Introduction. The contribution of the famous Russian philosopher and legal scholar N. N. Alekseev to the doctrine of the values in law is studied based on his monograph “Fundamentals of the Philosophy of Law”. It is emphasised that, even though the interest (especially in recent years) to the theoretical heritage of N. N. Alekseev has increased, the analysis of the methodology of his approach to understanding the legal axiology in combination with the scientific, metaphysical and religious definitions is still required. N. N. Alekseev's philosophy of law plays a significant role in strengthening the legal values in Russia and affirming the legal culture, legitimacy and legal order. The aim of present research is to analyse N. N. Alekseev's philosophical and legal concepts concerning the values in law, to determine the methodology of his approach to understanding the legal axiology in combination with the scientific, metaphysical and religious views and to prove the prognostic importance of his original concept.

   Materials and Methods. The research material comprised the results of the analysis of the theoretical provisions of N. N. Alekseev, more specifically the analysis of the chapter of the book “Fundamentals of the Philosophy of Law” dealing with the problems of legal values. The dialectical method of cognition was the main method used for the research, along with the general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis and the legalistic method. By implementing the historical approach to the evaluation of the materials, the authors adhered to the comprehensiveness and objectivity of the analysis. The authors strived to demonstrate both the holistic logic of N. N. Alekseev’s philosophy of law and his understanding of the legal axiology in combination with the scientific, metaphysical and religious definitions.

   Results. In the present work, the authors have analysed the mindset of the Russian philosopher and legal scholar N. N. Alekseev, whose views concerning the values in law were neglected in the national juridical science during most of the twentieth century. The ethical and legal concepts of N. N. Alekseev and the critical attitudes to this issue presented in the theoretical works of the various scientists have been reflected upon. Special attention has been given to the profound adherence of N. N. Alekseev to the idea of immanent interrelation of the main problems of law with the value aspects. The article defines the prognostic importance of the original concept formulated by the philosopher and legal scholar.

   Discussion and Conclusion. The analysis of the methodology of N. N. Alekseev's philosophical and legal mindset is important for the Russian juridical science. Many of the ideas contained in his works have already had a strong impact and continue to affect the research of the modern philosophers and legal scholars concerning the topic of the legal axiology. The ahead of his time prescient conclusions of N. N. Alekseev about the role of value factors in the future development of the Russian state are of considerable interest in the context of the further development of Russia as a law-governed state.

   Introduction. The opportunity of the multinational people of Russia to fulfil independently its vital needs becomes extremely important in the context of today’s civilizational confrontation. The demand for independence also refers to the philosophical doctrines aimed at forming the national worldview in terms of setting the goals, objectives, methods and strategies of ensuring the national self-preservation, self-sustaining and self-reproduction. As a rule, the borrowed foreign theories do not correspond to the national values and objective conditions required for existence of our people and plant the “seeds of manipulation” into the domestic systems of ensuring the national security. Thus, studying the domestic background of philosophical, religious and theoretical concepts underlying the national worldview becomes relevant, because although the institutions of undeclared struggle against the internal entropy have the universal importance, their institutional study throughout the history of mankind requires revealing the mental features of the society where they exist, since each society and state has its own path to sustainable development.

   The present research aims at elucidating and updating the classical philosophical and domestic religious doctrines for forming the national worldview on ensuring the national security of contemporary Russia.

   Materials and Methods. The research was based on the results of the analysis and index definition of more than 1 000 monographs and dissertations on the issue of national security. The multifacetedness of the philosophical foundations of the institution of national security induced application of the cross-scientific and cross-sectoral approaches, the use of the works on anthropology, philosophy, theology and history. The main method used in the research was reviewing the history of philosophical and religious doctrines through the prism of the theory of legal order of society and the theory of national security. The authors have also used a number of general scientific and specific scientific research methods — logical, system-structuring, as well as comparative legal methods.

   Results. In the present work, the authors refer to the domestic religious and classical philosophical doctrines as a benchmark of the unified worldview that had ensured the survival of the people in a series of historical challenges. It is stated that the Orthodox Christianity, as a religious doctrine multiplying the altruism of the people, managed to create the conciliarity as the unified ecclesiastic and secular worldview, which became a part of the efficient system of ensuring the security of a human, society and the state, thus predetermined turning to the Orthodoxy of the majority of the population of Russia and other nations.

   Discussion and Conclusion. In the modern world dissemination of the philosophy of egoism as a mainstream behavioural strategy among the masses of people has resulted in elimination of the collective form of their existence in time and space. The beingness of a modern human outside the people’s framework, whereas he is a form of the people’s existence, has led to his “nongenuine existence”. Neither the past or future of being within the multinational people of the Russian Federation have become the objects of security for a human and his communities, but his everyday life — “being there”(Da-sein), “being here”. Due to his egoism, a human does not recognise himself a form of existence of something bigger, thus cuts himself off the immortality of his people’s being. The attempt to present himself as a human without the Motherland, a citizen of the world, leads him to the breakaway from the environment and society where he lives. Such a human does not need to preserve the past and think about the future. At the current stage, the multinational people of the Russian Federation needs the unified national worldview for its efficient self-preservation, self-sustaining and self-reproduction. Taking into account the domestic experience of the radical egoism of the capitalism and the wasteful altruism of the socialism, the national worldview should be based not on the economic theories, but on the traditional religions, universal human values and the common history of existence of the peoples on the territory of Russia.

   Introduction. The XXI century is becoming not only an era of great discoveries and achievements, but also a time of extreme anthropogenic pressure the humans have on the various ecosystems. Alongside, the condition of all the natural components of the environment (water, forests, lands, air, etc.) deteriorates, which affects the human life and health, food quality, working and resting conditions. As soon as the state and society became aware about the danger of this trend, the various legal acts regulating the negative impact of the humans on the nature and containing a mechanism of ensuring the ecological rights of a person and a citizen began to be adopted. One of such ensuring mechanisms is the environmental liability institution, which envisages the liability of the environmental law breakers to be subject to the certain measures of the state coercion (of personal, property or organisational nature). The present article studies the efficiency of this mechanism.

   The aim of the paper is to investigate the general theory of legal liability for environmental offences, to express the authors' point of view on the debatable issues of improving the regulation thereof, as well as to demonstrate the dynamics of the environmental liability at the regional scale (in three Caspian regions).

   Materials and Methods. The research was carried out using the methods of scientific cognition commonly applied in Russia: general scientific (dialectical method) and specific scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, historical case-specific, logical, comparative legal, systemic methods and others).

   Results. Within the research the theory and practice of legal liability for environmental offences (in the frame of the criminal, administrative, civil laws) have been analysed. The authors have substantiated their point of view on the main debatable issues in the frame of each type of legal liability, expressed a number of critical comments regarding the concept of independent environmental liability, implying reparation of environmental damage. Cases of judicial practice for the regional level environmental offenses (in three Caspian regions of the Russian Federation — the Astrakhan region, the
Republics of Dagestan and Kalmykia) have been presented, the identified trends have been assessed.

   Discussion and Conclusion. The conducted research is important for the Russian legal science, since the efficiency of functioning the environmental liability institution is a condition for achieving the sustainable development goals and transition to the green economy, however its current state arises a number of doctrinal and practical issues. Among them could be distinguished: the insufficient activity of the Russian Federation subjects in development of the administrative liability sub-institution for the environmental offences, on-going problem of differentiation between the administrative and criminal liability, high latency of the environmental crimes, inefficient work of the law-enforcement authorities, insufficient elaboration of the issues of environmental damage reparation (e.g., harm to the health of citizens, compensation for the moral damage caused by the environmental offense, etc.). The study of judicial practice of three Caspian regions made it possible to conclude that within their boundaries there is no distinct specificity that would differ them completely from the other subjects of the Russian Federation having access to the sea or located in the large river basins. The same as in the other regions, the cases of soil, water and air pollution; poaching; the nature reserve protection regime violations; negligence of the owners towards the sunken vessels; restricted access to the shores of water bodies, etc. are quite widespread here. In these regions the specificity of liability lies not in the statistics of the separate offenses, but in the need to combat the environmental offences at the scale of the whole Caspian Sea, which requires coordination and political will of the Governments of all five littoral states (Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Iran).

   Introduction. The history of the Soviet state law is of great interest to the modern researchers. A number of aspects of the New Economic Policy development and implementation in Russia are presented in the works of historical, economic and political science scholars. However, in our opinion, the number of research referring to the 20^s of the XX century conducted by the legal science scholars is definitely not enough. The article investigates the evolution of the state-legal foundations of the Soviet agrarian system as reflected in the USSR Constitution of 1924, the RSFSR Constitution of 1925, the RSFSR Land Code of 1922, the USSR General Principles of Land Use and Land Management of 1928, and in a number of decrees and other normative legal acts.

   The relevance of this topic is induced by the theoretical and practical significance of the legal regulation of the agrarian sphere of the society and the reform of the agrarian policy of the modern Russia.

   On the one hand, the relevance of the topic lies in the need to study the transitional state of the Soviet agrarian legislation, since, according to V. I. Lenin, the New Economic Policy (NEP) implied “transition from the civil war to civil peace”. On the other hand, in the late 20^s of the XX century the Soviet leadership had abandoned many of the NEP legislation principles. However, six decades later they were successfully revived and developed in the People's Republic of China during the economic reform.

   The aim of this study is to reveal the evolution features of the Soviet agrarian system state-legal foundations of the 20^s of the XX century.

   Materials and Methods. The research methodology comprises the general scientific and specific juridical methods, including the historical-legal and legalistic (dogmatic) methods. Due to the rapidly changing attitude towards these methods in the scientific community, the priority in the research has been given to the modern sources. The authors' concept statements have been analysed, which, in synthesis with the authors' empirical background, made it possible to formulate a number of new provisions.

   Results. The main acts that had legally formalized the state-legal foundations of the Soviet agrarian system in the 20^s of the XX century were studied. The huge number of the agricultural laws is explained by the decision of the Soviet party and state leadership of the early 20^s to start the recovery of economics with the agrarian sector — the backbone of the national economy of that period. The features of the NEP are elucidated not only as the change of the economic policy, but as the integrated legal policy, being a combination of the public and private law regulation upon absolute predominance of the public principles. It has been substantiated that transition to the NEP entailed the abolishment of the agrarian laws of the times of “war communism” and return to the principles of the peasant Mandate of 1917 — the most important element of the Decree on Land. Deep controversy of the agricultural legislation of the NEP period has been established, which in no way should be defined as a time of abandoning the concept and practice of the collectivization of agriculture. The party and state leadership continued to consider the individual peasant land use as having no economical prospect and dangerous for building socialism.

   Discussion and Conclusion. The evolution features and distinctions of the Soviet agrarian system state-legal foundations of the 20^s of the XX century have been revealed. In normative legal acts and party-state documents of the studied period, the preference continued to be given to the collective farms with the various degree of land and means of production collectivization. Communes and the state-owned agricultural enterprises, sovkhozs (Soviet farms), were considered the most desirable farms, as the ones most closely corresponding to the socialist ideal. The agricultural cooperation, which
highest form were the kolkhozs (collective farms), was also appreciated by the authorities.

   The theoretical significance of the conducted research lies in the fact that the state-legal foundations of the socialist agrarian system had been set in the studied period, when the policy of collectivization and public agriculture was stipulated in the Soviet legislation, the rules and norms for creation, organization and operation of the various forms of collective farms were developed, wherein the agricultural commune was considered the form closest to the socialist ideals.

   Taking into account all the above, further investigation of the process of developing the model Charters of communes, artels and partnerships for joint cultivation of land seems a forward-looking objective.

   Introduction. One of the primary important objects for ensuring the national security of any state, as an independent and self-sustained subject of the system of global policy coordinates, is its sovereignty. The sovereignty is the fundamental category in formulating the principles of the national constitutional and international law. Ensuring the sovereignty is one of the most important functions and tasks of the modern Russian state. The article analyses the state policy and its legal basis for ensuring the national security, it focuses on the threats and crises in both the international and national security systems.

   The research is relevant due to studying the selective approach of some states to fulfilling their obligations to adhere to the commonly recognised principles of the international relations.

   It is emphasised, that although formally observed, the principle of national sovereignty of the states is constantly violated when referred to the weaker states according to the medieval “right of the strong”. The topical issues of counteracting the threats to national security are investigated. Attention is focused on the need to develop the measures aimed at timely and efficient prevention thereof.

   The aim of the study is to analyse the concept of “sovereignty”, identify the external and internal threats to the sovereignty of Russia and develop recommendations on the strategic national priorities.

   Materials and Methods. The research was conducted using the general and specific methods of scientific cognition, in particular, the dialectical method, content analysis of the normative legal acts, juridical comparativistics, as well as systemic, structural-functional, logical and other methods.

   Results. Within the research such concepts as “sovereignty”, “national interests of the Russian Federation and strategic national priorities” have been analysed. The assessment of the current state of the world order is given, as well as the directions and trends of its reform are studied. The external and internal threats to the sovereignty of Russia have been identified and strategic goals in the field of ensuring the national security have been outlined.

   Discussion and Conclusion. Based on the results of the conducted research, it was proved that the qualitative change of the methodological and conceptual foundations of the national and international security is required. To counteract the different national security threats, it is necessary to adhere to the national priorities, goals and the developed strategy. The present paper deems to be important for the Russian juridical science, as well as for the subjects of lawmaking and law enforcement.

   Introduction. National security of any state is ensured through development of the various spheres of its life — spiritual, political, military, economic and others. However, the fundamental factor ensuring existence of any society is availability of accessible quality and quantity of food to the citizens. Therefore, the goal of the state socio-economic policy of Russia
is to ensure people’s food security. The article analyses the state policy and practices of Russia in countering the threats to the food security of the country in the modern difficult geopolitical settings.

   The relevance of studying the food security system of the Russian state is induced by one of the priorities of the state socio-economic policy implying the development of the food security threat preventing and countering measures as the fundamental condition of existence of the society.

   The aim of the study is to analyse the criteria of the state governance efficiency on ensuring the food security of the country, to study the state of the art in this field as well as to identify the existing threats and propose the countering measures.

   Materials and Methods. The research was conducted using the methods of structural-functional and statistical analysis, content analysis of the normative legal acts in the field of food security, at both national and international levels, the comparative-historical method, comparativism and other methods.

   Results. The state of the art of the food security system of Russia, which is an integral part of the national security of the state, has been analysed. The regulatory documents and statistical data on the state of the art of the food security of Russia have been investigated. The measures for ensuring the Russian Federation food security have been proposed through expansion of the domestic production of the environmentally friendly and safe for the human health products and other kind of products that is a necessary condition for preserving the population and the nature of our country and the decent standard of living of the Russian citizens.

   Discussion and Conclusion. The degree of ensuring the state food security has significantly improved, but has not reached the normative threshold values for the whole range of goods. Provision of the high-quality affordable food to the Russian citizens remains a riskogenics factor. The economic sanctions imposed by the Western countries against Russia are a new
form of the hybrid warfare. The conclusions drawn upon the research aim to supplement and expand the scientific knowledge on the conditions of ensuring the food security of the Russian state that is the most important concern of the government, because food is the basic condition for existence of all the living beings on the planet. The independence of the state and its national sovereignty depend on ensuring the food security.

   Introduction. Due to its antisocial and destructive nature, terrorism constitutes a particular threat to the public, national and international security. It is one of the global problems of our time, which leads to the increased tension, has the high conflict potential and extremely negative effect on development and life of a society, a separate state and the global
community on the whole. Cooperation between the national states and the international organisations for combating the international terrorism is most often restricted to the individual cases. In this context, the principles of law, which represent the concentrated essence of the universal values and ideals underlying the legal regulation of the social relationships, become particularly acute and relevant.

   The present article aims to analyse the theoretical and practical aspects of the principle of legal certainty in counteracting the international terrorism.

   Materials and Methods. The object of the study is the principle of legal certainty as a tool of counteracting the international terrorism. The dialectical method of cognition was used as the main research method, the general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis and the specific legal methods (empirical and legalistic) were also used.

   Results. It has been proved that the spread of extremism and terrorism constitutes a threat to the present day international and national legal order. The necessity to formulate a unified general definition of the concept of “terrorism” and to implement the principle of legal certainty in counteracting the international terrorism has been substantiated.

   Discussion and Conclusion. The research has revealed the need for an optimal and efficient solution for implementation of the non bis in idem (“not twice for the same”) principle with regard to the terrorist crimes (primarily of the international nature), endowing the universal jurisdiction over them, which allows criminal prosecution of the criminals regardless of their location, citizenship or territory, where the individual crime has been committed. The theoretical and practical value of the results obtained is the capacity thereof to be used both in the field of scientific research (for further theoretical study of the problems of counteracting the international terrorism) and in the field of law-making (for improving the Russian Federation legislation on counteracting terrorism). Bearing in mind future research, the special attention should be paid to the optimisation of the legal framework, enhancement of the regulatory legal mechanisms aiming to prevent in an optimal way the international terrorism as a social phenomenon.