At a time when judicial independence, or rather the lack of it in various European states, such as Poland or Hungary, is discussed, this seems an opportune moment to briefly reflect on judicial independence as it exists in Germany. While Germany has certainly gone a long way in trying to ensure judicial independence, it cannot be overlooked that the German system has some major deficiencies that threaten judicial independence. Despite much criticism in and outside of Germany, there has so far been no serious attempt in Germany to finally bring its rules on judicial independence more in line with European standards. This short article will first explain how judicial independence is guaranteed in Germany, before examining the system’s weaknesses.

In the 21^st century the place and role of different social institutions changes essential. An independent and self-sufficient person becomes in a greater measure a political actor and demands the participation right enlargement not only in public activities but in the decision making about the main issues of his / her life. It leads under the informatization and digitalization conditions to the rapid individual actions’ volume growth and to the individual rationality increase which can have positive and negative consequences as well.

The local self-government — the nearest institute to citizens able to channel best of all others their needs — is also inside the transformation process. In Russia the above described processes develop in the more complicated and inconsistent context and require more attention to the decisions about self-government issues. The really acute manifestation of them is connected with a poor understanding in the society of a self-government role and place in the optimal and uniform quality of life providing on municipalities’ territory. At the time the Constitution of the Russian Federation is the solid foundation for localities functioning but it also consists of some contradictions.

New local self-government development tendencies in more developed systems with a longer history appear in multiple forms called in some actual research “diverse democracy”. Its meaning can become in a near future the crucial meaning.

The globalization process provoked the deep transformation of international law, political affairs and governance with controversial consequences. From the one hand, it stimulated the cosmopolitan project of global constitutionalism — transnational integration and unification of democratic standards; from the other hand, it resulted in fragmentation of international affairs, deterioration of constitutional democracy and the feeling of democracy deficits on national and international level of governance. Trying to balance the impact of these opposite trends, the author analyses positive and negative effects of globalization on constitutional development regarding such issues as transnational constitutionalization, democracy and national sovereignty, the changing place of multilayer constitutionalism, separation of powers, and system of global governance in the establishment of transnational constitutional democratic legitimacy.

The basic human needs include the need for public goods, which are met by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The State cannot be the sole producer of such goods, as the state monopoly in the public sector has a negative impact on the quality of public goods. Their production should be based on the competitive activities of non-commercial organizations (NCO). The participation of the state and local governments in the public sector should be limited primarily to financing the expenditure of citizens on the consumption of public goods, as well as to the regulation and control of the activities of NCO.

The constitutional basis for the creation of NCO, based on membership is the right to union, guaranteed art. 30 of Constitution of the Russian Federation. Creating conditions for the realization of the right of citizens to unite requires a system of guarantees, which includes socio-economic, political, legislative and other guarantees. A special role among the guarantees of the right of citizens to unite is played by its judicial protection against the misconduct of the state and local government. Such protection should be directed at the application of liability measures to public entities, their bodies and officials in the event of violations of the rights and legitimate interests of non-profit organizations or their members.

The improvement of constitutional legislation at the national level is impossible without taking into account the progressive transformations in the international system that predetermine progress in solving the political problems of our time. Democracy as a non-alternative political regime and the rule of law as the principle of social organization guarantee the legitimacy of decisions of the public authority of the state as long as the level of legal culture of the people allows you to remain within the legal framework, updating the interpretation of formal requirements of the constitutional law. The historical context of the modernization of the legal foundations of the state system affects legal awareness only to the extent that changes in the law give rise to progressive practices of human rights protection. Many ambitious political projects and current reforms have not been properly developed due to the fact that the practical results of the modernization of the constitutional system strongly contradicted the picture of social justice that formed the ideological basis for the humanitarian policy. Preserving legal traditions while updating the interpretation of the provisions of constitutional acts in the practice of constitutional justice can contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals to a much greater extent than those changes in the text of constitutional acts that carry the risks of political instability and violation of human rights.

The article is devoted to the implementation of the constitutional right of citizens of the Russian Federation to appeal to interstate bodies for the protection of human rights. The implementation of this right is considered on the example of the European Court of human rights and its rulings. The author gives an assessment of the changes in Russian legislation made on the basis of European Court rulings, as well as the difficulties faced by the state when reforming its legal system.

In the present work the category “education” is considered as a category of private law. The authors established the relationship of private law with educational legal relations, revealed that the peculiarity of educational legal relations is the combination of public and private principles in them, and it is also noted that education is an interdisciplinary field. Despite the predominantly public law (administrative) nature of educational legal relations, they also have a private law component, which was the object of this study. The article analyzes private legal relations in the field of education, explores the concept of educational services, describes the features of an educational agreement, shows the place of this agreement among other agreements on the provision of services. At the same time, the authors note that the educational contract belongs to the number of contracts for the provision of actual services, which determines its legal nature.

The article contains a theoretical and methodological analysis of the structure and typology of legal culture as a social phenomenon. Particular attention is paid to discussion issues, the author compares the various positions of modern scholars on this issue, explores the varieties and social forms of legal culture. The article attempts to scientifically analyze the elemental composition of the legal culture: legal mentality and legal consciousness, legal activity and legal acts.

This material is devoted to a review of expert speeches at the Conference “The Constitution of Russia: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”, held in St. Petersburg on December 9–10, 2019. The problems of modern federalism, human rights and freedoms, and their protection by the state and local self-government were discussed at the conference. The experts analyzed the origins and causes of the existing state structure in the Russian Federation, its features and possible development paths; problems of human rights and freedoms in Russia and in other states, as well as the current state of local self-government in Russia, trends in its preservation, expansion and bringing into line with modern requirements of social development in the context of globalization.

The article discusses a special form of professional development of employees of state-financed social welfare facilities — a methodological association, which is a public methodological collegial body consisting of representatives of the professional community. The experience of organizing and working methodological associations is presented on the materials of city methodological associations of leaders and specialists of social welfare facilities of St. Petersburg. A special place in the article is highlighted by the work of the city methodological association of managers and specialists of personnel departments, specialists in standardization and labor norming as a unique form of work in the field of professional development of specialists of personnel departments, specialists in regulation and labor norming.