre otros.
Semantic Limits of Law in the Conditions of Medial Turn: Theoretical Legal Interpretation, 2019
Recent advances in the technologies of virtual and augmented reality give a rise to discussions o... more Recent advances in the technologies of virtual and augmented reality give a rise to discussions of legal problems both in serious and seemingly unserious contexts. As for the serious, one may recall a case of 2019 where a British soldier was charged after “going rogue” in virtual combat simulation. As for the seemingly unserious, a good example is hype about Pokémon Go back in 2016 and discussions around possibility of legal qualification of placing virtual pokémons into representations of real spaces. A sophisticated reader can also trace the core of this discussion back to the issues of virtual property and virtual law in 2000-s, which are also absolutely relevant. However, now it becomes apparent that the problem underlying particular legal collisions is extremely broader. In terms of J. Baudrillard, we live in a new [postmodern] world full of simulacra. At the same time, the classic legal institutions are not ready to give up, and this results, metaphorically speaking, in two parallel worlds – the one of “old-fashioned” tangible reality where what we perceive as law exists and operates, often implying threat of coercion, and the one of “deceptive” media reality where we can easily be misled by simulacra. Hence, from the standpoint of legal theory and philosophy, the problem of finding a line between “real” and “virtual” worlds actually can be interpreted as a problem of certain new limits of law. Such limits can conventionally be called as the “semantic” ones because here we speak about different realities, re-created in our minds by concepts, and we navigate between these “worlds” by means of switching between the conceptual fields and connections of signs and meanings, as opposed to the case where we switch between various legal systems by means of travelling through different territories. If we follow this approach, many other cases may supplement the practical examples of legal collisions that relate to virtual worlds and virtual property, as long as they involve some kind of simulacra. In this sense, to summarize, the core idea of this paper is that most of the legal collisions that are conventionally related to “virtual reality”, in fact, imply a broader problem that can be re-conceptualized as the problem of legal significance of the artifacts of media reality, or the “attitude” of law to various simulacra. Hence, the problem of the “magic circle” pertaining e.g. to the online multiplayer games context in general and to virtual property in particular actually is just a tip of the iceberg. A good example of the broader field would be the problems of applying Internet content restriction rules which exist in modern Russia to imaginary, humorous and other “unserious” contexts (or, better to say, this is the question of how to define when the context is “serious enough” for the purposes of law and when it is not). If we look into this problem from the standpoint of legal interpretation or application of law, it appears that it can be explained by means of H.L.A. Hart’s idea of “core” and “penumbra” (also, this problem also naturally is the problem of absurdity and common sense in law). Artifacts of media reality are somewhere in the penumbra. It is required then both for theoretical and practical purposes to find a way to connect those artifacts which are not simulacra, to the core meaning of certain concept-word used in the respective legal text, or to explain why this is not the case. In the end, what is suggested in this paper, is to employ a two-tier test comprising of the “criterion of reality” and the “criterion of seriousness”, based on the notion of generalized symbolic media from the field of sociology (in the latest interpretation by S. Abrutyn). An object of social relationship can have legal significance in case it has “socio-currency value”, i.e. it serves as an external referent of value of certain generalized symbolic medium and as such has this kind of intersubjective value. The “criterion of reality” is satisfied when an artifact of media reality has functional correspondence to the core meaning of a concept-word used in the respective legal text (so that it formally falls within the scope of a legal concept-word), this is a formal criterion. The “criterion of seriousness” is satisfied when an artifact of media reality by itself is an external referent of value and has “socio-currency value" (so that it would not be absurd by default to apply law to it), this is a substantial criterion. If both criteria are satisfied, then it is a kind of “easy case” where there is no absurdity at all. If just one of the criteria is satisfied, it is a case requiring “balancing” or “weighing” of values. If both criteria are not satisfied (just as when, in most cases, you engage in “interaction” with non-player characters of videogames, but not in all cases, to be fair), it would be absurd to consider the object of the corresponding relationship to be of legal significance in this particular aspect. Ultimately, this reasoning could be correlated with and translated into the formal language of legal argumentation.
Juridical World
Digital law is a polysemous phrase widely used in contemporary legal studies. From the point of v... more Digital law is a polysemous phrase widely used in contemporary legal studies. From the point of view of analytical jurisprudence, its central meaning is defined by the “pervasive digital technologies” (artificial intelligence, distributed ledger systems, etc.). Doctrinal understanding of the problems of digital law requires the identification of a universal problem, as which the article proposes as a hypothesis the problem of agency in the broad sense of the word. The approach can be argued deductively and inductively. From the deductive point of view, agency is the central problem of the general filed of the philosophy of law and, as such, it should also be seen in specific fields of knowledge. From the inductive point of view, in the main specific problems of certain “pervasive digital technologies” there is a common feature of their connection with the problem of agency, which is demonstrated in the article on the basis of the technology of artificial intelligence. Confirmation o...
Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta, 2023
Law Enforcement Review
The subject. The authors attempt a legal analysis of several forms of monetization of rights to c... more The subject. The authors attempt a legal analysis of several forms of monetization of rights to computer games.The purpose of the article is the legal qualification of donations, crowdfunding, loot boxes as means of monetization.The research methodology includes general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as specific scientific methods of comparative law and formal legal analysis.The scientific problem of the article lies in the existing contradiction between the rapid development of the computer games market and the state of modern legal science in terms of scientific understanding and regulation of the entertainment industry.The main results, scope of application. There are two main forms of public funding in the gaming industry: (1) donations; (2) crowdfunding. Donations are more common for streamers, crowdfunding for computer developers. Donat is money sent without the condition of reciprocity. In recent years, crowdfunding has become a common way to attract in...
Derecho PUCP, 2013
This article is about new constitutional order in Russia emphasizing fundamental areas as the rol... more This article is about new constitutional order in Russia emphasizing fundamental areas as the role of judiciary in the Russian Constitutional System from 1993 Constitution, the one which replaced the 1978 Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Constitution based on communist ideology. Therefore, it is intended to examine the principle of separation of powers, constitutionally recognized human rights and liberties, relationship between international bodies’ case law of human rights and the Russian Constitutional Court, among others issues.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011
ABSTRACT The interest in virtual worlds as a field of research at the intersection of law, scienc... more ABSTRACT The interest in virtual worlds as a field of research at the intersection of law, science and technology is increasingly growing. However, while there are a variety of papers by economists, sociologists and some other researchers, the topic is far from being elaborated in the discourse of philosophy and sociology of law. Yet, virtual worlds offer this research opportunity as well. This paper suggests an updated definition of the concept of virtual world in context of other related technology phenomena, while the particular emphasis is made on reconstruction of social reality and internal point of view as the features which allow to interpret virtual worlds as models of society with inherent internal elements, including without limitation legal system. The argumentation for presence of law (or some kind of quasi-law at least) in virtual worlds is based on the sound statement that those virtual worlds which constitute suitable objects of legal research have functional economies. Besides the model approach, virtual worlds may also be viewed as a platform for social experiment, something which could hardly be allowed in the real world. With attention to further implications, the paper offers a case study of World of Warcraft as one of the most popular modern virtual worlds.
Gosudarstvo i pravo
The article addresses the normative definition of artificial intelligence as provided in the Russ... more The article addresses the normative definition of artificial intelligence as provided in the Russian legislation by 2021 in the context of general approach to this term. Authors identify principal legally significant features of artificial intelligence that include autonomy of functioning (complete or relative), the ability to find solutions (including without predetermined algorithms) and “inorganic” nature that imply – strictly from formal legal, and not factual, perspective – potential risk and, subsequently, potential danger of artificial intelligence to be understood in formalized legal sense. The authors take into consideration examples of approaches to defining the term in the world, raise criticism of the existing definition and suggest more concise approach based on defining artificial intelligence as an information system (in formal legal sense) which provides the function of forming algorithms for solving problems different from those laid down by the system developers, i...
Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Law
Artificial intelligence technologies represent one of the “pervasive digital technologies” that p... more Artificial intelligence technologies represent one of the “pervasive digital technologies” that predetermine the current landscape of society’s technological development. The key problem of applying artificial intelligence technologies from the point of view of law is the limits of making legally significant decisions based on artificial intelligence. Although on the surface this issue may seem quite new, in fact it has been investigated in legal science and interdisciplinary research for decades. These limits can be divided into paradigmatic, axiological and pragmatic ones. Paradigmatic limits are associated with fundamental notions about the meaning of agency in law, and they predetermine the principle of human participation in decisions made with the help of artificial intelligence. Axiological limits presuppose a consistent realization of certain formalized values with respect to new social relations. The most developed system of axiological limits follows from the European conc...
Communications in Computer and Information Science
The article analyzes the possibilities of maintaining the register of intellectual property objec... more The article analyzes the possibilities of maintaining the register of intellectual property objects using blockchain technologies. Such registries have a number of advantages in comparison with traditional methods of registration and provide more opportunities for rightholders. However, they also have certain disadvantages, primarily due to the lack of full-fledged mechanisms for resolving intellectual property disputes. This problem requires not only technical, but also organizational and legal solutions. The authors conclude that the prospects for the development of blockchain platforms for registering and managing intellectual property are linked to the possibility of dividing such registries into two types. The first one is the registries of IP objects on the permissionless blockchain platform. Information about IP objects and their authors (owners) contained in them will not be official. The second type is the registries of IP objects on the basis of permission blockchain technologies, in which superuser rights will be granted to government bodies authorized in the field of IP protection. Entries in them will be official and will have validating rights value.
This paper provides a legal overview of the Russian secrecy regulations in one of the areas, name... more This paper provides a legal overview of the Russian secrecy regulations in one of the areas, namely communication secrecy, taken as a representative example to which big data technologies may be especially relevant if applied to analysis of masses of information that is sensitive, but at the same time very promising if processed by the big data instruments. The main legal challenge for processing of this information on a large scale is not only personal data laws, but also very special secrecy regimes of their kind. The authors analyze the applicable rules, heavily focus on detailed analysis of the voluminous case law, and provide argument for the directions of development of legislation that may enable more infusion of “open” big data technologies into these areas. The directions are focused around re-defining of legal concepts in this area, providing formal certainty of the definition of personal data and explicit recognition of anonymization techniques employing removal of “linki...
Legal Issues in the Digital Age
The restrictions for disseminating certain kinds of information that is considered publicly offen... more The restrictions for disseminating certain kinds of information that is considered publicly offensive and (or) dangerous has made topical a fundamental problem of the limits of reasonable interpretation and application of law to the contexts that could be characterized as virtual, playful or otherwise non-serious. From the standpoint of interdisciplinary approach including mostly philosophy of law and game studies, the underlying problem reflected in the representative examples above, has substantial similarities with the "magic circle" concept studied in the research direction that is conventionally called "videogame law". However, existing theories of magic circle, both in game studies and law, are not satisfactory to resolve this problem. The article suggests that the solution can be found in theoretical sociology concept of "generalized symbolic media". If an object of social relationship is an "external referent of value" of such media and has convertible "socio-currency value", this means that such object is significant enough to be included into the scope of legal regulation. However, for the application of law to be appropriate without doubt, such an object should also share functional similarity with the core meaning of the relevant legal norm. Together, these two criteria, conventionally designated as "the criterion of seriousness" and "the criterion of reality", are necessary and sufficient to assert that interpretation and application of law is not absurd, but reasonable in cases related to virtual reality that is characterized by possibility to include simulation that is out of scope of law.
Computer Law & Security Review
Abstract The regulatory environment of the Russian Federation is attracting increasing interest d... more Abstract The regulatory environment of the Russian Federation is attracting increasing interest due to its recent focus on the aspects of data protection and the Internet governance. Starting from 2006, a comprehensive regulation of the information issues in Russia began to emerge, having immediate practical effect not only on national parties, but also – due to developments in approaches to jurisdiction – to parties acting in digital environment internationally. The purpose of the research is to consider ‘narrow’ approach to the legal definition of personal data (as the trigger of personal data legislation) in the regulatory environment of the Russian Federation in the context of regulation of informational and telecommunication technologies with a particular focus on ‘Big Data’. The problem considered implies the balance between the principle of formal certainty of legal norms, on the one hand, and technological developments, on the other. The formal definition of personal data shall be interpreted uniformly to ensure consistent and predictable application of law which appears not reliably possible at the moment, although the Russian definition of personal data corresponds to the CETS Convention No. 108 which Russia is a party to. As the analysis of the Russian court practice shows, the courts are applying the broad definition interpreting it as if it has at least two additional criteria: that a set of data should be enough to identify an individual and that only a set of data in possession of a particular operator should be considered. It is suggested that these criteria find reflection in “surgical” amendments to the legislation, and the United Kingdom's Data Protection Act, 1998 can serve as a source of adoption in terms of comparative law. Furthermore, the article discusses whether the ‘narrow’ approach may be viewed as contributing to privacy protection in the age of Big Data, rather than lowering barriers of privacy. The authors explain that the ‘narrow’ approach may be considered positive in this aspect because it allows keeping the existing general privacy regulation workable in a reasonably predictable manner. Besides, the research may serve as an introductory material into the Russian data protection legislation.
SSRN Electronic Journal
Recent advances in the technologies of virtual and augmented reality give a rise to discussions o... more Recent advances in the technologies of virtual and augmented reality give a rise to discussions of legal problems both in serious and seemingly unserious contexts. As for the serious, one may recall a case of 2019 where a British soldier was charged after “going rogue” in virtual combat simulation. As for the seemingly unserious, a good example is hype about Pokémon Go back in 2016 and discussions around possibility of legal qualification of placing virtual pokémons into representations of real spaces. A sophisticated reader can also trace the core of this discussion back to the issues of virtual property and virtual law in 2000-s, which are also absolutely relevant. However, now it becomes apparent that the problem underlying particular legal collisions is extremely broader. In terms of J. Baudrillard, we live in a new [postmodern] world full of simulacra. At the same time, the classic legal institutions are not ready to give up, and this results, metaphorically speaking, in two parallel worlds – the one of “old-fashioned” tangible reality where what we perceive as law exists and operates, often implying threat of coercion, and the one of “deceptive” media reality where we can easily be misled by simulacra. Hence, from the standpoint of legal theory and philosophy, the problem of finding a line between “real” and “virtual” worlds actually can be interpreted as a problem of certain new limits of law. Such limits can conventionally be called as the “semantic” ones because here we speak about different realities, re-created in our minds by concepts, and we navigate between these “worlds” by means of switching between the conceptual fields and connections of signs and meanings, as opposed to the case where we switch between various legal systems by means of travelling through different territories. If we follow this approach, many other cases may supplement the practical examples of legal collisions that relate to virtual worlds and virtual property, as long as they involve some kind of simulacra. In this sense, to summarize, the core idea of this paper is that most of the legal collisions that are conventionally related to “virtual reality”, in fact, imply a broader problem that can be re-conceptualized as the problem of legal significance of the artifacts of media reality, or the “attitude” of law to various simulacra. Hence, the problem of the “magic circle” pertaining e.g. to the online multiplayer games context in general and to virtual property in particular actually is just a tip of the iceberg. A good example of the broader field would be the problems of applying Internet content restriction rules which exist in modern Russia to imaginary, humorous and other “unserious” contexts (or, better to say, this is the question of how to define when the context is “serious enough” for the purposes of law and when it is not). If we look into this problem from the standpoint of legal interpretation or application of law, it appears that it can be explained by means of H.L.A. Hart’s idea of “core” and “penumbra” (also, this problem also naturally is the problem of absurdity and common sense in law). Artifacts of media reality are somewhere in the penumbra. It is required then both for theoretical and practical purposes to find a way to connect those artifacts which are not simulacra, to the core meaning of certain concept-word used in the respective legal text, or to explain why this is not the case. In the end, what is suggested in this paper, is to employ a two-tier test comprising of the “criterion of reality” and the “criterion of seriousness”, based on the notion of generalized symbolic media from the field of sociology (in the latest interpretation by S. Abrutyn). An object of social relationship can have legal significance in case it has “socio-currency value”, i.e. it serves as an external referent of value of certain generalized symbolic medium and as such has this kind of intersubjective value. The “criterion of reality” is satisfied when an artifact of media reality has functional correspondence to the core meaning of a concept-word used in the respective legal text (so that it formally falls within the scope of a legal concept-word), this is a formal criterion. The “criterion of seriousness” is satisfied when an artifact of media reality by itself is an external referent of value and has “socio-currency value" (so that it would not be absurd by default to apply law to it), this is a substantial criterion. If both criteria are satisfied, then it is a kind of “easy case” where there is no absurdity at all. If just one of the criteria is satisfied, it is a case requiring “balancing” or “weighing” of values. If both criteria are not satisfied (just as when, in most cases, you engage in “interaction” with non-player characters of videogames, but not in all cases, to be fair), it would be absurd to consider the object of the corresponding relationship to be of legal significance in this particular…
SPIIRAS Proceedings
интеллект и автономные устройства в контексте права: о разработке первого в России закона о робот... more интеллект и автономные устройства в контексте права: о разработке первого в России закона о робототехнике. Аннотация. В настоящее время в России отсутствуют системные исследования в области регулирования робототехники как совокупности общественных отношений, предметом которых являются производство, распределение и использование автоматизированных технических систем. В связи с этим необходима разработка дорожной карты, подразумевающей, в том числе и разработку нового предметного законодательства. Регулирование робототехники должно строиться на междисциплинарных началах и включать гражданско-правовую, информационноправовую и административно-правовую составляющие. При этом законодательство о робототехнике должно развиваться в несколько этапов. Прежде всего, с учетом анализа приоритетов и технологических возможностей, необходима подготовка и принятие государственной концепции развития отечественной робототехники с блоком вопросов, посвященных праву и законодательству. Затем-разработка и принятие основ законодательства в данной сфере, включающих классификацию роботов и сфер их применения, определение прав и обязанностей различных субъектов правоотношений, основания и порядок учета или регистрации моделей роботов и критерии отнесения роботов к источникам повышенной опасности. После разработки закона о робототехнике потребуются «пакетные» изменения в конкретных отраслях, где роботы уже внедряются или их внедрение ожидается. Последним этапом должна стать ведомственная корректировка подзаконных актов. Кроме того, в статье предлагается к рассмотрению текст первого законопроекта, призванного инициировать дискуссию в области правового регулирования робототехники.
Derecho PUCP, 2013
El presente articulo se detiene a analizar el papel de la judicatura en el sistema constitucional... more El presente articulo se detiene a analizar el papel de la judicatura en el sistema constitucional ruso a partir de la Constitucion de 1993, aquella que sustituyo a la Constitucion de 1978 de la Republica Socialista Federativa de la Union Sovietica que estaba basada en la ideologia comunista. Asi, con la finalidad de dar cuenta del nuevo orden constitucional, enfatiza en importantes aristas como el principio de separacion de poderes, los derechos humanos y libertades reconocidos constitucionalmente, la interrelacion entre la jurisprudencia de los organos internacionales de derechos humanos y la Corte Constitucional de Rusia, entre otros.