Topical issues of legislation in the electronic environment considered at the Presidential Library

On April 18, 2019 the IX Annual International Scientific and Practical Conference "Law and Information: Theoretical and Practical Issues" was held at the Presidential Library as part of the annual Legal Forum.

This event brought together experts in the field of law enforcement, information law, and legal aspects related to informatization. Today, informatization is an integral part of our life, it is impossible to separate it from other spheres”, - said Ilya Bykovnikov, Director General of the Presidential Library, in his welcoming speech.

In turn, Sergey Markin, Chairman of the Federal Arbitration Court of the North-Western District, emphasized: “For me, informatization is of interest to a greater extent as a social and psychological process that changes a person’s life in a certain way”. According to S. Markin, for the Russian justice system modern technologies, computer equipment are “an integral part of the judicial process”.

The keynote speaker at the plenary session was one of the authors of the current Constitution of Russia, Vice-Rector of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Chairman of the Board of Directors of a non-profit higher educational institution “Shenzhen MSU-BIT University” Professor Sergey Shakhrai. Via video conferencing-mode from Moscow he spoke on the subject ““Digital” Constitution. The political system of the digital society”.

The well-known lawyer admitted that he was always happy to visit the Presidential Library, to present his books here, and to participate in the discussion of new ideas. And these meetings have a continuation. “Exactly a year ago, in April, I first presented here my vision of the prospects for the development of Russian law in the digital age. Then I made a special emphasis on the problem of the protection of human rights and freedoms in a totally digital world. This issue has not gone unnoticed. In December last year, I published a large article on this topic”, - he noted. According to Sergey Shakhray, the “digital future” has come, but we were not quite ready for it. People are still not able to most effectively manage complex and diverse processes in the digital environment. However, over time, the lawyer predicts an increasingly active development of digitalization processes.  

In addition, a solemn ceremony of signing an agreement between the Presidential Library and the National Center for Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus was held at the conference. Director of the National Center for Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus Yevgeny Kovalenko noted: “For us this is a very important step in our international and interdepartmental cooperation - the creation of the Center for Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus on the basis of the Presidential Library. This is an important legal, informational, social, cultural project”.

In his turn, Director General of the Presidential Library Ilya Bykovnikov said: “In the year of the 10th anniversary of the Presidential Library, it is gratifying to realize that we have more international partners that allow us not only to inform, but to do it using reliable sources on the basis of which a person can make independent conclusions”.

He added that now in the premises of the Presidential Library in St. Petersburg, everyone has access to the information retrieval system ETALON-ONLINE developed by the Belarusian National Center for Legal Information.

The conference also included meetings of individual sections of the Scientific and Practical Conference: “Digitization of society and “informatization” of law: theory issues”, “Digitization and development of public and private law branches”, “Digitization of state power”, and also “Law, legal informing, library activities”.

The IX Annual Scientific and Practical Conference on Legal Regulation in the Electronic Environment is dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Presidential Library. Its materials will be published in the annual edition of the Presidential Library – collected works on “Electronic Legislation” (indexed in the RISC).

Let us add that on April 9, within the framework of the Legal Forum, the Presidential Library also held expert hearings named “The principle of consistency in law: historical experience and prospects”.

Legal topics are one of the priorities of the Presidential Library. In particular, such electronic collections as “The Rule of Law in Russia. Past and Present”, “Law and Information: Contemporary Studies”, “Legal Regulation of Media Activities” and others are formed and are available online on the Presidential Library’s portal.