As shipping still plays a central role in world trade, and geographic location is also of great political and economic importance, the article discusses not only the main problems of states that do not have access to high seas, but also their current issues, their significance and role in the difficult conditions of globalization of international economic relations. At the same time the author describes some problems related to the difficulties in improving transit-transport legal relations and the customs system of this group of countries. Although the lack of access to the sea creates certain problems, they are not insoluble ones as geographic factors are only one aspect of the issue. There could be practical solutions, including integrated approaches to the creation of transit corridors or general regional integration, legislation reforms, fundamental institutional and administrative changes. The article substantiates the active advancing of foreign economic cooperation and partnership of all states on a mutually beneficial, equal and civilized basis.

   The main purpose of this article is the synthetic analysis of the golden share institution in the Polish legal system.

   In the face of the progressing privatization process of the majority of state-owned enterprises after – which began in Poland in 1989 – the State Treasury wished to ensure itself a real possibility to influence the strategic companies decisions. The perfect instrument to do this was nothing but golden share. The author wants to present the functioning of the golden share in the Polish legal system and also briefly discuss the term State Treasury company. The explanation of this term – from the author’s point of view – is necessary for the reader to understand the divagations about the golden shares of State Treasury companies. The author intends to make it possible for the readers who do not deal with these issues during everyday business to understand the basics and the core of the institution of golden share as well as to enable more experienced persons to extend and consolidate their knowledge and furthermore – via rulings of Polish Supreme Court and Court of Justice of the European Union included in the article – to allow them to see this type of contract in practical terms.

   In the article, the author addresses very significant issues of regulation of the emergence and functioning of merchant shipping. The article analyses the activities of the legal section of All-Russian Congress of Sea Pilots on August 1, 1923 in Petrograd and outlines the development of shipping globally. The author is concerned with the current difficult situation with the domestic system of commercial shipping, which has not fully recovered in recent years. Fixed assets of the merchant sea and river fleet in Russia are old and in need of serious renovation. The issue of an objective need to improve the legal regulation of maritime interstate relations and to improve the legal regime of the seas and oceans in Russia and on the international level is also discussed in the article. The author shows the history of creating the legislation and regulations of merchant shipping, suggests the causative factors and possible ways of renovation.

   The article is devoted to dependent agent in double tax treaties of Russia. Current market conditions force companies to look for new jurisdictions to expand their activity. Under certain conditions, a foreign company’s activity in another jurisdiction may create a permanent establishment (hereinafter – PE). Profits of foreign legal entity (non-resident) is taxable in the Russian Federation if its activity creates a PE. Of course, companies are often concerned that this has not happened as it is related to tax economy. There are two types of PE in Russia – general PE and dependent agent. In this article, the authors conduct a legal analysis of the criteria for determining the agency type of the PE. A special attention is paid to Russian double tax treaties (hereinafter – DTT). The article also discusses the «Oriflame» case which addresses the issue of recognition of a legal entity as a dependent agent.

   Doctor of Law, Dmitry Meyer is a famous Russian civil lawyer and public figure (1819-1856). A graduate of Saint-Petersburg Chief Pedagogical Institute and Berlin University, from the spring of 1845 to 1855 he taught at the University of Kazan and was one of our best professors of jurisprudence. Dmitry Meyer is also famous for his positive influence on Leo Tolstoy, who studied Law at Kazan University but was not interested in jurisprudence – Tolstoy got writing inspiration with the help of Professor of Civil Law Dmitry Meyer. The All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference “Russian Civil Law in the XXI Century: Traditions and Contemporary Challenges” held on April 5, 2019 was dedicated to the 200^th birthday of Professor D.I. Meyer. The conference united many outstanding scholars and practicing lawyers who made great presentations and discussed current issues of Russian law, which developed inter alia under the influence of D. I. Meyer’s ideas.

   The article tells about the student model trial “All-Russian Judicial Debates”, which was held at the Law Faculty of Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University on 19-20 April 2019. The article highlights the main stages in the emergence of the Debate idea. It reveals topical issues of legal reality, raised in the framework of the event, and also outlines the results, which were reached at the discussion of these legal issues. In addition, the scientific-educational and scientific-practical components of the project are discussed. In addition to the above, the article tells not only about debates at the Law Faculty of KFU, but also about the functioning of the “schools” of debates at the law faculties of Russian universities. Further, the article mentions the researchers and representatives of the judicial and law enforcement system, who are not only judges of the competition, but are long-term partners and friends of the project.