The St Petersburg International Legal Forum begins its work: experts at St Petersburg University to discuss today’s legal challenges

The first day of the St Petersburg International Legal Forum is expected to hold an expert meeting at 2pm in the Congress Centre. The meeting will primarily focus on how to find ways to restore trust between states and international organisations and include a report by Sergei Belov, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Head of the Department of Constitutional Law at St Petersburg University. The experts will discuss human rights mechanisms, the impact of the politicisation of human rights on the work of international courts, and promising ways to improve the effectiveness of legal institutions.

The Justice Quarter will host a session titled ‘Lawfare — the Instrumentalisation of Western Courts for Economic Power Politics’, where the Russia’s leading lawyers will analyse the state of the Western judicial system in the context of geopolitical changes and the possibility of drawing practical conclusions for the Russian judiciary. The moderator will be Karin Kneissl, Head of the G.O.R.K.I. Centre at St Petersburg University and ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria. She will also take part in the discussion ‘Sovereignty and Universality in a World Undergoing Global Transformation’ to find a balance between civilisational diversity and global unity.

During the St Petersburg International Legal Forum, the St Petersburg University will host a ceremonial opening of a monument to the outstanding Russian statesman and lawyer Mikhail Speransky, one of the first honorary professors of St Petersburg University. The event marks the continuity of traditions, since the University’s experts are committed to systematising legislation and improving the regulatory and legal sphere to develop civil society.

The discussion ‘Digital Tools of Justice: Will Computers Replace Lawyers?’ will include a report by Vladislav Arkhipov, Head of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law at St Petersburg University. The report will focus on how to protect intellectual property of developers of artificial intelligence systems and discuss the limits of possible changes in their functionality.

The conference ‘Russia—Asia: Legal Mechanisms as a Driver of Multilateral Cooperation and Strategic Partnership’ will include a report by Aleksandr Alekseenko, Academic Director of the programme ‘Law (with Advanced Studies in Chinese Language and Law)’, Associate Professor in the Department of Commercial Law at St Petersburg University. The report will focus on issues related to the effectiveness of legal mechanisms in the context of the development of the economic and investment potential of partner countries. Experts will analyse the necessary conditions for improving legal support for cross-border investment and trade cooperation.

The lawyer will also take part in the discussion relating to how to strengthen legal partnership between the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in the context of growing regional integration. The focus is on the unification of legal education, the elimination of barriers for international lawyers, areas of cooperation between legal organisations and the role of the state in the development of legal interaction.

Among the key issues to be discussed at the forum will be the value aspect of uniting religious systems, their influence on legal regulation and policy, regulation of the activities of religious organisations, and historical and theoretical issues of the fundamental interaction of religion and law. The discussion will cover not only interfaith dialogue, but also an interdisciplinary approach that bridges philosophy, history and sociology. According to experts, it is vital to take into account the religious cults of small indigenous peoples of Russia, whose rights are protected by the Constitution. These and other issues will be considered during the session ‘Law and Religion’, moderated by Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University, the head of the consortium of universities entrusted with the task to conduct research in the field of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values.

The forum will bring together prominent representatives of religious and academic communities. Among the speakers are the following: Fedor Lukianov, Chairman of the Patriarchal Commission on Family Issues, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood; Ravil Pancheev, Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of St Petersburg and the North-West Region of Russia; Igor Tantlevskii, Head of the Department of Jewish Theology and Jewish Culture at St Petersburg University; Dmitrii Shmonin, Director of the Institute of Theology at St Petersburg University; and Aleksandr Shchipkov, Rector of the Russian Orthodox University of St John the Theologian. The discussion will also include reports by Viacheslav Kondurov, Associate Professor in the Department of Constitutional Law at St Petersburg University, and Roman Svetlov, Professor in the Department of Theology and Church History at St Petersburg University.

The discussion of the value foundations of law will include a meeting titled ‘Value-Based Foundations of Temporality in Private Law’, moderated by Anton Rudokvas, Acting Head of the Department of Civil Law at St Petersburg University. Lawyers will discuss revolutionary changes in law enforcement practice concerning the time factor in private law, in particular in the context of prescription and acquisitive limitation. Particular attention will be paid to the value foundations of new approaches and application of the principles of good faith, reasonableness and fairness to the institution of limitation.

Researchers at St Petersburg University are working on a normative dictionary that will consolidate the concept of traditional values.

Apart from the issues related to private law, the St Petersburg International Legal Forum will also touch upon the topic of forming legal policy based on traditional values. During the session ‘"In the Beginning was the Word": Interpreting Traditional Values and Their Integration into Law’ that focuses on the legal interpretation of traditional values, Konstantin Chuychenko, Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation, Member of the Board of Trustees of St Petersburg University, a graduate of the University; Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University; Abbess Kseniia, Head of the Legal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate; and Aleksandr Savenkov, Director of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, will discuss how to embody in law the values outlined in Presidential Executive Order No 809, protecting society from destructive influence and maintaining a balance in regulating the cultural sphere.

Experts from St Petersburg University will also be active participants in the events of the last day of the St Petersburg International Legal Forum, where they will present their research results on the most pressing issues of law and society. The programme will open with a session titled ‘Using Stock Exchange Indices to Determine Market Prices in Legal Procedures’ moderated by Dmitrii Petrov, Professor in the Department of Commercial Law at St Petersburg University. On the same day, the University lawyers will present reports covering a wide range of topics from the historical roots of legal ideas in the Decembrist movement to today’s mechanisms for reducing tax conflicts and problems of regulating corporate relations in the context of geopolitical instability. The key topic will concern our understanding of both historical lessons and modern challenges. Particular attention will be paid to the reports by Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Member of the Board of Trustees of St Petersburg University, a graduate of the University, who will present reports on the lessons of World War II, counteracting neo-Nazism and legal aspects of migration policy.

The 15th International Youth Legal Forum will be held as part of the St Petersburg International Legal Forum, which will bring together students, young lawyers, teachers, mentors, and representatives of public authorities, scientific community, and businesses of the Russian Federation and other countries. St Petersburg University experts will talk about the legal foundations of machine learning, regulation of computer games, education of social lawyers in legal clinics, international commercial arbitration, and arbitration reform in China.

The St Petersburg International Legal Forum will feature a presentation of new publications prepared by leading scholars from St Petersburg University. The forum will feature a presentation of two textbooks at once: ‘Criminal Law of Russia’ (edited by Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University; Viktoriia Priakhina, Associate Professor of St Petersburg University; and Vladislav Shchepelkov, Professor of St Petersburg University) and ‘Forensic Science’ (edited by Vladimir Burlakov, Professor of St Petersburg University, and Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University). The forum will also present some of the issues of the highly-cited journals ‘Pravovedenie’ and ‘Vestnik of St Petersburg University. Law’. They are a valuable source for anyone interested in current issues of jurisprudence and law.

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of St Petersburg University, and a graduate of St Petersburg University, published an article in the journal ‘Pravovedenie’, published by St Petersburg University. 

SPbU alumni Dmitry Medvedev's official Telegram channel is also available in English.

The St Petersburg International Legal Forum will feature a stand by St Petersburg University. It will present the project ‘Monitoring Law Enforcement’, that is one of the most important projects of St Petersburg University in the field of law. The stand will provide information about the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Research on Control and Supervision, the Research Institute of the State Language, and the Legal Clinic at St Petersburg University.

 

The industry-specific department of the M Gorky Scientific Library at the Faculty of Law will present rare archival documents and books dedicated to the 180th anniversary of Fyodor Martens, the outstanding lawyer and diplomat, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

To mark the 80th anniversary of the Victory in World War II, the forum will feature an exhibition about the feat of Meletii Malyshev, a student and war hero.

The forum will also include the exhibition ‘Graduates of the Faculty of Law — Famous Lawyers’ and offer a wide selection of legal literature from the St Petersburg University Publishing House.