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The research is devoted to the reflection of the economic activity of citizens of the Czechoslovak Republic in the Russian Far East during the Civil War. The main focus is on the Czechoslovak Central Economic Commission created to solve the economic problems of the considerable military contingent concentrated in Vladivostok awaiting departure to Europe. The activities of the commission have not yet been reflected in historiography; there have not been introduced into scientific use the documents that allow reliably presenting the structure, personnel, main field of activity, and contribution to the solution to problems vital for former prisoners of war and members of their families who were in a foreign land. The research is based on documents of the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East, primarily on the funds of government institutions located in Vladivostok. Particular attention is paid to the agreements concluded by the Czechoslovak Central Economic Commission with the Provisional Government of the Far East - the Primorsky Regional Zemstvo Administration, the Central All-Russian Union of Consumer Societies (Tsentrosoyuz). It is shown that the status of the Czechoslovak Central Economic Commission changed during the Civil War. If initially it acted as a government agency, then later as a private commercial enterprise, the activities of which ended in criminal prosecution.

The review on the monograph by Igor V. Kolosov “History of Legal Consequentialism: Effectiveness of Law” analyzes and evaluates the content of the monograph. The review emphasizes and investigates contribution of the monograph to the modern development of historical and theoretical ideas about effectiveness of legal regulation and law enforcement, as well as the main practical conclusions of the monograph. In the modern period, when confrontation of various kinds of interests is evident, profit and result are the main guidelines in practical activities almost everywhere. Due to this, common legal and human values, including the need to ensure equality and justice, as well as issues of general legal and human values are more relevant and significant than ever. This makes us refer to classical thought, requires adaptation of ideas formed throughout the history of legal thought to modern realities to improve the existing legal order.

Legal utilitarianism is attractive for practice because this field of legal thought and philosophy of law sets out a particular direction of legal policy and statutory regulation (focus on the utility principle in decision-making) that can, under certain reservations, be used to improve people's lives. Most scholars conclude that the first utilitarian was J. Bentham. However, scientific studies prevalently do not involve the analysis of earlier legal doctrines in relation to the use of utility principle. Thus, the relevance and scientific novelty of analysis of the origin of legal utilitarianism is associated with the need to develop a theoretical component of this doctrine that is of current interest for the legal policy and to enlarge the underdeveloped - in our opinion - theoretical framework of legal utilitarianism genesis. The purpose is to identify the first theory in the history of legal thought, which can be classified as legal utilitarianism, and, if such theory is the J. Bentham's utilitarianism, to determine the reasons why earlier theories based on the utility principle cannot be classified as legal utilitarianism. The theoretical basis of the article is materials such as original sources by various thinkers whose works are based on the utility principle and scientific papers of European and the US researchers. For the purpose of the article, the following methodological tools were used: metaphysical (dialectic method), general (analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, analogy, comparison) and specific (historical and legal-historical) scientific methods. The main outcome of the research is identification of distinct features of pre-Bentham legal thought based on the utility principle and identification of pre-requisites and basis (provisions which had formed the basis) for J. Bentham's utilitarianism, as well as the answer to the question: Was J. Bentham the first legal utilitarian?.

The law, like everything in nature and society, is subordinated to universal forms of existence of the material world. At the same time, the general characteristics of objective reality, the most important forms of existence such as space and time determine the essence and specific features of the law formation and development in different regions. First, the Article reveals the features of the legal space. The space is chorus of significant interrelations, the way of organization, the «scale» of the influence of legal remedies on social life, etc. The space contributes to the understand of the law environment as integrity, also due to the space a common language and general rules are possible. For human history the geographical space is permanent and almost unchanged. However, the social practice is becoming less and less dependent only on these conditions. On the basis of his practice, a person seeks to change the social life and the substance of culture. The variety of legal systems is due to various reasons. The Natural and geographical factors, features of civilizational technologies determine the different conditions and needs of life of different countries and communities. Second, the article defines the specificity of the legal time. The time and law are fundamental categories of humanitarian knowledge. At first sight, these categories are not quite proportionate: the time is a category related to all inanimate and living matter, to social phenomena, and also to cognition; the law reflects solely the form of existence of social reality. Nevertheless, in the social sphere and in the field of normativity, the time and law are similar to consider their role in the people's lives. The effect of the law is connected with the effect of the time, because the law specifies the basis for possible behavior. The spatial-temporal characteristics cut across the legal culture and legal life.

The article examines the existing practice of using blockchain technology in law, politics and public administration, as well as the prospects of its further use in these areas. The authors approach the problem from the point of view of a systematic approach, which allows to justify the applicability of this technology to solving the problems facing modern law, politics and public administration in a dynamically developing information society. Considering the features of blockchain technology application in each of the three selected areas, the authors establish a pattern according to which the introduction of this technology into the sphere of policy is usually preceded by its introduction into legal and bureaucratic practice. Based on the identified features and patterns of the process of introduction of blockchain technology in law, politics and public administration, the authors analyze the prospects of expanding the scope of this technology in these areas, compare Russian practice with foreign experience.